Practical Creative Writing

Posted by on Sep 2, 2013 in Uncategorized | 3 comments

I’ve been working with Spry for almost a year now, and it’s really starting to hit me what sheer mass of creative talent there is out there.

I love reading your submissions (the damn near hundreds of them), and while some of them are weird, some are funny, and some heartbreaking, each submission seems to reserve a special attention for form and craft.

At my school, the writing program focuses mostly on the more practical technical and business writing, or journalism (though I’ve certainly got that novel I’ve been workin’ on).

But I’m finding that whether it be producing copy, drafting essays, developing user documents, or researching journalism pieces, there are skills you learn as a creative writer that can positively influence your other writing, as well. Coherent plot structure, clear and concise language, and woven narratives are valuable techniques in any form of writing.

So writers, if you hold a day job unrelated to creative writing, how do you use your talents in your professional life?

-Mark-Anthony Lewis

Considered by some to be the greatest wizard of modern times, Mark-Anthony Lewis is particularly proud of his parents’ appearance on Soul Train in 1986, discovering of the twelve uses of dragon’s blood, and having successfully been left-handed for his entire life. Mark-Anthony enjoys pumpkin whoopee pies and Awful Awfuls (though they really should be called Awfully Awfullys). Find him on Tumblr or follow him on Twitter @M_Lewis. 

3 Comments

  1. Currently I don’t have a day job other than being a husband, a father, and a college student. I worked as a painter this past summer. If anything being creative in my thinking helps me get through the monotony of the day job by thinking up ideas that I’ll later write about when work is over.

  2. I try to keep a notebook with me at all times. I will often take it out at work and jot down a sentence or two if something comes to mind.

  3. For me, it just keeps me sane–it’s the goal I focus on getting to at the end of the day. Well, that, and I end up writing a lot of “diplomatic” e-mails and fixing SEO text.

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