Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hello, I'm Nao Mi Kinsman and I am a multi hyphenate creative. I started my career
as an actor and a director and did all sorts
of things in the theater. I moved into writing
and became an author, and I've also
founded a nonprofit. And what all of that
means is that I've had many creative
projects through my life, so many opportunities
to dream things up and then want to bring
them into the world. And so in this class
we're going to talk about how to go from having a storm of ideas in
your mind to getting a plan on the page
that doesn't make you feel like you are boxed in, but that actually helps
you to make your plans, your dreams, a
reality in the world. I'm so excited to share
this class with you. I look forward to seeing
you in the next video.
2. Your Project: Hello, I'm Nao Mi Kinsman and I am a multi hyphenate creative. I started my career
as an actor and a director and did all sorts
of things in the theater. I moved into writing
and became an author, and I've also
founded a nonprofit. And what all of that
means is that I've had many creative
projects through my life, so many opportunities
to dream things up and then want to bring
them into the world. And so in this class
we're going to talk about how to go from having a storm of ideas in
your mind to getting a plan on the page
that doesn't make you feel like you are boxed in, but that actually helps
you to make your plans, your dreams, a
reality in the world. I'm so excited to share
this class with you. I look forward to seeing
you in the next video.
3. Where Are You Now? (The Six C’s): So we are going to start by assessing where
you are right now, having gone through
whatever amount of time that you want to assess. I often do this activity
at the end of my year. So in December or
sometimes in November as I'm thinking about January
and the year to come. But you can also do
this for just a season, so maybe the time
when you like to vision for the future is
around your birthday. Or maybe you like to do
this once a quarter. No matter how you
want to do this, you're going to look back
over a set period of time and assess yourself
in a few areas. Now, I've used these six
areas myself for maybe the last 20 years as
I'm assessing my life. And I chose these six
because they gave me a comprehensive view of
where I was in my life. And I labeled them all with a C because it made it
easier for me to remember each one
of these areas. So I'm going to walk you through
what the six C's are and then I will show you how you can complete one section
of this review. And then I'll set you free to go ahead and do this for yourself. Okay? So the first one is Core, and that is about
your personal health. So your physical health, your mental health,
your spiritual health, those areas of your
life that are about you thriving as a human being.
Then there's commitment. And commitment is that
area of your life that is about keeping your
commitments to other people, the areas in which you're
being responsible. So whether that's paying your
bills or doing your taxes, or helping your family
eat for different meals, or any of the things
that are related to just keeping your
responsibilities going. That's commitment. Connection is your relationships
with other people, your friends, your creative
colleagues, your family. How are you doing in those areas yourself then moving
on to cultivation. Cultivation is one
of my favorite areas because this is an area where I can keep
myself accountable. So I'm the type of person
who has so many ideas. I love to start things and I do like to finish
them as well, but it can be hard to stick with a project once
it's been completed. And so cultivation is an
opportunity for me to evaluate how I'm doing with both finishing projects all the way across the finish line, and then also spreading the
word about those projects or continuing to tend to them after they're
out into the world. Creativity, of course, a joyful one where I'm thinking not only about
my creative work, but also about how I'm dealing
with my creative spirit. So am I giving myself
opportunities to play, to explore, to
follow my curiosity? Creativity is where I take a look at those
elements of my life. And the last, final
one is casting dreams. And in this one I'm
thinking a lot about, am I giving myself the opportunity to really
look to the future? To not just think about today
or next week or next month, but thinking about my creative
trajectory as a whole and moving in the direction of something that will be
very exciting to me. So those are the six areas we're going to look
specifically, core. So you can think about this in your own life and you'll
see a little bit of how I would fill one of these
sections out for core. I will think about first it says successes and frustrations. Thinking about what
are some successes in my last year having
to do with my health. One success is that I've been
more regular about running. That is an important thing to me for my physical
health and also for my mental health just to get
out and move my body and be outside and breathe the fresh
air and have time to think. Another success I would
say is that I've been being really dedicated
about morning time. I'm taking some time to be quiet before I start my
day and I'm having a chance to journal and just take some time for
myself before I get started. So dedicated morning time and you get the idea here so you can continue to look at what
those things are for you. So now I'm going to think about frustrations in this area. So anything that maybe isn't going exactly the way
that I want it to. So one thing for me with my physical health
is that I work in a place where
it's not easy to get a healthy lunch right
away at lunchtime. And I'm not always planning ahead and bringing
a lunch with me. So I often skip lunch or I
eat a snack or something. I'm often skipping lunch and that makes me hungry at dinner and maybe isn't helping me to have the best
physical health. I would go through and list any other frustrations
and you can do the same when you're
assessing your core. Then once I've done that step, I think just about
what I've noticed over the last year with
relation to my core. How have I been doing? So I've got these successes in these frustrations, and
what am I noticing? What are some of the
factors that are creating those successes
or challenges for me, I think one thing
I'm noticing is that I need to take some time. To make a plan to
block out time, both for meal
planning and also to continue to be able to do those morning routines that are so important to me
to do my running. Just I really need to
take that time and make a big priority for myself. Another thing that I notice
is that I get really hard on myself if I do
snack at lunch, or if I do something that maybe isn't as healthy for myself, and I let that be a reason to completely fall
off the wagon. I need to have a good
plan for what to do if I don't quite
meet my standard on any given day plan reality. And I would continue
to go through some of the things that I feel I might need to consider as I'm thinking about this
particular area. All right, and then the last
step is to think about, what would I say if I
was going to encapsulate everything about
this particular area with one idea, with a theme? And this is where we're tapping back into this idea of story, where I don't want to have
a bunch of thoughts in my head of these are
the things I want to do better or judgments in my mind. What I want is I want just a theme that
I can hold onto to say last year was about in
this area of core for myself. And as I'm thinking forward, maybe I want to shift
that a little bit. I think last year as I'm
looking at this and kind of thinking about how I was talking to myself
inside of my head. I would say that
last year was often about kind of pushing myself or holding
myself accountable, but not in a kind way
necessarily kind of pushing myself to do all these things that
I feel are good. And so maybe I was not
being quite as open or as flexible with
myself and actually that was creating that situation where it was hard for
me to plan for reality. So as I think about my
theme for last year, I'm just going to
go really simple. And I'm going to draw a list with checkboxes
and have check check, and maybe a zero and maybe a Do better next
time at the bottom of my list. So I think my theme
is a judgmental to do list for myself. And I might be taking
this to an extreme. It may not have been
quite this harsh, but this helps me if I kind
of exaggerate it for myself, if I really look at what was good about it and what
was maybe hard about it, that helps me to see
maybe what I can change. Now as I'm thinking about this, as I imagine my
theme for next year, I would hopefully think about is there a way that I
can give myself more room? And like we've been talking about in this particular class, a story for me is a much better
way for me to keep myself accountable than a list or something that feels
more like an outline. That's how things work
for me inside my mind. And so I might want to
move more toward a story as opposed to this kind
of rigid to do list. So we've gone
through one section. There are these same
categories for each one of the six C's where you can list your successes
and your frustrations. Where you can list
anything you've noticed, and then come up with a theme. As I did here, it can
be a very simple theme. It can be anything
that helps you to get a little bit of a
mental hook onto understanding where
you were last year or last season and thinking about where you might want
to go in the next one. Take some time with this. Give yourself room
if you want to use colored pencils or markers or something that
makes it feel playful, you could even get out crayons. You can certainly do
that. Give yourself the freedom to have
some fun with this. And once you're finished
doing your assessment, you can come back
and join me for the next video. See you soon.
4. What is Your Style?: I hope you had a meaningful time as you went through
your six C's and thought about how you did in those areas and thought of
themes for them in your life. In this next video,
we're going to think about your approach
to creativity. Your approach even to your life. Sometimes I call this
your creativity style, but I don't mean your style of drawing or your
style of writing. What I'm actually
talking about is maybe more a creative persona. And in our last video
I talked a little bit about how for me to do list is it feels like it
boxes me in and a story helps me feel a little bit more open and that's part of
my creative persona. I need that room to be flexible, to change my mind, to navigate in something that
feels a little bit more open. But that's my persona. And there are certainly creative people that
I've worked with that have completely
the opposite persona. So what we're going to
do is we're going to go through a quick little quiz. This link to this
quiz is actually in the projects and resources
area for this class. So you can go ahead and do this quiz if you would like to. When you go through the quiz, you can put in your
e mail at the end. And it will e mail you results. And you'll also be able to see them immediately at the end. And I'll talk to you
a little bit about the four different results
you might get from this particular quiz so that you know what they all are even if you don't want
to take the quiz. But let me walk you through this so you can see how it goes. So we'll start by,
let's find out. So it asks you who this is. This is one of my favorite
things on the ipad that I can just write,
which is fantastic. If you put in your name,
then it will speak to you by name, which
I very much like. So the first question is, how do you feel
about brainstorming? I love brainstorming, or sometimes coming up with
ideas is challenging for me. I love brainstorming, so
I'm going to choose that. Does brainstorming work
better for you in a group? Well, no. I actually do better when I
brainstorming by myself. Which do I prefer coming up with a big picture idea or
figuring out the details. I bet you can guess what
I'm going to answer. You can think about yours,
so big picture for me. What am I more likely to do? Fill out a template, brain
dump on a blank page, bounce ideas off a friend, or just start writing. I think I'm most likely
to just start writing, so I'm going to put that there. When you're creating,
how do you work? I follow my ideas
where they lead. I work in quick sprints.
I follow my plan. I check in, often with
a mentor or my friends. I follow my ideas
where they lead, so I'm going to choose this one. How do I feel about checklists? I love them. Sometimes they
make me feel boxed in. Boxed in. Are you likely to draft a scene
simply to explore? I prefer writing
straight through from beginning to end or Sure. I like playing around
with possibilities. That's the one for me. When do you get more work
done with others? Or by yourself?
Again, by myself. If I'm stuck, which fix
what I find most appealing? A creativity sparking game, problem solving with a friend. A break until I have an idea or step by step, fix it guidance. I think a game for me. I'm going to choose that one which is most
motivating for you, an exciting idea, a solid plan, a deadline, or an opportunity
to share my work. I think it would be
an exciting idea for me so that I'm going to
click what's my style. And it says, chances are
that I'm an inventor. And an inventor is someone
who has so many ideas. And I'm going to actually show you this PDF that you'll have a chance to access that shows all of the
different styles. So one thing I want
you to keep in mind. At the very bottom
of the first page, it says you might
be a chameleon. Which means that you
may actually find that sometimes you're one of these and sometimes you're
something else, especially in different
areas of your life. You may find that at
work you're one way. And when you're
doing creative work, you're a different way. Maybe with your family,
you're one way. And when you're working by yourself, you're
a different way. But it is helpful to
notice which of these is most natural for you
as a creative person. The other thing
I've noticed about many creatives is that they can actually pull these
different personas on like hats. So you may find that sometimes you're one and sometimes
you're another. Because you're choosing, that's the most practical thing to do in a particular moment
and that's fantastic. That means you're
really flexible. So this isn't about
boxing yourself in or telling yourself you have
to think in a certain way. This is more about you thinking through what's most
comfortable for you. So especially in those
moments when you're feeling like this
is a giant stretch, this creative task
I'm asking for myself is really challenging. That's when you really
want to lean into your creative strength and say, this is something
that I'm going to do in the way that's
easiest for me. So for me that is
as an inventor, I have lots of ideas. My brain is always
buzzing with them. And an inventor is someone who creativity is
joyful for them. And then when they get
to the part where they have to grind through some of
those nitty gritty details, they might have a little bit
more of a difficult time. And so for me, having games kind of tucked away
on the edges that I can pull out and use when I'm feeling a little bit
stuck is very helpful. So you're going to think about, if you're an
inventor, it talks to you a little bit about how
to play to your strengths, which includes using novelty, making sure that you're
able to change things up, not feeling like you
have to do everything the exact same way
every single time. And also giving yourself playful tools to keep
your process lively. And when you're
stuck, it gives you a couple ideas about
things you can do, including using colorful
office supplies, which will make it
feel more playful. And also playing around
the edges of your problem. When you look at these four
styles next to one another, you can see how there's
an axis and a y axis. And you can see one is about what style of
thinker you are, whether you're a
big picture thinker or a detailed thinker. And the other is about
whether you tend to want to work individually or whether you tend to like to
work with others. And so when you put those
two things together, you get the four quadrants
and it's easy to figure out which you
might fit into most. The architect is diagonal
from the inventor. The architect loves
to start with a plan. They love structure, they
love checklists and outlines. And so for you,
this Odyssey plan may be a little bit more structured because
you want to have those really clear steps
that you can work through. And often for an architect, that big picture thinking is
actually the hardest part. And sometimes you
need someone to help you with that part of
your work so that you don't feel like you're
having to figure out something from the details all the way up to
the big picture. Somebody can help you to sort through some of those details. You don't get lost in
the weeds and also help you to decide which of the details are most important. If you're stuck, you probably
want to make a list. And you may want to use if then thinking if I do this
then this will happen. Or if I do that, this will happen and that will help you to get through the details to solutions that are
going to work for you. The collaborator is someone who really enjoys working
with other people. Often collaborators are a little bit more detailed in
their thinking because they like to parcel out different elements of the
process to different people. So they'll take on one aspect of a project and they'll
want to work with maybe four or five
other people who each have their own element
of the project too. And so in this case, it's very important for
everybody to know what the whole project is and what are the details that
I'm responsible for. As a collaborator, you're
going to be playful and you're going to enjoy bouncing ideas off of other people and
interacting with them. Conversation is a
great tool for you, so if you're stuck
talking it out is great. And also it can help if
you are by yourself, to record your
thoughts on some sort of audio device and
then listen back. Because you probably are an audio processor and
you need that sound, you need to be able to use
your voice to figure it out. And also listen to your voice to start to see
what is happening. What are the patterns here? The last creativity style
is the special agent. Many of my inkling students at the nonprofit that I work
with are special agents. I find that this might
be something that we start to grow out
of as we get older. But not necessarily because
a special agent is someone who is very creative and can take giant leaps from
one place to another. And they're really good
at finding a path to the end that feels like
an extreme shortcut. Special agents tend to be
the kind of people who just want to sit down and start
writing without making a plan. And often that really
works for them, they can just write
their way through and it all comes out in
a burst of insight. But special agents get
really frustrated when that special magic that they have is not working
for some reason. And so if you find yourself
in that situation where you usually can just get
it all out in a big burst, but you're not being
able to do that, then figuring out some ways to play to your strengths
will be really important. One thing is you like momentum. So if you can figure out a way to finish some
part of your project, even if it's a
smaller aspect of it that's really going to help you to play to your strengths. And also breaking the challenge
into parts so that it's not I need to finish this whole novel or
I'm not finishing it. Or it can be breaking it into the chapters and having
those little sprints along the way that help you
to feel that sense of momentum and accomplishment
and excitement. So that you can
keep moving through the project in a way that
feels exciting to you. Now like I said, you might
also be a chameleon. You might find that
some of a couple of these styles work for you
in different scenarios, and that's fantastic too. The point of looking at
your creative persona, or your creativity style is that you want to think about
when you set these goals. How can you create a system for yourself that really
plays to your strengths? That doesn't ask you to be
exactly like someone else, but asks you to be uniquely yourself in the way that
works best for you. And that's the best
way to plan for flow.
5. What’s Your North Star?: All right, it is time for us to move on to our Odyssey plan. So the whole goal of
this class has been to think about where
you are right now. To think about who
you are as an artist. And then to think about
what is going to be the most meaningful way for you to move into this next season. And we're doing that
with an Odyssey plan. Now if you think
about an Odyssey, you can think about
a hero's journey. You can think about
how you're starting in a kind of ordinary world kind of setting,
right where you are. You get some call to adventure, which is really what
we're doing right now, we're figuring out what is
that call to adventure? You step across the threshold
at some point to say, I'm starting my new Odyssey. And then you move
through the work in a series of both successes
and possibly challenges. And when you get to the end, you have not only a project
that you can feel proud of, but you also have some interior growth that is helping you move toward flow. Just more generally
in your life. It certainly will take into account those six
areas of your life. And you can always
think about, you know, as I'm making my
goal for my project, as I'm making my goal for, um, what type of growth I'm going to lean into
thinking about, how can that serve what I
need in those six areas. In my core, in my creative life, in my connections with
other people, all of that. So the first thing
that I like to do on this Odyssey plan page is just
write my name in the top, because this is my plan. I'll put both my
whole name, okay? And then if I'm ready, I will start with my project. If I'm not ready, I might start with some of
the other elements. I've had a chance to think
about this a little bit, so hopefully as I talk
this through with you, it will also help you to think
about this a little bit. Often a project is something that has been on your
mind for a while. And sometimes I find
that it's helpful if I'm feeling a little
stuck at this step to take a separate sheet
of paper and write a list of possibilities of. The first possibility that
will come to mind for me is I just want to finish that novel I've been working
on for a long time. Or I want to, whatever the
big project is for, you know, maybe it's a series of artworks or maybe you want to do
a social media challenge where you're posting an image a day or maybe you want
to produce a play. I also find though, that sometimes when I
look at those six areas, I find that what I really
need is not quite that. This year as I looked
at all of my areas, what I realized is I needed to have the
opportunity to really establish my creative
practice so that regardless of how busy I
was at any given time, I could look at something
that I was doing on a nearly daily
basis and see that I was actually doing
creative work for me. I decided that I wanted to
establish a travelogue. This is a little bit
like morning Pages, if you've ever done Julia
Cameron's practice of doing kind of free form words in the morning on a journal. However, for me, I wanted to not only work on my ability to put things into words
or just kind of get all the ideas and thoughts
and worries out of my mind. I also wanted to use some of
my creative tools including storytelling and
drawing and writing, Wordplay, all of that,
into my travelogue. And so what I decided
to do was to take a journal that would let me
know that was beautiful, that I could draw in, that
I could paste things into, that I could handwrite into, and that I would
put an entry into this journal every day. But also I could do it
more than once a day. And I thought about what are some of the rules that
I can give for myself, for this travelogue that
don't feel like rules. How can it be not something that is making me feel boxed in, but is giving me the
freedom that I need? I'm going to write here
under Project Travelogue, because that is the main thing I want to be working on
in this next year, this next season that
Travelogue I know will lead me to also working on some of the other big creative
projects I have. Like the book I'm
working on finishing. It gives me a place
to work out some of the ideas that I'm
trying to sort through. It also gives me a chance to draft some of the
illustrations I'm drawing. But beyond that,
it's reminding me every day or nearly every
day that I am an artist. So I'm putting that there over here in this
circle Northstar. I talked a little bit about what this northstar is
for me and this is, I think, the most important
part of your Odyssey plan. This is where you're
thinking about, if I do this project, what can it do for me? What might it do for me as a creative person,
as a human being? As an individual? And for me
that Travelogue is going to help me to build that artist identity
that's so important to me. I want not to just tell myself I wish I was
being more creative, I wish I was an artist. I want to get to a place
where I really have that sense that every day I show up in the
world as an artist. And keeping this
regular practice of a travelogue will
do that for me. My North Star is
building an identity. As an artist, what you're putting in this circle is that interior thing that
you're working toward it. So it might be something
you can just decide, I am an artist,
that is a decision. But it's probably something
you need to practice to as you're practicing and
working on your project. You're able to practice this. And the reason it's a north
star is because it helps you to get back on track
if you're feeling lost. So if I start to be
really committed to this travelogue
in a way that's just about checking
the box, is it done? And I'm not being experimental
and I'm not having fun, and I'm not letting myself
be an artist in that tool. Then I need to find
my way back to this North Star so that I'm
doing it in the right way. My tools I'm going
to put in here. Morning quiet, I have a beautiful space that I
can go to at my work in the mornings before I start
anything that morning quiet space is something that is a tool that I can
use to make this work. And I'm also going
to put in here, being the inventor that I am, I'm going to put in colorful
tools and I'm going to have with me all the
time a few markers. A pen, probably this
purple pen that I love so much and a few other things that help me to feel creative. And probably some
washi tape too, so that I can tape things
into my Travelog dis box. Here is an opportunity for me to write some of those
details about what this project
will look like and what it will feel like,
what it will mean. And so I told you
that I want it to be a regular practice and
I also want to be sure, you probably have heard me
say this a couple times. I want to make sure that
I'm not bullying myself into this being a daily project if I feel like I
need to skip a day. So I'm going to
say almost daily. Because if I do
have to skip a day, I want to remember
that. That's okay. That's part of being
an artist too, is that sometimes things are
different than what I think, and I need to be flexible. And then over here on
this milestones section, I can think about what will be the milestones of my process. For me in the travel log, I want to go through a mental
hero's journey for myself. As I begin, I will use ordinary life and just
assess where I am. I will probably put some
of the things that I noticed in my sits
into my travel log. Then I will cross the threshold, which will be an opportunity for me to really think about how can I push
myself creatively. And I think I will have a
season where I'm focusing on illustration and
also a season where I'm focusing on storytelling about things that are
happening in my life. And then there will be that moment that I
can't anticipate yet, but that will be that
big struggle that comes. I know it will come. Any creative project
has it in there. So I'm going to put in, I often call this
wrestling the dragon. This is that part that is
the climax of the story. And it always surprises me and it's delightful when it comes. In some ways it's hard to, but it's delightful because I know that this is the part where I really can lean into
what my North Star is. This is the place where I
can really become an artist, really develop that identity in a way that I can
really hold onto. And then I'll put
sharing the story, which is my opportunity to share the story of
making this travel log. And that's something I can look forward to
and know that that will be how I know
this project is done. When I'm ready to share it. Your job is to fill out this Travelog page and then I encourage you to
share it with others, because we really
want to have a chance to see what you're working on. And that's the way
for you to really put your commitment out
into the world as well. So go ahead and finish this, and I will see you
in the next video.
6. Final Thoughts: That's it. So you have completed your Odyssey
plan and now you are ready to step into this adventure that
you're heading out onto. I hope that setting a north star for
yourself and thinking about a project that's not only about accomplishing
something, but is also about your
creative growth is meaningful to you in this next
year. As you move forward and remember too, that
this Odyssey plan, you have your milestones
that you've set. Whether you've done
it like I have, where it feels like a story, or you've had specific
milestones for yourself. A chapter, finished a
section of the story, finished a number of
artworks finished, whatever those are for
you as you've kind of broken down your
project into steps. As you think about whatever
those milestones are, remember that those allow you to not only move through
this project, but also allow yourself to take a detour here and
there. Because life isn't a straight line.
It's very meandering, especially for us creatives. So it's really okay if you need to take a step off
the path for a moment, because you'll be surprised
along the way when you get into one of those
challenges and you realize, actually, I don't have one key skill that I need to
take this next step forward. Then you can add that to your plan and you can let
that be the challenge. I'm going to learn how to
work with pen and ink, or I'm going to learn how
to deal with perspective, or I'm going to learn how to add tension to a written
scene, whatever it is. Take the time, allow
yourself to move through this process in the way
that is actually working. Because the main
goal of all of this is that not only do you have
a big idea, a big, exciting, beautiful idea in your mind, but you also get that big, beautiful idea across
the finish line. I know you can do
it. Don't forget to share your Odyssey plan
in the project area. That's a great way
for you to say, this is what I'm heading toward and for others to cheer you on. And I'd love to
cheer you on myself. These tools that
you've seen today, the Odyssey plan, the six S, the creativity styles
are all part of a set of tools called writerly play that I've developed over
a number of years. And you'll find that
writerly play idea of using story to approach
your creative process in all of the classes that I
offer here on skill share. So I encourage you if this
really gelled with you, if you feel like
this is the kind of planning that you like to do, this is the kind of approach to creativity that
works for you. Follow me here on
skill share and you'll be able to see
when my next classes come out and you'll
be able to get more tools that fit
in the same vein, you can also check them
out on my website at Naomi Kinsman.com Thank you so much for joining me today
and I'm so excited to see what your creative
journey takes you to next. Congratulations
on your hard work and here's to you
and your creativity.
Naomi Kinsman, Author, Design Thinker, & Podcaster
