Thinking Creatively to Creatively Write

I know I’ve spent nearly all my time addressing the novelists of cyberspace on my blog so far, so this time I thought I’d step outside the box and talk to those of you who want to write creatively but don’t have the time or inclination to write the next great American novel.

So what else is there? The opportunities for writing are only limited by your own creativity. I have a friend who contacted the Idaho Game and Wildlife Service to see if he could write an article for them on the species of fish inhabiting Payette Lake. They liked his article so much that they contracted him to write another article about migratory bird patterns in Northern Idaho. Obviously he didn’t know anything about this topic, so what did he do? He researched, he made some phone calls, and he did a little sight-seeing. He learned a whole lot about an interesting new topic, and the best part of all: he got paid for doing something he loved to do.

Poetry is another avenue you could explore. Local magazines and newspapers sometimes have creative writing sections to which people can submit their writing for the pure joy of seeing their name in print.

Are you very involved in your child’s elementary school? Offer to help write articles for the monthly newsletter. Perhaps that doesn’t sound like the most exciting job in the world, but the more you write, the more experience you get and the stronger resume you create. Networking with educators could also bring you to the attention of the “higher ups.” With a little imagination, who knows what impact your small-article writing may have?