What if the permission slip to thrive creatively was yours to sign?

As professional writers, illustrators, and story-creators, life can start to feel like a game of “waiting for the yes.” What if the ultimate yes were yours to give? What might look different in your day-to-day creative practice? What uncharted territory might you explore? Who might you invite to collaborate with you? What rules might you dare to break?

Learning the rules of the marketplace and playing within them can be a key part of a sustainable creative career. Still, as exciting as publishing deals or film options or awards might be, I’ll bet the day you fell in love with words or images or stories you weren’t thinking about those wins. You are an artist, and that means that you have a creative voice entirely unique to you, and a body of work to create. The marketplace may want to see you as an author of award-winning cozy mysteries, but you might actually be a designer of escape room experiences, plus a researcher of courage who shares stories via your TED talk, and a teaching artist who inspires a generation of kids to love reading because they can’t wait to hear … what happens next? The truth is, when you step into your entirely unique body of work, the noisy marketplace falls away and you begin to perform on a stage of ONE. There is only one you.

What if you could join a circle of courageous, committed artists who, like you, are traveling the path toward the work of their hearts? What if, collectively, we could say yes to our own heroic journeys into the unknown, and also gather together around the campfire weekly to share our stories, our insights, and build the tools and resilience needed for another week of daring travels? What kinds of interesting collaborations might we stumble into? What new opportunities might we invent? What might become possible for you as you practice giving yourself permission regularly in a community of others who are doing the same?

In the Creative Campfire you will:

Meet weekly with like-minded artists from October through May
Learn and stretch your creative skill set with Writerly Play activities led by Naomi Kinsman
Connect, brainstorm, discuss and learn with peers in small breakout groups
Analyze your current body of work and identify your creative strengths
Experiment and explore new creative territory
Choose a personal project that will build next-level skills
Engage with obstacles that arise to build grit and gain perspective
Have opportunities to collaborate on peer and group-generated projects
Complete a personal project that represents you and your creative voice

LOGISTICS:

Tuition: $125 monthly

Session Day/Time Possibilities (in PT):

Mondays, 5:30 – 6:45 pm

Wednesdays, 5:30 – 6:45 pm OR 6:30 – 7:45 pm

Thursdays 9 am – 10:15 am OR 12 pm – 1:15 pm

Timing will be finalized based on scheduling that works best for our applicants. Holiday week activities will be pre-recorded.

Ready to say yes to what's next for you?

Join the Creative Campfire

FAQ:

Q: What will I finish over the course of this year?

A: First, we’ll focus on fine-tuning your creative practice. We’ll work out resistance and other points of friction as you take on small creative experiments. The focus of this work can be your WIP or new territory if you choose. Through these experiments, you’ll gain effectiveness and momentum, enhancing the overall efficiency of the hours you invest in your professional work. In the second half of our year, you will create a project of your choosing that represents you and your creative voice. You may choose to collaborate with other group members and publish this work independently–giving yourself permission to make work that may not fit the traditional mold–or you may choose to create work that you will submit through traditional channels. The choice is up to you.

Q: What will happen in each Creative Campfire session?

A: Each session will start with a 20-30 minute activity facilitated by Naomi. The next 20-30 minutes will be spent in a breakout room for small group discussions and quiet time to apply concepts in your own work. In our final minutes, we’ll meet for a quick show-and-tell, to ask and answer questions, and to discuss how to extend the week’s questions, concepts and tools through your upcoming week. The only homework will be what you assign to yourself, and can easily be in the context of the work you’re already doing.

Q: Will I need to budget time to read other people’s manuscripts? Will I receive editorial feedback?

A: The Creative Campfire is not a critique group. You will not be asked to read work outside of our sessions. The regular sessions are not set up to provide formal editorial feedback, though we may share first-glance feedback with one another as we experiment with new territory. You will likely also meet artists who are working in a similar form to your own, and you may find opportunities to swap work outside of the official framework of our sessions.

Q: What if I miss a Creative Campfire session? Are there make-ups?

A: The activity portion of the session will be recorded, so you can maintain progress on your Creative Campfire project asynchronously when you’re not able to attend. However, we encourage you to prioritize attendance, as the experience of collectively gathering around the campfire and growing together is what will serve you and others in the group most fully.

Q: I’m very busy with deadlines and my professional work. Will the Creative Campfire work for me?

A: The Creative Campfire is designed specifically for working, professional artists. While you are investing an hour and fifteen minutes weekly in our meetings, the goal is that the investment of time will multiply your momentum. Brene Brown talks about one of the primary reasons for low energy and a sense of overwhelm being loneliness. An artist’s life can be lonely, requiring so much solo time and independent work. The Creative Campfire is meant to fuel that need for creative camaraderie, to spark your energy, and to open trapdoors and secret passageways to shortcuts that will ultimately save you time and heighten the quality of your work.

Q: Who are the members of the Creative Campfire?

A: The Creative Campfire is an invite-only community for writers, illustrators, and other narrative artists who are working at a professional level. They are confident, capable lifelong learners, committed to growth. They hold themselves to a high standard of creative work, and are fighting for the possibilities, not for their limitations. They are honest, kind, supportive people who have experienced both challenges and wins and who are ready to say yes to what’s next for them.

Q: What does my monthly tuition cover?

A: Your tuition covers administrative and facilitation costs, so that our tools and activities can be of highest quality. Additionally, tuition will create margin to explore collaboration possibilities that result in new earning opportunities for Creative Campfire members, such as a Creative Campfire store with gear to support and inspire a wider circle of creatives beyond our group, or a weekend retreat open to the public, with teaching and speaking opportunities for Creative Campfire members.

Q: You mentioned opportunities to offset the cost of my tuition with Creative Campfire earning opportunities. Tell me more about that.

A: I know that you will find greater value and achieve more growth in the Creative Campfire if it is professionally run, and if it serves as a true career opportunity for you. For that reason, an investment in the group will serve you, the group, and our overall mission well. That said, artists tend not to have a lot of financial margin, which is one of my reasons for wanting to start this group in the first place. I believe that leveling up your work in this way, and giving yourself permission to own your career trajectory, has the power to free you from the stress of unpredictable finances.
There are a number of ways you can cover (and even make far more than) your tuition cost, including considering joining the Society of Young Inklings mentor roster and earning contract wages for mentoring a youth writer, participating in a Creative Campfire store product project, or taking part in one of our weekend retreats as a facilitator. Other opportunities are in the works as well. Our goal is that all Creative Campfire members who are looking to boost earning options within our group are able to do so within opportunities that fit their skill sets and that fuel their hearts, too.

Q: What’s the promise of the Creative Campfire? If I make this commitment, what will I gain this year?

The Creative Campfire is shaped as a hero’s journey. Like any hero’s journey, you will start exactly where you are now. You will listen for your call to adventure, and when it comes, you’ll step into the unknown. You’ll follow that hunch that tells you there’s more for you in your creative work, and see where it leads you. Your internal character arc will bring you personal growth and insight that will help you move past sticky or currently invisible obstacles. Your external outcomes will be:

new creative and professional skills
membership in a creative community of artists who are all rising to greater heights and urging you onward
collaboration opportunities that make it possible for you to say yes to yourself even when other avenues are not open
a personal project that represents you and your creative voice

Ready to say yes to what's next for you?

Join the Creative Campfire