Transcripts
1. Three Steps to Set Up Your Next Creative Project: Introduction: This class helps you set up your next creative project with confidence to be completed in a sustainable way personalized
to your schedule. We're all unique with
individual experiences that we can express in a variety
of creative ways. Taking your initial
seed of an idea through your fruition is a wonderful
contribution that you can make to yourself and
others if you choose to share your creative work and this class helps you do that. My name's Mantha and
I'm a storyteller. My background is in
dance and acting. And after a while of telling
other people stories, I wanted to start writing. I've written poetry,
short stories, adapted them for
theater and film. And after years of self
reflective work and practices, and now love making and sharing resources related to creativity
and intentional living. As you can see, I'm
a multi passionate creative with a curious mind. And I'm into quite a few different disciplines
which is great. And also there have
been times when I've taken on too many projects
at once and burnt out. And other times when I've
started something new and felt overwhelmed because I've not yet developed a skill
set and mindset, I was pushing myself too much, and that's led me to shut down. In both instances, I stopped engaging in
my creative life. Now, before I embark on
any creative endeavor, I go through a process that helps me set up the project in a sustainable way so that I enjoy it and can
continue being creative. This is vital because
the way that we set up anything in life determines
how it's going to go. And my intention for
my creative work and yours is to flow. I'll share this
process with you in the class and create space for you to reflect on what you like to
prioritize right now. And implement a
practical plan to help you keep to your
unique expression. Are you're choosing to
work in an area brand new to you or something that
you're more familiar with. All you need is passion and
something to write with. By the end of the
class, you'll have a one page roadmap which will
help keep you inspired on track and act as a helpful
tool to communicate to yourself and others that we're currently working on
in your creative life. More about that in
the next lesson.
2. Class Project: Create A One - Page Plan: Project for this class is
to create a one page plan that clearly outlines your
next creative endeavor. You're going to include the creative field that
you're working in, the form that it's
going to take, and a completion date. Then you're going to include
what you need to finish it. Materials, resources,
and inspiration. As well as a habit
that you can do on a regular basis to help
support your creative work. I've created a
template which you can download under
the Resources tab. You can type directly onto
this or you can print it out and handwrite onto it
whatever works for you. Also, feel free to customize
it and make it your own. By the end of the
class, you will have completed this one page plan. We're going to work on it
together in each lesson, at which point you can upload
it to the project gallery. Upload it as a PNG file. If you are doing it digitally or if you
have handwritten it, just take a photo and upload it. And I am really looking
forward to seeing all the different creative
projects which are going to be birthed into the world. As you can see,
this plan is very clear and simple and practical, and that is what
I like about it. I find that when I come to
work on a creative project, there are lots of ideas
going on in my head, including logistical things I'm going to do that I like to get it all down on a piece of paper and then I can
refer back to it. It keeps me on
track and inspired as I continue to
work on my project. Also just help getting things going in order to reach
this level of clarity. We are going to go
deep in each lesson. We're going to go through
different activities together. We're going to
have fun exploring what it is that is
important to you right now. What you'd like to work on
and how you're going to do. So with that in mind, along
with the project document, have a notebook or some pieces of paper which you can just make some
rough notes on. Then at certain stages, I'll prompt you to type
into your document and you can have it all completed
by the end of the class. And once you've uploaded your project to the
project gallery, also take a look at other
people's projects so that we can celebrate and support
one another in our work. And you might also find people who you can
collaborate with. People who work in your
field or different fields, and you can help and
support one another. I also think this is
a great exercise in seeing how many different creative expressions
there are in the world. And to really take
a look and go, wow, that person works on that. And I work on this
and to acknowledge that we really do all have
different experiences, different ways of
expressing ourselves. To really validate our
own ideas as well. And to realize that if a
certain creative idea, inspiration has come to us, there's a reason for that, there's a reason to
explore and work on it. And that's what we're
going to be taking a look at in the next lesson. Download your project template now have it with
you in each lesson. As well as some paper just to make some notes on.
And I'll see in the next.
3. Lesson One: Explore and choose your current creative focus: This son. We are going to
be focusing in on what is a priority for you right
now in your creative life. We all only have so
much energy to give. And that's why it's
important that we focus in on what is
most important to us. And that's going to be different
depending on who we are. We live in an incredible
world right now. This is an amazing
time to be alive. There are so many
more opportunities, things available to us. And at the same time, there are so many messages coming
at us, Do this, do that. And that could be coming from society at large, from media, and also perhaps from
our own communities, our own networks in
which we live in. So it's really important
amongst all that noise that we focus in on who we are
and what's important to us, because we know ourselves better than anyone else
will ever know us. You know what's going
on inside of here. And we're going to
use the opportunity now to get really clear, listen to it, and dedicate
ourselves to our priorities. A few years ago, I went to
a group meditation event. Before it began, we were each invited to select a piece
of paper from a basket. They all had different
things written on them. And mine said, not all of
us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love was
by Mother Teresa. And it's really
stuck for me now. You definitely can go and do great things with your creativity
and have great impact, and I support you in that. What I love about
this quote is a focus on the small things that all of us can do
with great loves. The collective is made up
by lots of smaller parts. A creative project is made
up by lots of smaller parts. And the thing that gets it from the beginning through
to completion is love. Love will always feel it. In looking for motivation, it comes when you
love to do something. Yeah, there will be little
billy bits in projects where there might have to be a
little bit more discipline brought in or something else. But essentially really want to be going with what
it is that we love. So this is what we're
going to be focusing in on right now. To do that, first, let's
get into our bodies, get into a comfortable position, and if it's safe and
appropriate to do so, generally close your eyes. Follow my instructions. I'd like you to
place one hand on your belly and one hand
over your heart space. When you breathe, let
your belly expand. Pick a gentle inhale
through your nose, up into your head and hold. Generally exhale
through your mouth, sending the breath all
the way down through your body and out through
the bottom of your feet. Again, take a gentle inhale through your let
your belly expand. Take that breath up to the top He through your mouth, right through your body. Let the breath go out
through the bottom of your fee, a final time. Now, gently inhale
through your nose. Let the breath go up to your, gently exhale through
your mouth and focus your attention on your
heart's face. Okay. Take out a piece of paper. Now, whenever I prompt you
to write anything down, I really do encourage
you to write it down. I say this as someone who had a lot of
resistance to writing, especially thoughts
and feelings. I didn't want to get them
out on a piece of paper. But I have found that
the more that I do that, the quicker I'm able
to move forward. I can either let that thing go, or I'm going to take action on it and move
forward with it. And this is going
to be a simple, easy, fun exercise to do. First of all, I just
want you to make a list of three things. Creative activities that you
love to do, write them down. Now, if you need to pause the
video at any point, do so. Now, for contrast, write down a list of anything
that you've done, perform the past
creative activities, and you haven't loved them,
you haven't enjoyed them. Maybe it's something that
you were made to do at school or someone suggested to, thought you would like it. And then when you did it, you're actually like, you know, it's not for me and that's okay. Take 30 seconds. Now, write down anything
that you have not loved doing or anything that you
are just not interested in. Now, your third list, write
down at least three things that you have never done before but you
would like to give a go. Fantastic. So you've got your list of things
that you love to do, things for contrast
that you know, that you don't enjoy and
you'd prefer not to do. You've got a list of
things that you've never done before, but you
would like to give a go. Now, I'd like you to take that list of
things that you love. If I would say to you for
the next three months, you could only focus on
one of those things. Which one would it be?
Put a circle around it. Now, to me, that would indicate what you're most drawn to now that
I've said that, and you've got to actually,
you know, I'd like it to be this one, then
let it be that one. This is just for
you to clarify to yourself what is most
important to you. You can, of course, do any
of these things at any time, and there are people who find it beneficial to work on
multiple projects at one. But for the purposes
of this overall class, I'd really like you to
focus on one thing. Taking that one thing from your initial idea and
seeing it through to completion the three months was just an arbitrary
time frame I used. We're going to be looking at time frames in
the next lesson. The way I like to do it is I'll have one main focus at a time. But it will also allow me to play around in those
different areas. So for example, my
main creative focus at the moment is
making this class. And I love dancing. I go to one or two
dance classes a week. But it's a different
level of commitment, different level of energy. Someone else has
put that on for me. I turn up, I do an hour
or so of dance and then I get on with the rest of my
life with making this class. There's more of me that I'm putting into it and
it is my priority. I wouldn't let anything get
in the way of this, right. For this, you're really
choosing your crater field that you are going to just dedicate yourself
to for this time. Knowing that you have freedom
at any time to go and taste something that is on maybe your list of things that you've never done before. You'd
like to give a go. Now I'd like you to take out
your class project plan. And in the field where
it says Crater Field, just type in whatever field
that is going to be in.
4. Lesson Two: Define your creative project and select an endpoint: This son that you are
going to select to a creative project and you're going to set an
end point for it. Now with this task, I'd
really like you to be a kind manager to yourself.
You know how it works. Sometimes we might
get a boss who sets unrealistic targets that no
one is ever going to hit. Let's not do that here.
Let's be on our side. We get to be in
charge of ourselves, so we get to choose exactly
what we're going to work on, how long it's going to
take us to do that, and set it up so
that we enjoy it. I find it's really
important when I am choosing what project I'm
going to work on next. And the time frame in which I'm going to
work on it is to be realistic about where I am in my personal creative journey. But when I first
started writing, I had visions of writing things screen and
writing bid pieces and I could see them when I came down to write them
on a piece of paper. I struggled with it. I got quite stuck just because I wasn't practiced in doing that. I just had it was new to me. I hadn't done it for
a very long time. So what I did was, first of all, I went, oh, no, I'm not going to do this
for quite a while. And then I went enrolled in
a creative writing class, and the teacher introduced
me to some tools and techniques which helped me to free up and get
writing again. First of all, we
wrote with prompts and then we started
writing short stories. So then that was like
another project. And then I took a
short story and I turned it into a 20
minute theater piece. So that was again,
another project. And then I took
that theater piece and I put it into a short film. Again, that was another project. Then a couple of years later,
I decided that I wanted to do a longer Fa
piece solo show, so I did a 60 minute solo show. So I built on what I'd learned from doing a 20 minute piece. And I transformed different
form, different topic. I took what I learned and transformed it into
a 60 minute piece. And within that, I was
doing lots of classes in different disciplines
and practicing to make these things happen. Now as much as I like to
choose an endpoint that is sustainable and I know that I can complete it
without burning myself out. I also don't like to choose
an endpoint that is too far in the future because
I do find that that can lead to
procrastination, as you're probably aware
of Parkinson's law, work expands so as to fill the time available
for its completion. So if we give ourselves
six weeks to do something, it is likely to take
six weeks to do it. If we give ourselves two
weeks to do something, it's likely to take two
weeks to do that thing. With this in mind, we can
also take into consideration the project that
we're working on and the way that we
choose to approach it. With this, I'd
really like you to focus on just in
this project done, not focusing on the outcome. It needing to be perfect. Not that it needs to be
a winning piece of work. Just that you are
going to get this done once it's
complete by this date. It's at that point
that you can refine it if you feel like you need to. So now that you are going to choose your creative project, really take the
time to reflect on where you are right now
with that particular field. What projects
perhaps you've done before or haven't done before, and what you'd like
to work on next. And remember how we said
the small things with great love for the purposes
of this class and taking an idea and bringing it all the way into a completed project really would
encourage you to take a smaller part of an overall
project and get that done. Instead of writing
the whole book and saying that's your project, maybe it's doing the
outline of the book. Or if you're deciding to go
and create a podcast series, maybe the first step is to do one episode
of that podcast. Whatever it is for you, allow you to choose that.
Create a project now. Okay, now you got
your created project. Let's set an endpoint for it so you know when you're
going to complete it by. And you can then work
that from there. Figure out what it is
that you need to do in order to get to
that completion date. Three ways that I
find helpful when working out when I'm going
to finish a project by. So the first one is either I choose it myself and
when I choose it myself, again, I'm going
to be a Y manager. I'm going to take
into consideration any responsibilities, current commitments,
what's going on already in my schedule, what my month looks like in
terms of my own cycle and where I know how I feel at
different points of the month. Not comparing myself
to other people, knowing that we're
all individuals and one person's rate of working may be very
different from mine. Second way I find helpful
is to be in a class where there's a teacher who is setting the
completion date for me. For example, when it's in
the creative writing class, our teacher would set us to write a short
story each week. And so it'd be like a first
draft of a short story, here's an idea for it,
write it by next week. And again, when I'm going
to go and join a class, I just make sure that it's
in alignment with who I am, what my own energy levels like. Third way again is letting
someone else sell it for you is either to enter
something like a competition, a challenge, a festival, and have an external endpoint
which other people are working towards and you're all working towards it together. That also can be a helpful
way to keep accountable with all of those points though, even if it's say I'm entering a competition
or something like that, I don't like to focus
on the outcome. I like to use the
endpoint as somewhere which I knows a clear date that I'm going to
get this done by. But I don't want
to be focusing on the outcome soon in creativity. As soon as we're focused on the outcome that
can interfere with the actual creative work itself and the creative flow
and the enjoyment of it. There is something to be said
for setting external goals. And I'm not saying
don't do that. Of course, that really can work and it really works
for some people. But for the purposes,
again, of this class, I'd really like us
to be focusing on everything coming from
the internal place first. Whatever outcomes come
from that afterwards, they are an added bonus once you've completed
your project as well. That can be the point when you start focusing on those
more external goals. But first of all, let's really focus on what is it that I love? What is that going to be and when am I going
to complete that? By in a way that is
enjoyable to me. Take out your class
project document. And I'd like you to write under the section with your created project and completion date. Write down your created project and put in the end date for it. And then I'll see in
the next session.
5. Lesson Three: Identify what you need to complete your project:: To find what you need to
complete your project. Take out your project document, You're going to see that there is a section for materials, resources, inspiration,
and daily habit. We're going to go
through each one. Like with any journey to know where we're
going to get to, we need to know where
we are starting from. And for each project, you're going to need certain
things to complete it. First of all,
materials, materials. Is anything physical, unique? If your creative project was
to make a Pocast episode, you would write down everything
you need to do that. Microphone, laptop
editing software, maybe you want to film it, so maybe a device to film
yourself on headphones, pen and paper to
write the script, or a laptop to write the script. Write down your materials now. Great, so you've got
your list of materials. Now I will say that I
find it really good to work with as many things
that I already have. I'd go through that list of materials and just
make a note of everything that I already
have and work from there. And if there is anything that is absolutely vital to get this project done
that I don't have, I will make a note
to get that thing. Either borrowing it, buying it, hiring it, finding a way that's not going to
overstretch myself. A few years ago, I
started making videos. And I put it off for a
while because I thought I need to get a fancy
camera to make some videos. And then it got to the
point where I was a cape. I'm not going to
do that, I'm just going to start making
them on my phone. And at the time I had a
very basic smartphone. I had recently broken
the smartphone. I had. I had bought the most basic one with the most basic camera, and I just started
making them on there. And I'm glad that I did
because I didn't know whether or not I would
like making videos. So I'm glad that I didn't go
out and suddenly invest in a really expensive camera before I knew what I can manage. And then after a while, I decided to upgrade my phone with upgrading my
camera because I knew that it would be really
useful for me to continue making videos on because I discovered
that I enjoyed it. Now, resources, resources
can look like knowledge, skills that we need to maybe find out a
little bit more about. It can look like money
to help fund a project. To buy materials to
put that project on, can also come in
the form of people, people to collaborate with. When I first started writing, I discovered that I really could do with learning more about the technique and
going out and taking a class in writing that
was a resource for me. So if you find that
there may be a resource for you could do research on skillshare and find
a relevant class, or find one in your local
area and in person class. Or it could be in form
of books or going online and getting resources
in that way. And also money. If you find that you
need to buy something, you might be choosing where's that money going to come from? Are you going to do
a fundraiser for it? Are you going to
apply for funding? Are there funding sources
that you can apply to? Or are you going to use some money that you
already have and allocate it to your project and also people to
collaborate with. Maybe your project requires you to work with other people. So you can make a list of that in this section
here as well. Moving on to inspiration, inspiration. Everything
is interconnected. All of creativity is
interconnected as well different artworks in
conversation with one another. I find it really helpful
to know what has come before and also what's
going on at the time. Everything's in dialogue
with one another. I like to engage with
the different artworks, whether that is within the same field that
I'm working with or whether it is in different ones and I can be inspired
by something else. Do you find that the more that I engage with other creativity, the more it helps spark my
own ideas in the inspiration. Just choose one thing
that you are going to do over the next week to
help keep you inspired. And then you can build
on it from there. Can keep this practice going if you choose to
do so afterwards. For example, if there
has been a film that you've been wanting to
watch for a very long time, you've been putting off,
now is your time to do it. Or maybe you want to go
and visit an art gallery, or there's a show on
that you want to see, or there's a book that
you would love to read. List down one thing. That's going to be in
your inspiration section. Now moving on to
the final section, your daily habit that
you're going to dedicate yourself to the next seven days. This is something that
is going to be really easy for you to do
and it's going to be related to your project. It's going to be something
that you can practice daily and it's going to
just build your skill set. And it's going to be
something that's going to help you get in the flow. You can use it as a warm up before you work on
your creative project. Or if you have a
day where you're not working on your project, it allows you to just keep
practicing your skill. And then when you go
back into your project, it's going to be so much
easier to get into it. That's what I found personally, When I first started writing, I told you I started
writing with writing prompts and that I could
use them as a warm up. First of all, that
helped getting me in the flow of writing, and then I used it as a warm up before I was going
to work on a larger project. And there's many examples
of creatives doing this. For example, the
comedian Jerry Seinfeld. He said that he dedicated himself to
writing a joke per day. And he put a Bcanda
up on his wall. And every day he wrote the joke, he put a red mark. And then every time he saw
those red Xs build up, he said to himself,
don't break chain. So it kept him motivated
to keep going. And I've made a
daily habit tracker for you under the resources tab. So if you download that
for seven days every day, you practice your daily habit. You can just market off in
whatever way you like and keep yourself inspired to keep going and realize or what
great work you're doing. Now with choosing what
you're going to do, I would suggest
making it something related to your project. For example, if it were writing using writing prompts
as a warm up. I'll have a skill
share class on that, which you can check out if that is something
that you're doing or if your project was to
make singing demo real. Perhaps you would do
a warm up every day. A vocal warm up. And I'd also
say have something where you're not focusing
on the outcome or you don't have to focus
on the effect of it. It's more like just the
action of doing it. That's why I like doing
it through time blocking. I go with 4 minutes
of writing because I know that in my mind I'm like, okay, well I can put 4 minutes the side of my life to do a little bit of writing. Then it gets me in the flow and then I'll tend to
work on from there. But if I have a day
where I'm like, okay, I'm just going to
do 4 minutes of writing. And if I feel like not
doing it after them, then I just let it be and go, well, I did my 4 minutes
that's done for the day. Now choose what your daily
habit is going to be and write it in to your project. Document amazing work. Now you have your materials, your resources, something
aspiring to engage with, and a daily habit that
you're going to practice. This is going to build up your skills and it's
also going to help build your identity in the
field that you're working in. If you're doing something
on a regular basis, you are going to
inhabit being creative. I will see you in
our final lesson.
6. Conclusion: Congratulations and Next Steps: Congratulations on
completing this class. This shows that you are a dedicated person who completes
what they set out to do. And I have all confidence
in you that you are going to complete your
creative project by now. You will also have completed
your class project, the one page planning document. So we've gone through
the critter build that you're dedicating
yourself to right now. The Crei project itself that
you're going to work on, the completion date for it, and your materials,
resources, inspiration, and a daily habit
that you're going to do for the next seven days. Take that project, upload
it to the project gallery, Upload it as a PNG file, or if you've done a
handwritten version, take a photo of it, upload it. I look forward to
seeing your project and thank you for
taking this class. After you've uploaded your
project, please do leave. An honest review
helps me improve this class and future
classes for you. I'd also love to know which
was your favorite lesson and how has it helped you with setting up your
creative project. Sum it up in a sentence, and I look forward to
hearing from you, and now it's time
to take action. First, I would look
through materials, resources, make sure that
all of that is tidied up. If there's anything
you need to get to help start your
project, get that now. And then I would start
scheduling in time, so you've got your
daily habit to work on. Decide when you're
going to work on that and put aside that time. For example, if you want to do your daily habit, 5
minutes in the morning, put that in your diary and then your created
project itself. I like to look at the end date and then
work back from there. Decide what I need to
do to complete it, break it down into
chunks, And again, I will time block it and
schedule it into my diary. I treat it like an appointment. Just like if I were
to say to a friend, I'll meet you on
Saturday between 1012 for a cup of tea I'd
keep to that commitment. Same thing with my
created projects. If I say I'm going to work
on something at this time, I'm going to go and work on it. And you and I both
know with creativity is not always as clean
and simple as that. But remember this is our
first version of it. We are not looking
to be perfect. We're looking to get it done. It's at that point then you can start refining it
and working on it. And then, of course,
if inspiration hits at another time and you have
time and space to do it, go into the flow, enjoy it. Work on your project,
have fun with it. We've got this really
lovely, clear, neat plan, but we know that creativity
is messy and playful, and that's how it's meant to be. So things don't go exactly
to plan. That's all right. If you find that you
do it and you don't really enjoy it,
that's okay too. It's just part of the
exploratory journey. Also, if you do it and you
find that you love it, great, keep with it. After you've finished
this project, do an evaluation on it again. How did it go and what would
you like to work on next? You can always go through
this process again. Either continue
with this project, build on it in a different way. Bring in a new project. It's your creative
journey, it's your life. Do what works best for you, and I hope that you have a
wonderful time doing it. Really enjoy this process,
enjoy the journey. If you'd like to
keep in contact, then you could join
my newsletter. Put the details under
the resources tab, and I look forward to seeing your projects in the
project gallery.