Retrospective accounts of materials development in the applied linguistics literature speak to the relationship between creativity and textbook writing, but this study forges another path by examining how an expert ELT (English language teaching) textbook writer deploys creativity during ongoing coursebook production. Qualitative content analysis of data collected via concurrent verbalization, during which the author thought aloud while producing textbook chapters, pre- and post-concurrent verbalization interviews, field notes, and a diary record revealed the creativity that characterized her work at both the process and product levels. Creativity ultimately helped her navigate the publishing constraints in place for her project, including appropriateness controls (e.g. taboo topics), and maintain her focus on learning, teaching, product usability, and publication goals. This study reveals how creativity impacts textbook production during unfolding writing sessions, making an empirical contribution to the research field of materials development. It also provides a view of the constraints associated with commercial publishing, showcases the operations of a skilled author, and demonstrates the usefulness of concurrent verbalization to materials development research: contributions relevant to ELT practitioners interested in textbook production.

应用语言学文献中材料开发的回顾性说明谈到了创造力和教科书写作之间的关系，但这项研究通过研究专家 ELT（英语语言教学）教科书作者如何在正在进行的教科书制作过程中部署创造力，开辟了另一条道路。对通过并发语言化收集的数据进行定性内容分析，在此期间，作者在制作教科书章节时大声思考，并发语言化前后的采访、现场笔记和日记记录揭示了她在过程和产品上的工作的创造力水平。创造力最终帮助她克服了项目的出版限制，包括适当性控制（例如禁忌话题），并保持她对学习、教学、产品可用性的关注，和出版目标。这项研究揭示了创造力如何在展开的写作过程中影响教科书的制作，从而为材料开发的研究领域做出了实证贡献。它还提供了与商业出版相关的限制的视图，展示了熟练作者的操作，并展示了并发语言化对材料开发研究的有用性：与对教科书制作感兴趣的 ELT 从业者相关的贡献。