Happy New Year!

If you’re finding this post around the time it was published, you’ve just crossed into 2023, a fresh year. As Anne Shirley might say, “It’s a fresh year with no mistakes in it!”

On this season of Creative Lift, we’ve been Ringing in the New Year and considering how this moment can mark the start of a new story for you. We’ve discussed how you can listen for a call to adventure this year, how you can equip yourself for creative flow, and practice the mindset of making work into play.

Now, as we move into the new year, it’s time to take those first meaningful steps. When you cross a threshold in a story, everything is surprising and new, like freshly fallen snow. There’s no predetermined path, so you can follow your curiosity where it leads.

In today’s episode, A Fresh Page, we’ll explore pathways for making the most of those first steps.

LISTEN IN:

EPISODE LINKS:

Design Thinking for Writers: Create a Compelling Character

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a big thank you to Alex for joining me in this conversation, and for editing the show.

I often encourage people to play their way to the page, which may sound whimsical, but I mean these words in all seriousness. Words matter, and when we say, “I have to write today,” or “Once I write 1000 words, I can get on with my day,” or even, “My most important task today is to sit down and write,” these words reinforce the idea that writing is work.

It’s true: writing requires a lot of heart and concentration and even determination. But, think back to when you were a kid telling stories with friends. Or even playing make-believe. Those games required the same of us — heart, concentration, and determination— and yet, if you’re anything like me, you couldn’t wait to get to those parts of our day when what you had to do was completed, and you could follow your imagination where it led.

You still can follow your imagination. You still can play your way to the page, though the pathway is a bit harder to find as an adult.

In today’s episode, Make it a Game, let’s talk about how to make your creative time into a game by shifting our mindset.

LISTEN IN:

EPISODE LINKS:

Design Thinking for Writers: Create a Compelling Character

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a big thank you to Alex for joining me in this conversation, and for editing the show.

What if you could show up at your creative desk with no ideas at all, or with a million ideas, and either way, feel sure you had a process to move you reliably into flow? What would it mean to be able to count on creative momentum?

We all face blocks now and then, sometimes major ones, and that reality makes it hard to believe in a world where we could count on creative momentum.

On the other hand, most of us would count on making some kind of progress if we signed up for a facilitated workshop. We’d expect the workshop leader to guide us into flow.

So, what if we could offer ourselves that kind of facilitated, reliable space? What if we were as confident in our own ability to move ourselves into flow as we were in the skills of an expert guide?

It may sound impossible, and sure, sometimes we do need the caring support of someone who is not inside our own heads. That said, if we can shift our mindset a bit, we can find ways to create space for ourselves that uses similar tools to what a facilitator might provide. We can prepare activities, recipes, games, fun supplies, tools, and other enticing resources ahead of time so that when we sit down to create, we’re in a safe, possibility-filled space.

In today’s episode, Equip Yourself for Creative Momentum, we’ll talk about how you can build customized tools that fit your specific needs, tools that make slipping into flow much more possible and predictable.

LISTEN IN:

EPISODE LINKS:

Design Thinking for Writers: Create a Compelling Character

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a big thank you to Alex for joining me in this conversation, and for editing the show.

We’re continuing Season Six of Creative Lift, Ring in a New Year of Creativity!

When I started stepping into each new year as a new story, a new hero’s journey, I discovered something exciting: No more new year’s resolutions! No more rules, expectations, no more painful slog through lists of to-do’s toward my idealized self. A call to adventure does present us with challenges, but it also engages our creativity. When a story shows up, we generally know what we’ll be working toward. However, there’s all kinds of possibility about the how.

How will we travel this intriguing, mysterious path?

We can see a new project, goal, or possibility as a story to step into. Or, we can see it as yet another deadline with milestones and action items. Our viewpoint makes a huge difference. The shift starts with the position you take as you begin the story. Are you controlling everything, or waiting for the surprising invitation?

Shifting our mindset can be powerful, but finding the practical steps to make that mindset change happen can be mysterious. In today’s episode, Listen for the Call to Adventure, we’ll talk practically about how that call to adventure might show up and how you might approach it as a new story to step into.

LISTEN IN:

EPISODE LINKS:

Design Thinking for Writers: Create a Compelling Character

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a big thank you to Alex for joining me in this conversation, and for editing the show.

It’s time for Season Six of Creative Lift! We’re approaching the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, and our theme for this season is Ring in a New Year of Creativity!

I wonder: if you were to give a gift to that imaginative part of yourself that loves to play and explore and wonder … what would you give them?

In this season of Creative Lift, I’m encouraging you to not only give yourself one gift, but a series of them. We’ll talk about the first in today’s episode, Celebrating Your Year, as we discuss how you can celebrate your year’s wins. Remember, even if those wins seem small, celebrating them tells your creative self that their efforts matter. And that boosts your energy and makes it possible for you to continue putting in that effort, no matter what form or size it takes.

Let’s talk about how you might turn your celebration of this year’s wins into a meaningful gift for your creative self.

LISTEN IN:

EPISODE LINKS:

Design Thinking for Writers: Create a Compelling Character

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a big thank you to Alex for joining me in this conversation, and for editing the show.

We’re at the very end of NaNoWriMo, and it’s time to wrap up the season and our drafting process. Today’s mini-episode of Creative Lift focuses on how to bring your plot to a close.

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Finish strong, friends!

EPISODE LINKS:

Design Thinking for Writers: Create a Compelling Character

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a big thank you to Alex for joining me in this conversation, and for editing the show.

We’re nearing the end of NaNoWriMo, but we’re not quite there yet. And this moment can be the one that makes or breaks your momentum. So, today, in our mini-episode, we’ll discuss one of the hardest parts of drafting, a moment every writer hits sooner or later in their writing life: What do we do on the day we fall out of love with our project?

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Your story matters, and each word you put on the page makes a difference. Draft onward, and don’t give up!

EPISODE LINKS:

Design Thinking for Writers: Create a Compelling Character

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a big thank you to Alex for joining me in this conversation, and for editing the show.

If you’re drafting a novel this month, you’ve likely hit a moment at some point where you weren’t sure how to make your story’s logic work. Whether you skipped that scene or are facing it in the near future, today’s mini-episode will help you face a logic tangle head-on.

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And just in case you’re wondering, yes. You CAN do this. Draft onward, friends!

EPISODE LINKS:

Design Thinking for Writers: Create a Compelling Character

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a big thank you to Alex for joining me in this conversation, and for editing the show.

If you’ve taken the NaNoWriMo challenge, you’re deep into the drafting process at this point, and chances are, you’ve hit at least a little bit of friction. Today’s mini-episode is designed to help you tackle a difficult scene. Our hope is that this conversation and the strategies we share encourages you to draft onward.

LISTEN IN:

Happy drafting to you!

EPISODE LINKS:

Design Thinking for Writers: Create a Compelling Character

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a big thank you to Alex for joining me in this conversation, and for editing the show.

If you’ve taken the NaNoWriMo challenge, you’re deep into the drafting process at this point, and chances are, you’ve hit at least a little bit of friction. Today’s mini-episode is designed to help you tackle a difficult scene. Our hope is that this conversation and the strategies we share encourages you to draft onward.

LISTEN IN:

Happy drafting to you!

EPISODE LINKS:

Design Thinking for Writers: Create a Compelling Character

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a big thank you to Alex for joining me in this conversation, and for editing the show.