How I Found My Niche in Writing and Creativity
You need to explore a lot in order to figure out who you really are as a creative,
I started writing somewhat seriously in high school, back when I went to art high school and majored in all of this fun, wacky craft stuff. But I’m going to be honest: while this was good for introductory creative writing, writing classes were too rigid for me to explore my creativity. I was an artist before I was a writer, and I loved to paint and sculpt. I originally wanted to go to my high school for visual arts or acting! I kind of just fell into the writing world, and it surprisingly worked out for me, although I am pursuing other creative things right now as well in order to not limit myself too much.
I took a year off of being creative, right when I entered college. I was a Fashion Business major and I was only taking the core business classes along with Mandarin Chinese and Korean film. The Korean film class was my only creative outlet, because, for the first time, I was writing about a genre of art I was super passionate about. It was more technical writing, but that’s what I needed at the time in order to grow as an individual, as I was exploring my other interests. This has led to me being a freelance film writer currently sending out my pitches to publications.
Once I missed my creativity, I knew I wanted it back and craved it so hard. And that’s what pushed me into where I’m at now. Every single day I scour the Eventbrite listings for free virtual events, trying to bamboozle my way into anthropology, art history, and fashion history talks as much as possible. I actively seek out author and artist interviews, the ones that are in-depth, in order to try and break down their creativity and see what I can replicate in order to maximize my own career.
However, what I think a lot of people get wrong is you can’t be doing this for the fame or the money. I honestly don’t really care about either of those, I just want to write until my fingers fall off, to keep creating as much as I can before I or the world dies. This genuinely is keeping me alive. Whenever I lapsed into periods where I could not write, I quickly became depressed, succumbing to my very prominent mental illnesses. There is so much inspiration and beauty around me, even when I am not going outside, that I am finding myself devoting my life to the simple things.
Go to as many things as possible. You might really be surprised as what you truly like and don’t like. I thought I wanted to go into the fashion industry as I entered college, but now my interests are so wide and varied I find it impossible to limit myself to just one thing. I absolutely despise the act of labeling myself, and choose to use the word creative whenever possible, because I think if you just say you’re an engineer, a doctor, or a visual artist, you’ve kind of already chosen your destiny and locked yourself into that one label. So if you’re vaguely intrigued by an art history event, just show up! You might be pleasantly surprised.
I’ve also written about this before, but also just go outside and take walks. Find the beauty in your neighborhood. Make friends with people you never would’ve spoken to otherwise. The world is so big, even in your little bubble. Push the boundaries of it. Experiment. Or else you might get too comfortable and limit your growth.
