Writing my biggest love hate relationship yet. I liked writing and the idea of being able to show my ideas. However, there were too many rules too many styles that in many cases it was too overwhelming to even start. So much like other writers I struggled with the beginning, and thus I struggled with understanding my own writing identity and style. I have now created a few different projects that have helped guide my identity.
When writing this review, I assumed I had to write in a formal general style. I was withholding a lot of my internal monologue, preventing it from infiltrating my supposed formal writing. However, when I tried writing in this manner, I realized I wasn’t technically giving an honest review. It was sounding boring to me, and I felt like you would never be able to tell I wrote this. So, I decided to just let my internal monologue out and write in a more casual way. I attacked the page with my own thoughts, just letting it out. I used storytelling elements in my review like adding witty comments and having a circle around moment. I ended up pretty satisfied with this project and based a lot of my future writing on this style.
Graphics is something I’ve always been interested in but never really tried it. So, I was pretty excited to do this project where I had to create an infographic on any topic I wanted. Since I had currently been hung up on Horchata, I thought it would be fun to see if I could do something on that topic. I went in thinking it would be easy but there ended up being so many aspects and characteristics you have to consider. Layout, color, writing, and images can completely clash if not in good harmony. When creating it, again, I decided to just attack it. Go based off what the initial image in my head was and not what i thought other people expected it to be. After receiving feedback from my peers, I created a final version which when I then compared it to the initial version, I came to respect and realize the difficulty of graphic design. Much like writing there are also guidelines, which you can tweak for your own personal style. And I found my style to be surprisingly vibrant and I bit chaotic.
Attacking -> The result
My professional identity has been developed purely based on attacking. This is a new technique that may prove to be my most successful technique in attempting to discover my style. Instead of waiting around, staring at the ceiling for hours until a single line or idea came to me, I just started writing. Of course this was a very difficult process as I struggled to understand and further develop my writing. Just because something’s usually written or done in a certain style doesn’t mean I should back away and be insecure of my own style. A piece of us can always be in our projects no matter if you’re making a short story, review, or graphic design. So, through attacking my writing, I have learned my professional identity is fluid, colorful and should be fun for all.