My creative longings are beginning to assert themselves. Expressive language is calling to me, or at least my desire to use my work to connect with an audience and share images, ideas, and even poetics is beginning to look more important. The question is how to balance the creative life while pursuing a work-a-day life as well. 

Being a Professional

When I studied English for my degree, I took professional writing courses and worked in journalism on the student newspaper so I could be involved both in civic engagement and develop skills for employment. I also took a lot of creative writing classes; my thesis project was an excerpt of a novel I had been working on.

As I became busy writing within the marketing departments I worked in, I let my creative pursuits take a back seat. This wasn’t a bad thing at the time, as I learned quite a lot about the subjects of my professional writing, which was mainly about nature, science, farming, and natural food. The creative aspect of my work always informed my job writing but hadn’t been at the center of my life for years. It’s a balance that I was able to keep, but the artistic side is something I have been wanting to explore more lately.

Storytelling

Looking at brand stories, there is a creative arc involved that is informed by a similar kind of storytelling seen in novels, short stories, screenplays, etc. But there is a difference in tone and purpose. Both try to influence people, but for different reasons. The rhetoric used in brand stories influences people to recognize and trust companies, engage customers, and buy products. It can be very imaginative, and the reason is to convert people into customers.

Using an Artistic Voice

I like to tell stories, and I now want to write stories that speak to daily life and the larger patterns within it. At least, that is my creative dream. Working in marketing, I wrote using the organizational brand voice. Now, I just need to find my personal voice, and the way to do that is to keep writing and flexing my wordsmithing muscles even more, but from my own perspective, at least until I can establish my own style again. Basically, I need to re-brand my own process and re-focus my writing so I can use it in a larger variety of formats compared to those I have been doing.

But even with professional stories, I’d like to work within the realm of art, social awareness, or talk about people’s personal experiences while addressing issues of the heart.

Speaking to my love of images in the storytelling process, I recently applied for a job at a local camera store, trying to place my love of photography into a larger focus. I’m really excited for the potential to spend time working with film, cameras, and being immersed in the world of photography.