Tuesday, March 08, 2016

From Head to Hand: It's Ok to Specialise...or Not

When people find out I'm a writer, they often assume I can write anything.  This couldn't be further from the truth.  I suck at poetry and I never took any poetry units at uni because of this.  I did a feature writing unit only to find it very difficult.  Short stories are a struggle for me, because of the word limits.

I'm a novel writer.  I did a children's fiction unit at uni and really enjoyed it.  I'd quite like to dabble in children's books at some stage.  Even if I decide to ONLY be a novel writer, that's ok.

Then I get the people who assume because I'm a creative writer that I'm creative in other areas.  Drama, yes.  Sadly, I suck at music, sewing, knitting, painting, drawing, crafty projects, graphic design, and cake decorating.

Sometimes there is the pressure to be broadly talented.  Others face pressure to specialise when they're not really sure which direction they want to take their work in; they just like experimenting and dabbling.  They don't want to be known as the 'charcoal artist', or the 'scrapbooker', or the 'poet'.

Just because you're a creative person, doesn't mean you need to be talented at all things creative.

I'm a novel writer...and a blogger.....and possibly a children's writer....and that's ok. 

It's ok to specialise...or not.

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