We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jona Inman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jona, so excited to have you with us today, particularly to get your insight on a topic that comes up constantly in the community – overcoming creativity blocks. Any thoughts you can share with us?
I try to keep practices that help my creative flow. Ever since I did The Artist’s Way almost ten years ago, I continue to write stream-of-conscious morning pages most days. I also try to keep a regular practice of yoga. These relieve a lot of tension (physically, emotionally, mentally), which eases my creative flow and helps me overcome the editor and doubting critical voice in my head. Then, I can just step forward and give different things a try, whether that’s putting words on a page or trying a different impulse or thought when performing.
My improv training from The Second City Hollywood has helped me give different things a try. In an improv class, you perform so many scenes, you eventually realize to let go of judgment and just follow impulse. Not every scene is going to be a hit, and honestly, most scenes, whether they were good or not, will not even be remembered. Creating fruitful improv scenes definitely takes practice. It’s a muscle that needs work. And the same is with any form of art. Get out of your own way and just practice. Eventually, the muscle will be strong enough to more regularly yield fruitful creations. Not every creation will be a hit. Neither does it have to be. It is good enough to just stand as an expression on your journey.
I think it is also important to work the muscles in a correct way. In exercise, you would work a muscle with proper technique to avoid injury. I think the same is with the arts. It’s important to work creative muscles with training to learn different techniques. Not every technique has to work for you as a creative, but they are helpful to learn, under proper guidance, to eventually find methods that will help overcome problems in creative expression. …Admittedly, another way I overcome creativity blocks is to seek additional training.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am an actor and screenwriter who largely leans towards comedy, though I still have a love for drama.
What I find most exciting about what I do is finding expansion within myself. Through different performative roles, I’ve discovered different sides of myself that I didn’t know existed or that I’ve always wanted to express. I feel my role as an actor is, partly, to personally heal and grow, in passion, identity, empathy, expression, etc. I always find it interesting when I’ve heard of actors who hold on to their trauma so they can go to the dark places their characters are in. For me, the more I heal, the more accessible I am to perform. I’m more relaxed and more selfless. In that way, I have more empathy for my characters and more passion to fight for their cause. I am able to focus more on them and live presently as them, rather than digging deep into my shadows to strum up a contrived emotion. As I live in their blood, I find myself feeling and thinking broader than I would ever find myself in my own life. It makes my life feel so much bigger, which is incredibly fitting for me and probably for the better. Otherwise, I think I’d find myself strumming up problems in my personal life just to feel that breadth and expansion. As I perform the lives of characters, I feel more alive myself.
Currently, I am pursuing MFA in Comedic Screenwriting at DePaul University. As a screenwriter, it is incredibly rewarding to motivate every turn of a story in as natural a way as possible. I feel most in my element when I am able to mold a story with as much believable comedic zaniness as possible. It feels like many puzzle pieces fitting together. Not only is the story working, but it is wildly entertaining along the way.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Improv has been incredibly impactful for both performing and writing. Much like I said before, jumping up and getting out of my own way has opened doors of discovery I may have never reached had I let doubt pitter-patter me around. Letting go, free from abandon.
Encouragement also is important. Instructors and mentors who led with honest love and encouragement have motivated me more to keep the path than those who led with criticism. I felt valued and that my voice as an artist mattered and was important to share. That doesn’t mean those teachers didn’t also have instruction or criticism to give, but they led in a way that I knew they were cheering me on. They were in my corner. They saw what I had to offer and did what they could to make it flourish. I still do what I do because of them. It is important to find an honest artistic support system. Not ones that will just blow smoke up your butt, but ones that will call out your cheats or laziness and also celebrate your wins.
Persistence and perseverance are vital, as well. I think of all the artists that have influenced me and whom I admire, and I consider if they had not persisted when they had failures or when they heard a “no.” They still found success and so can I. After all, “no” just means “not this, not right now; but perhaps something else, maybe even better, some other time.” Any “no” is an opportunity to be available for something else, whether that’s a different project or training program, which may springboard into even greater opportunities than originally considered. Something recurrent I hear is how there is no one determined path to success in the arts. Anyone who’s “made it” has done so in all different sorts of ways. If one way doesn’t do it, another may… or another may… or another may. If it’s a passion, always keep trying.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
I’d say ‘The Artist’s Way.’ I feel like when I read that book and did each exercise almost a decade ago, that’s when I really started to be an artist. It reached deep within me and began a healing process as an individual and as an artist. Valuable things I learned from it are:
“Leap, and the net will appear.” Take a chance. Get out of your own way. Don’t think, just do. In the action, you’ll find discovery, and your path will show itself. Jump at every opportunity.
Paraphrased: ‘The Creator didn’t make one flower, or even ten, or even one hundred. But countless ones. Each with their beauty. Snowflakes, too, are an expression of creative abundance. No two alike.’ My own offering is good enough. It doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s, or even valued in the same way as anyone else. But I am here, I am created, and I can offer all that I can, all that I am.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathinman/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonainman/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JonaInman
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJPeC5a8iQM
Image Credits
Buckman Headshots, Bridget Flaherty
