Reason To Write: To Change My World Through Creativity

Susan Finch

What does creativity mean to you? For Susan Finch, the guest author behind this latest Reason To Write post, it’s about more than just her writing. It’s about her whole world. Before you dive in, check out her website, where she blogs about creative strategies for artists, writers, and entrepreneurs searching for alternatives to business as usual, and learn more about her travel and lifestyle writing.

Even though I blog about creativity, it’s hard to answer my own question to myself: Why does being creative matter to me?

I was self-employed as a video editor for eight years before becoming a travel writer and, later, the Multimedia Director for a marketing firm. Now I’m self-employed once again. My road map has been a long and winding one. And along my creative journey, I never knew for sure why I had traveled the path.

Why did I care? What motivated me?

And then one day I realized, while standing in an office, that I write because I want to change my point of view. I want to use my creativity to see a world with remarkable color and possibility. I don’t want to face the world with a bleak undertone of beige. Beige inspiration. Beige emotions. Beige food. Beige cubicle.

I wanted a life that was not beige.

I ended up in Brooklyn shortly after college, as I was getting my career underway, when the events of 9/11 led me on a path of utter confusion.

Where was I going? Who was I? What did I want?

The only thing I knew for certain was that I wanted to write. I wanted to create a life full of possibilities where I could be free to build up my own client base and fire the ones that weren’t working. I wanted the ability to work from a coffee shop one day and a park bench the next. I wanted the freedom to travel. In short, I wanted all the freedoms that a career with more flexibility would afford me. And because I wanted it so badly, I stopped expecting editors and publishers to somehow stumble upon my creative genius and, instead, got my hands dirty.

I taught myself how to write a pitch. I studied publications. I learned to use my voice. And I clawed my way in with sheer persistence and the knowledge that writing for the sake of creativity is one path, but writing for magazines, websites, and blogs is a business, and must be treated as such.

Now I straddle both. I blog to forge connections, and I explore my creativity through artist interviews, marketing tips, and case studies. On the business side of things, I write guidebooks, iPhone apps, newsletters, magazine articles, and more.

It’s within our power to change our own world, on both a personal and professional level. We can build a new career, choose a new city, cut off toxic relationships, and reinvent ourselves. But the question is: what do we really want? Once we decide, it’s through creativity that we build a truly remarkable life.