Are You A Gardener Or An Architect?

Do you know your dominant mode of creativity?

During today’s mentorship call, a new member (Alex) shared a creative framing from the writing world:

Most creatives fall into two categories: gardeners and architects.

🌱 Gardeners discover as they go, following intuition and curiosity without a plan.
🛠️ Architects rely on structure—they design the creative container first, then fill it in with intention.

I’m a gardener at heart. At my best, I’m 100% intuition-led. But the architect in me still craves planning—and often tries to convince me that I need to “figure it all out” before I begin.

Alex, on the other hand, identified as an architect. Without structure, he spins in too many directions. He referenced Bruckner, who pre-mapped his instrumentation and phrasing before writing a single note.

If I pre-map, I lose the spark. If Alex freestyles, he loses cohesion.
Knowing which mode you naturally lean toward can change everything.

Some questions we explored:

• When do you feel most alive creatively: when following a spark or working in a predefined box?
• Where do you over-rely on intuition and stall your work, or over-plan and freeze?
• Can you thrive inside guardrails—or break the plan you've made when inspiration hits?
• Do you trust that intuition is built on experience, or seek deeper structure to grow?

Here’s the catch:
You’re not one or the other.

Creative process lives on a spectrum—and you’ll move along it as your needs, projects, and seasons change.

A prompt for the week:

Have you been more of a gardener or an architect lately?
And what would it look like to invite the other side in?

Fall mentorship enrollment closes tomorrow.

If this season of reflection and creative depth feels aligned, you can still apply here.

Stay creative. 🎶
— Zach

(P.S. Did someone forward this to you? Subscribe here.)