My first year of college came and went without a clear decision for my future. General education courses reiterated a couple things I already knew: 1) I am not the smartest student in any one field, and 2) I don’t have enough interest in any one field to devote my life to solely mastering that one field. Did I say, “one field” enough to make my point?
Writing requires versatility that only comes from exposure in a wide array of life experience. It takes time and perseverance. I know it is the last thing you want to hear if you are an aspiring writer. At least it was for me, a difficult lesson to accept. I knew I loved writing but I was afraid to commit to it. Writing takes more work than anything I know of before seeing the payoff. Writing is a release, a past-time, fun, and hard, all in one. To write you have to love it, but, make no mistake, writing is work, lots and lots of work.
Even this post started out as a different idea altogether. As I re-evaluated my thesis statement I realized that this post would take another path. I would explain the work of writing as I see it. (Hence, the title). See, I did learn something from getting my English degree in college.
The more creative the writing, however, the more it is nothing like academic writing (More on that in my next post):
Even every form of writing takes a different expertise: There is marketing writing with all of the forms of digital marketing: website content, blogging, and online advertising; There is print advertising: billboards, magazines, and all types of collateral material; There are short stories, novels, and everywhere in between. Each requires an understanding in the delicate intricacies of melding the art of creativity and the functions of applied Science. In every field of work it is desirable to find the best way to do something and then to do it better than anyone else, but the reality in a continually changing world is that our customer desires the same versatility that I crave. I think you crave it, too!
We want to be entertained. We want new ideas. We want creative writing. And that takes a lot of thinking, a lot of planning, a lot of living, and a lot of writing about it. Some things I write will fall flat, but other writings will soar, if I put in the work. Sterling Bridge took about 15 years, on and off, before it was where it needs to be. It is ready! It took a long time and a lot of work before I am where I need to be. I am there!
