Creative Writing – MEMORANDUM

Creative and Professional Writing: What to Do if You’re Interested in Both

open laptop and book — Creative vs. Professional Writing

By Lauren Moore

As new students come flooding into UAB every fall, some know exactly what they want to study. However, the majority of the lowerclassmen are going to explore their options, possibly making changes to their career paths along the way through a process of trial and error.

For some, this process goes a step further—a student may find the right subject matter to study, but what about the concentration? I struggled with this decision myself. After changing my major a few different times and feeling unsatisfied, I realized that what I really wanted was to study English.

However, my insecurities with this major resurfaced when I had to select a concentration. There were many stigmas that clouded my judgement when I was faced with this decision. I have always loved constructing fiction and other forms of creative writing, but was it practical enough for the real world?

I enjoyed being on the newspaper staff in high school, and writing in a professional sense. Would it be more beneficial to my career to be a professional writer, despite my passion for crafting stories? I had to find out.

In this article, I hope to not only break some of the stigmas surrounding both concentrations, but to also examine potential careers that allow English majors the opportunity to exercise creative and professional writing.

Creative Writing Offers More Than You Think

When people ask me what I’m studying, I usually don’t specify creative writing. I’ve grown tired of the judgmental looks and comments that many give in response. Creative writing suffers from the stigma that it can only lead to teaching jobs. This notion could not be further from the truth. In fact, the creative writing concentration opens the doors to a wide range of possibilities.

Creative writing teaches you how to be a skillful, observant writer. Students are taught to manipulate language in ways that are visually and audibly pleasing to the reader. While a short story and a term paper are very different in content, they both require skillful writing. This concentration will provide you with such expertise.

There are many careers that can derive from this concentration, including publishing, marketing and journalism—proving that creative writing can be a very practical concentration.

Professional Writing is Not as Rigid as it Seems

The idea that first struck me when I considered a professional writing concentration was that it was boring. I immediately feared that there was no way I could be as creative in my career as I wanted to be. Again, this idea is a false stigma associated with this concentration. There are many ways to be creative with a degree in professional writing.

Professional writing is an interesting concentration because it is essentially applicable everywhere. Students in this concentration will learn to develop skills in technical writing, editing and publishing. These skills are useful both in the print and digital media worlds. Not only can professional writers find work as editors and publishers, but they can work at virtually any company that requires a skilled writer.

The Two Concentrations Can Collaborate

The thing to keep in mind with both of these concentrations is that they teach you how to write well. At the end of the day, it often comes down to how you advertise yourself when you interview for a job. If you can assure potential employers that you have the skills they’re looking for, that’s usually all that matters.

There are some opportunities that allow you to use both of these concentrations at once. For instance, some literary magazine publishers and editors get to enjoy designing the magazine and submitting their own creative work as well. All in all, these concentrations are what you allow them to be; if you really look deep and explore all of your options, there will be something there for you.

The Art of Professional Writing

The Art of Professional Writing

By Mallorie Turner

The term “professional writing” often invites a myriad of questions regarding what the field is about. You may imagine a person sitting at an ill-lit desk, penning legal documents for long periods of time. This was my exact perception of professional writing when I first applied for the concentration as an English major. As I declared my professional writing concentration, I could feel my identity as an artist start to regress. As infatuated as I was with the formalities of business writing, I couldn’t help but see this prospective career as a threat to my creative identity. I soon learned that there is more to this field than what I thought, both visually and rhetorically, and the artist in me still had a chance to strive.

The Ropes of Creating Documents

If you have been a student in one of UAB’s professional writing courses (specifically, Developing Digital Documents) you would know that students learn on the same publishing technologies that major businesses utilize. One of these is Adobe InDesign, which is used to create letterheads, business cards and other professional documents.

Those who have used this software can tell stories of its bugginess, not to mention the fear of misspelled words in the absence of a spellcheck function. While it might be a tedious digital environment, InDesign has always proven useful to the design-focused professional writer.

In a creative sense, InDesign gives the user free range to design a project from top to bottom—from formatting to color scheme. If someone were interested in designing a magazine using their school’s colors, they would have absolute control over the project’s end result. InDesign is a professional writer’s best friend in this regard. The author has creative control over how they would like their idea to be presented to the world in the same way an artist would.

The Importance of a Good Design

Imagine finding out that there is more to fonts than just fun lettering. Fonts have an emotive quality that sets the tone of a project’s design; professional writers have to make conscious decisions about the fonts they use within a document. These decisions tend to be more significant than whether Times New Roman or Papyrus is more fitting.

A font’s case, weight, width and style all factor into whether an audience will be receptive to the document. For example, the wispy elegance of a script font will not have the right impact for a business report in contrast to the stoicism of a sans serif font. In this way, typographic design is as important to a document as the actual content is.

Professional writing requires a person to master many tools and concepts in order for their work to be marketable. A painter would not be successful if he or she dabbled in realism yet was ignorant of the underlying structure of the human form. Likewise, if a professional writer has no grasp of rhetoric or basic document design, they will not survive in the corporate world. Though there is freedom for creativity in professional writing, there is a standard for marketable work.

The Art of Rhetoric

Rhetoric is an art in itself. Philosophers like Aristotle took pride in knowing the heuristics of persuasive diction. Students studying professional writing look to these philosophers to learn masterful rhetoric they use in business settings.

Visual Rhetoric, a professional writing elective, teaches students the importance of how words and images can create a persuasive message. Professional writers learn that a document is only impactful if it is well-prepared and has a rhetorically sound composition.

Conclusion

Taking professional writing classes has shown me that I am in a creatively stimulating field where both rhetorical and artistic skills are appreciated. As a writer, I actively search for more ways to influence readers with my words. Professional writing has given me new opportunities to do so when I create documents with visual appeal. With the support of the UAB English Department faculty, I know that I can make my mark in the job force with both my writing and design skills.

Professional Writing Within Creative Writing: An Interview with Tina Braziel

By Sam Baine

The writing field offers a multitude of paths for English students to take, but it’s at the intersection of these paths that make a writing career so interesting. Professional writing may conjure up ideas of strict rules and a lack of creative control, but UAB alumna Tina Braziel knows that isn’t the case.

After receiving her Masters in English, Braziel taught at UAB as an English professor for a total of seven years. But she “wanted more instruction and time to write,” so she decided to get her M.F.A as well. Between her degrees, it was the Ada Long Creative Writing Workshop that really drew her back to UAB. Now she works as the director of the three-week long workshop, which offers high schoolers the opportunity to work closely with published writers.

The intensive summer program is aimed at those who are interested in creative writing careers. Braziel uses several different methods to reach out to students; she has had to craft an online presence, post on bulletin boards and draft letters and informational cards for teachers. So, while the focus of her career may lie in creative writing, Braziel uses elements of professional writing to represent her ideas.

Braziel also relies on document design “to make clear what is advertised [and] what the classes will offer.” This is especially useful when building a creative platform, as there can be no creative publication without the traditional markers of technical writing like web design and copyediting.

She must also use professional skills for effective communication when it comes to engaging and recruiting students who aren’t considering college, keeping in touch with other faculty members to expand upon enrichment activities and contacting guest speakers and field trip sites.

Braziel’s work isn’t finished with the end of the workshop, though, as she immediately begins prepping for the next one: drafting donation and thank you letters or sending out copies of The Writer’s Block. She uses professional writing to accurately portray the workshop’s purpose and solidify its logistics so everything runs smoothly.

Outside of the workshop setting, professional writing has benefitted Braziel’s creative pursuits. She uses the same learned techniques—like drafting, critiquing, and revising—to promote her own work. Her poetry has been published in many acclaimed journals and her first poetry chapbook was published by Porkbelly Press in 2016. While Braziel never imagined that technical skills would be so closely related to creative work, she has come to find that this intersection is what makes her creative pieces possible.

However, she says that “the process of getting to that point takes more than just creative skill.” Through the ordeal of submitting (and revising and resubmitting) manuscripts, cover letters and pitch letters, creative writing doesn’t get to speak for itself. Writers must do a lot of additional work “to develop a creative style while honing writing skills,” whether that be applying for residencies and fellowships, accurately marketing yourself or pitching your publication.

There is a fine line to balancing creativity with the technical skills necessary to work throughout multiple genres and platforms. Braziel has worked hard to hone a personal professional language, a valuable skill she highly advises for other writers.

Braziel was recently announced as the winner of the 2017 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry through the Fresno State Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing, which awarded her with the publication of her debut full-length book, Known by Salt, through Anhinga Press.

Advice from a Professional Writing Storyteller

Advice from a Professional Writing Storyteller

By Laura Jane Crocker

Professional writers are often labelled as having a certain skillset. Usually, this would imply a background in document design, editing or technical writing, among other things. However, there are plenty of ways that creative writers may find themselves in a career that requires professional writing. Making this transition may not be as uncommon as one would think, and for Brett Bralley, a writer on UAB’s University Relations team, focusing on professional writing has led to a successful career that combines her creative background with practical communication skills.

Bralley studied journalism at the University of Alabama, and her career eventually led to UAB. She works on the content team, which is in charge of creating and editing copies for university initiatives.

“I write a wide variety of content,” Bralley explains. “Sometimes it’s a shorter, dynamic copy for a brochure or a website landing page. And sometimes it’s an in-depth feature for UAB Magazine. All of it is focused on telling the stories of students, faculty, staff and friends of UAB.” Although the art of storytelling is more frequently attributed to creative writing, professional writers like Bralley are often tasked with achieving this goal with limited word counts, focused target audiences and design in mind.

With a creative writing perspective, Bralley has been able to approach the challenges of a professional writing career from a unique angle. “My background in journalism prepared me for almost every aspect of this job. I learned editorial judgement, story structure, how to interview sources, how to always consider my reader, the importance of accuracy and attention to detail, and—of course—how to tell a story in meaningful, effective way,” she says. Together, Bralley and her coworkers implement a diverse set of skills that are fundamental to professional writing.

As opposed to writing careers that focus on churning out content, Bralley is often tasked with considering design. Depending on the project, the design may be created around a copy that has been written, or the content may need to fit a specific layout, and that’s where Bralley must use her judgement to create captivating copies.

“Good writing can be all for naught if the design isn’t there,” Bralley says. “The presentation of the work has the power to entice the reader and make them want to dive into your content. A clean, legible font, a lovely layout and the right medium for sharing your work is paramount to creating quality content.”

But the process is not as strict as one might think. Often, professional writers must be in touch with their creative side to ensure that content is engaging for their audience—this requires Bralley to be adaptable. She explains, “A fun part of my job is that I’m doing all kinds of writing, so I get to exercise all sorts of skills. When I’m writing for a professional audience, whether by crafting an internal newsletter or putting together an email for a source, I think about the most informative and simple way to connect. I want to keep it engaging, but I also want to get the point across quickly.”

When asked if she had any recommendations for young professional writers, Bralley says, “Write as much as you can! Build your portfolio with a variety of work. Take classes or workshops to learn new skills. Connect with a mentor who can give you advice and help you along. When someone edits your work, review those edits and see how you can improve. The more you work at it, the better a writer you can be! And when it comes time to show off your work, don’t be shy.”

Web Design for Creative Writers

Books on a computer — Building an online presence

By Jenna Summers

So you want to write a novel?

You imagine droves of fans lining up in a bookstore waiting for you to sign the crisp new copy of your book. But how will you let your future fans know about your book? This is where professional writing and online content comes in.

But You’re Creative! You Don’t Like That Boring Professional Stuff

Often, creative writing students overlook professional writing courses because they believe that professional writing is boring. In reality, professional writing includes a wide variety of outlets for creative expression including web design and the creation of online content that is complete with eye-catching designs and memorable titles. Not only is professional writing a different way to approach the written word but it is vital to the success of creative writers.

Okay. It’s Not Boring But Why Do You Need a Website?

Imagine that it is your near future. You have finished your first novel and it is brilliant. You are confident that this book will catapult you into international stardom. Then you realize that you do not have an audience and you have no way to build an audience. How will your adoring fans discover your book?

The best solution to this dilemma comes in the form of a website. By creating a website, you will be able to instantly reach an audience from around the world. For more information on the effectiveness of online content in marketing see Six Benefits of Internet Marketing.

Your website can also serve as an extension of your book. For example, it can include information about you as the author or it can even serve as a host for an online version of the first chapter of your book.

Some authors such as J.K. Rowling have even created extensions to their books online. Through Pottermore, Rowling is able to continuously add onto the world that she originally created in the Harry Potter books.

There are a nearly unlimited number of uses that your website can serve. It is only limited by your creativity and willingness to learn.

How Do You Learn to Design a Website?

Web design skills can be learned through a variety of online sources or through in-person classes. There are courses at UAB such as EH 455-Digital Publishing which are extremely helpful in cultivating web design skills.