Mindy Kaling might be the busiest writer/actress in Hollywood these days, but she still considers herself a “lazy person.” The key to her creativity, she says, lies in structure—and a little movement.
Kaling created and starred in The Mindy Project and was a writer/actor on The Office, along with many other projects, which range from the animated series Velma to comedies The Sex Lives of College Girls and Never Have I Ever. Even when you exclude The Office, which aired from 2005-2013, that’s a lot of work in a fairly short period. But Kaling, who recently launched a new MasterClass with a series of lessons on becoming a screenwriter, says pressure-rich environments are where she thrives.
“I am an inherently lazy person that needs structure,” she says. “I need deadlines. That’s where my creativity percolates. There is no coincidence or accident that I became successful on a show where we had to produce 22 to 24 episodes a year . . . and I had exactly four days to write the episode. I look at someone like Michael Lewis, a novelist I love, and think ‘How do you do it?’ For me, putting a lot of structure around my creativity is where I can succeed.”
Some might wonder how Kaling, who has written 64 episodes of two different shows since 2020, along with Murray Hill, an upcoming project on Hulu and the screenplay for Legally Blonde 3, does it. She’s answering those questions these days on MasterClass, where she’s telling her story of becoming a screenwriter and sharing her keys to success in an extremely competitive business.
One thing Kaling has found that has helped her keep up with the pace she has set for herself? Long walks, where she will either talk things through with friends—or, if they’re not available, to herself.
“Writing is communication, just as talking is,” she says. “I am a talker. What I will do is talk through a story or a structure. It is so much less daunting to go for a walk and record myself talking, then come back and listen to it and see if there’s anything in there. . . . What it affords me is I’m never looking at the blank page.”
It also takes away the fear of writer’s block. In reviewing her recordings, she’s more of an editor—a role she says she much prefers.
Another trick to keeping creative juices flowing, she says? Consider mediums beyond the computer to record your thoughts. Just as those walk-and-talks help her figure out characters or write more conversationally, making notes on colored notecards not only helps Kaling keep her thoughts organized, but it also delivers the dopamine rush one gets from achieving a goal, even a minor one.
“I am not someone who has ever been visually oriented, but I do love crafts,” she says. “When I write something down on a brightly colored card, it makes me feel like I did something. That’s one thing about using laptops and doing everything on a computer. You don’t get the same visual satisfaction that you completed an errand or a task.”
Finally, says Kaling, a good way to enhance your creativity is by setting mental exercises for yourself that push you to think about whatever you’re creating from a different point of view. As a writer on The Office, for instance, the team would think about how characters would react in certain situations to get a better sense of who that character was.
“Dwight Schrute,” she offers as an example, “is the kind of person who, if there is an apocalypse, chooses to drink his own urine on the second day. He doesn’t have to. He just does. And you know instantly what kind of guy that is.”
