As most writers will agree, personal observations and our personal lives can greatly influence the content we generate.
Any of those moments in our lives, whether difficult or easy to navigate, are all part of change. Most people refuse to graduate from the school of embracing change. I would submit that most writers would graduate at the top of the class because they embrace it by writing through it. Writing through some changes has been helpful for me over the past year. Even when things seemed on the sidelines, I was working behind the scenes to rebuild and in some ways, re-brand. When one gets their life back on track it makes sense to look a little bit harder at ways to re-market their skills in this business.
The notebook pages, the content I have written for clients, and any of my attempts at humor have all been part of embracing change.
How embracing change can make you a more experienced writer.
When I refer to writing through those changes, I say writing through as a method of coping and even healing. Words and the word business have always been a great personal identifier for me. I rather enjoy being able to tell people that writing is a trade I’m proud to be part of. So sometimes when I have felt a bit lost I realize that it makes complete sense to write through that lost moment. One does not necessarily have to write about those particular moments of loss and confusion in order to make sense of them. Although this is a good way to clear your eyes and see any emotions right on the page.
Sometimes taking a favorite subject and working out a few words about that subject gives a person something positive to reflect on once the ideas are on the page or screen. In many instances, I have turned content of this nature into profitable work. A nice extra reward for working through something.
One of the biggest changes I have embraced for my own work has to deal with satire and humor. There is never an hour that goes by during the waking day where I am not attempting to seek something that can be turned into laughable lines. In this regard, I have taken myself to back to humor school via self-study. Re-reading a few of my favorite classic satire collections and listening to an audiobook written and read by the great David Brenner (may he Rest in Peace).
Brenner’s book “I Think There’s a Terrorist in My Soup” is about learning to find the laughter in everything. When I started this audiobook a week ago I went for a nice long walk along a beach near Clearwater, Florida listening to Brenner deliver his message. When I arrived back, I had already learned a few new things to help me in my observations of life and how to deal with a few of the rough ones perhaps a bit better.
We are people. We are artists. We evolve. How we embrace that evolution of ourselves can translate into better quality of work. The most important thing about working through change is about the artistic satisfaction of writing something. If you can turn it into a profitable project then that is a bonus.
As everyone enters the busy holiday weeks where reflection often happens more in rare moments of solitude, I leave you with a summary of what I have written.
Embrace change. See where it takes you.
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Originally published on Dann Alexander
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Photo credit: Shutterstock ID: 197697644
