Is This You?
You struggle with writer’s block, perfectionism, fear, shame around sharing your work, procrastination, or self-criticism.
Your early work was rejected by an authority figure, or you were harshly critiqued in your arts education or academia.
You’ve been taking your writing process too seriously and want to learn to play and have fun again!
You’re looking for a more right-brained way to learn. Perhaps you’re neurodiverse and don’t resonate with academic approaches to craft. There are other ways to learn!
You’re finally ready to write that poem, tell your story, but you don’t even know where to start. Or maybe you can’t get past chapter 5 of your book and you’re stuck.
Even the act of writing or creating feels like an extra vulnerable and sensitive undertaking.
You have put your creativity on hold due to life’s obligations. You’ve been avoiding the creative process, even though it constantly calls to you.
You want to learn practical tools and strategies that will help you follow through on your creative dreams and goals.
You feel the need for more accountability, structure, and support around your writing or creativity.
You are ready to blow the rust off of your creative process, and access the great volcano of imagination inside of you!
“If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” ~Emily Dickinson
If you suffer from any of the above, you are not alone! I too have struggled with obstacles and a painful vulnerability around writing. I also love helping artists free themselves from “creative shame.” Creative shame withers away in an atmosphere of acceptance and safety, and so creating safety, from both inside and out, is essential to the process of Writing from the Top of Your Head®.
“No matter what kind of artist you are, this class is essential to your creative blossoming…”
— Badria Jazairi, Student
“Nina is the best of the best at cheerleading the wounded soul of creativity.”
— Student
“No matter what kind of artist you are, this class is essential to your creative blossoming…”
— Badria Jazairi, Student
“Nina is the best of the best at cheerleading the wounded soul of creativity.”
— Student
The Online Schoolhouse is a self-paced version of the live Writing from the Top of Your Head® course. Inside you get…
Lifetime access to the DIY 8-module online schoolhouse material for self-study
Hours of audio lessons with writing prompts, lesson PDFs, homework, book recommendations, inspiring quotes, and video links
Weekly emails to cheer you on, which will help provide more structure and accountability
And…you can do the course over and over and generate new and surprising material — every time
The LIFE-CHANGING 8-module Online Schoolhouse is only $499, with a 2-payment option.
Want to add a half-hour coaching session to clarify your goals for this course? It can help a lot! Email Nina, and we can set up a call:
OR ADD even more 1:1 Premium creativity coaching alongside your Schoolhouse experience for a deeper, structured, and personalized experience! Click here for details
Praise for Writing from the Top of Your Head®
“Nina’s class blew me out of the water. I had done some things like it before so I felt like I was experienced… but this class! This class really opened up some sort of spigot in me and out came the words, the images, the magic. I don’t even know where it came FROM. It just came THROUGH. And when I admitted in the class that I don’t really have a creative goal, only an inkling that it’s a good idea to let stuff came through me, and it scares me to have this outpouring erupt from me, Nina understood and made me feel like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.”
— Mindy Beller, Student
“I have a degree in painting and drawing, but I don’t consider myself a writer. I joined Nina’s writing classes thinking they would help me with some technical writing for work. Boy, was that an undervision! This class completely blew the top off my creativity in a way that bled into everything in my art and life. It honestly taught me to just be myself and trust my own voice. I even make up words now, like undervision. I am free!”
— Sarah Thomas, Student
“These six weeks have changed my life, helped me set priorities, returned my vocabulary. I am reconnected to my young adulthood when I could say “I am a writer.” These classes are not about grammar and form but discovering the great creative mind rich with sentences and images. They are not about competition to be best but about each person’s unique discovery of their magical words and phrases. I am in a state of joy…”
— Bonnie Schell, Student
“When I started Nina’s class, I had mostly not written for two years – and was starting to wonder if I was still a writer. Now I’m on fire for writing. Nina is a truly creative soul – and a phenomenal cheerleader, coach, and creativity instigator.”
— MJ, Student
“I signed up for the Writing From the Top of Your Head workshop when I hit a major wall after publishing my first novel. After all the craft workshops, writing podcasts, and books on how to improve my work while I was revising that novel, I hit “Publish,” took what I thought would be a short few months break, then gradually realized I had something far worse than writer’s block. I felt like I lost my muse completely. The driving force I’ve felt my entire life to tell stories was silent, and with that silence, the promise of my follow-up novel to the first seemed not only impossible, but like a personal failure. I didn’t think of it like writer’s block. I thought of it like having the yips or the twisties - the thought of writing left me utterly frozen. Fortunately, thinking of it like the yips or the twisties gave me an idea: baseball players and gymnasts get coaches, so why can’t a writer?
I found Nina’s eight-week program online and decided eight self-paced weeks sounded manageable enough, it had great reviews, and I liked the idea of the anti-writing-craft workshop. Gentle readers, I think it’s been close to two years since I started. I’m still on week seven, but this program kickstarted every change I needed to make to get my muse back, return to a flow state, and get writing again. Nina was the first person in my life to tell me that I sounded like I might be a little burned out (understatement of the year). Nina’s program not only helped me see that my muse hadn’t left me (she was just hiding in a corner from all that writing craft study), but also helped me see how many non-writing things in my life were affecting my writing life. I’ve turned many things around and am in a much more positive place. Book 2 is well on its way at long last, and my muse won’t leave me alone. Thank you, Nina!”
~Marie McCurdy, author, The Wolf Queen
The Modules - 8 weeks to creative freedom
Learn brain-training tools that will help you find your fierce inner creative bodyguard. Release the volcanic flow of your imagination and generate a ton of fresh written material that will totally SURPRISE you. Feel a greater sense of aliveness and a renewed sense of purpose. Yes - this is an "online" course - but it has a whole lot of MAGIC in it, as you tap into your KID mind. Click the plus signs to expand each module.
+ Week 1: Small and Crappy
As we start the journey together, we find out how the foundational practice of “Small and Crappy” can help you lower your expectations and slay perfectionism when it rears its crappy little head! You CAN create without your inner critic hanging over your pen! You CAN be goofy!
“You will have written badly, but you will not have allowed it to be atrocious.” - Kevin McIlvoy
+ Week 2: Learn to Write from the Top of your Head
You don’t have to sit around and wait for the muse to show up! Learn how to raise up your creative “antennae” and bring about flow and states of awe at will.
“The object isn’t to make art, it is to be in that wonderful state that makes art inevitable.” - Robert Henri
+Week 3: Just Be You
Your MOST amazing superpower is to “just be you.” We’ll talk about it. And listen to the Shaggs. “The place in which I fit, doesn't exist until I make it.” ~James Baldwin
And through the “Koi Pond” exercise you’ll learn to deeply trust the images that come to you, and the details of what you hear, see, feel, taste, and smell.
“An image is a place. Not a picture of a place, but a place in and of itself. You can move in it. It seems not invented but there for you to find.” ~Lynda Barry
+ Week 4: Writing from the Heart - the Power of Awe
Tap into profound poetic states through the practice of the “Thank You Walk,” “Snapshot,” “Soft Focus” and other techniques that will help induce states of higher creativity. Learn “brain-training” techniques that reduce the fears that can literally stifle an artist’s life. These tools will affect your ability to follow through as an artist, and allow you to practice more and more bravery and vulnerability. You will practice seeing your own unique gifts and recognizing the depth of your accomplishments, and this will be a touchstone that will fuel your passion and artistic resilience.
+ Week 5: Playfully Play with Playful Structures
You will connect all that you’ve learned into a “symphonic writing experience.” You will combine dreams and other found material in order to discover new directions. By playing with playful structures (as opposed to working within more traditional structures) you will find that actually letting go of control will help you find the surprisegifts that lay beyond the “thinking mind.” Learning to trust this place will create a whole new writer / self.
“I want to be with those who know secret things—or else alone.” - Rainer Maria Rilke
+ Week 6: Deep Diving – Creating and Connecting with our Emotions
So far, we’ve been learning how to let go and fly high. Now, we dive deep into the ground of our souls and our inner emotional landscape, in order to mine material that not only touches us, but can touch others in a heartfelt way.
+ Week 7: The Power of Journaling
Some writers believe that journal writing isn’t “real” writing. I say it is! It’s such a powerful way to deep dive, to live uncensored, to mine for gold. It allows us to touch down into our authenticity. We not only get to talk to ourselves but to our highest self. In this module, we’ll listen to nature and rocks and trees and see what they have to tell us. We’ll ask our bodies for answers to deeper questions. We’ll explore various journaling methods and record our dreamscapes. We will be led into surprising territory, and it is here we can discover such honest and shimmering material for our stories, poetry, and song.
+ Week 8: Your Writing Life
Cultivate a consistent writing practice that fits into your particular life. Learn about the incredible, simple power of Kaizen, also known as Small Steps – so you can easily keep moving toward your goals long after this workshop is over.
“I don’t know how Nina does it, but she’s giving students back to themselves.” - Josephine Spilka, Student
These tools and practices in The Online Schoolhouse will help in all areas of your life. You will feel free again, like you were when you were a kid. You will become a troublemaker, unafraid of your voice and power. You will find an inner resilience and sense of deep self-acceptance, knowing that who you are is MORE than enough. Oh, and did I mention, you will laugh! This is not your common boring academic writing course. You will have so much fun, and when you're having fun, you'll want to write more and more.
And yes, there’s brain science to prove it!
I’ve been collaborating with neuroscientist Vaaani Sai of Neurowrite, who studies the brain science of creativity. She took an interest in this work and, out of kindness and curiosity, outlined WHY this method is so effective.
Here’s a synopsis of what she found for the sequence of modules 1-6:
Each week follows the natural rhythm of how the brain learns to create freely:
MODULE 1: Safety before risk — lower the threat response. (reduce inhibition)
MODULE 2: State before skill — cultivate flow.
MODULE 3: Authenticity before artistry — strengthen self-trust.
MODULE 4: Emotion before structure — channel awe and gratitude.
MODULE 5: Play before mastery — expand flexibility, curiosity, and openness to new
forms.
MODULE 6: Integration before continuation — solidify new creative habits.
This design reflects how creativity unfolds in the brain: from safety → curiosity →
trust→ awe → play → integration.
“The content and material ALONE in this course is rich and deep enough to bring someone through substantial, substantive transformation not only in their creative lives, but in their lives, period. The hidden little traumas in all of us creatives get tweaked and exposed and witnessed in the process of these brilliantly diagnosed exercises that are laser-precise in what, where, and how they touch these places.”
— Karuna Haber, Student
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching?
Here’s a quote that sums it up well – from Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching’s founder Jill Badonsky:
“Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching takes into account the dynamics of creative individuals that other coaching approaches may overlook, such as: resistance to authority, the non-linear nature of the creative process, high-sensitivity, creativity related avoidance, an indirect approach to setting intentions (setting “goals” can actually block a creative person), the need for breaks, daydreaming, and downtime, the need for nurturing and compassion, plugging into creative strengths and successes, question asking vs directives.”
2. Will we be learning about the craft of writing?
As my student Bonnie says,
“These classes are not about grammar and form but discovering the great creative mind rich with sentences and images. They are not about competition to be best but about each person’s unique discovery of their magical words and phrases.”
It’s true. There are lots of classes out there that focus on grammar, form, and revision, but we’ll be focussing on clearing the obstacles that get in the way of your raw and true voice. It is my hope that you can develop your craft from this place of freedom, instead of the other way around…It’s WAY more fun.
3. Who this course is for? Who this course isn't for?
Who this course is for: You’re looking for something really different. You want to trust in the power of letting go of your thinking mind. You want to allow the great mystery to lead the way. You want the space to write uncontrolled and uncensored. You’re not afraid of swimming in the wildness of your shadow imagery and your subconscious mind. You want a process-oriented, mindful, and improvisational writing practice. You’re interested in the intersection of spirituality and creativity. You like goofy toys and funny silly jokes. You don’t mind fart machines and irreverence because they engage your inner child – and you’re looking to connect with that part of yourself again. You’re looking to laugh and play. You want to step into more and more of your fundamental uniqueness.
Who this course is not for: You want to learn more about the traditional academic craft of writing. You’re looking for the workshopping method of critique. You want a linear writing program that doesn’t zoom around into exciting detours and magical rooms. Your religion requires that you shield yourself from uncomfortable shadow material. (That’s totally cool – it’s just that this course will travel through those worlds.) You dislike fart machines.
4. Is there a guarantee or refund policy?
If you’re not satisfied with your purchase, contact me, and if you can show that you did the work from at least 6 modules, I will consider a refund. That said, I truly believe this will be a life-changing experience for you – if you commit to the process. So, consider this purchase as a commitment to your writing life. I’m here to hold the door wide open for you to begin again – or to just begin. I’m here to hold you accountable for your commitment to yourself. I want this course to be there for you, even if you experience resistance. I know there is something truly powerful for everyone in this course. Jump in fully, and it will give you unimaginable gifts in return.
And in case you were wondering…Writing from the Top of Your Head® is inspired by Emily Dickinson, who wrote: "If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, that is poetry."
Join us. We are ready for you.
Join us. We are ready for you.
Just want to get your feet wet? Join The Playhouse to Slay Perfectionism.
Try Module #1 of The Online Schoolhouse, The Playhouse to Slay Perfectionism. Return to the innocence of playing and exploring without "trying to be good." This one module alone will help you free your imagination and get you writing again.
More Questions?
Book a Chat
Want to see if The Online Schoolhouse is a good fit for you? I’m happy to speak with you. Schedule a quick and free 15 minute call with me below.
Dive Deep
Explore Premium 1:1 Creativity Coaching
This is a powerful, one-of-a-kind program for writers who are ready for deeper 1:1 support and structure so they can achieve a writing or creative goal. Interested in 1:1 Coaching? Drop me a line!