On Transforming My Creative Whims
How the future of the Midwest Creative is shifting
Two things occurred in January of 2023 that made it the most transformative month of my entire life.
First, I began my current job at CultureALL. My employment situation before was bleak. I was saddled with picking up secretarial duties as the company laid people off and I could see pretty clearly there was no path for advancement, a place you do not want to be as a 25-year-old. I came across the job listing for CultureALL on LinkedIn and I felt the same sense of calm I’ve come to know in other moments of my life as fate working without my knowledge; talking to my now husband for the first time, stumbling upon my cats in the last room we walked through in the shelter. It felt just right, a job I knew I could do and I knew I could love. And a year later, that feeling remains true.
(I wrote about my love for my job in this LinkedIn post.)
The second thing that happened in January of 2023 was that I began this Substack.
Sitting at that same dead end job, I was clamoring for any way to use the creative energy I could sense within me but had no understanding of how to access. I reached out to Julie Gammack about attending the Okoboji Writers Retreat again before realizing it began the day after my wedding. That sort of felt like fate too; I could have easily realized the date before I emailed Julie and never sent her that email. Instead, I reached out, and Julie subsequently asked me if I had any interest in column writing.
I joined the Iowa Writers Collaborative, the group of professional writers Julie has gathered and facilitated over the last two years, and found a robust network for my work. For the first time, I feel like I have an actual writing community. I have no idea if I’d have been able to build a community of readers without the Collaborative. I don’t know if I ever would have tried.
This Substack has been the foundation for the longest sustained writing practice I’ve ever had. I’ve dreamed of living what I had called “the writer life” without ever defining what that meant for me. I’d have these bursts of creative energy, type out a few directionless words, and then go back to a life that lacked any creative drive, divorced from any understanding of myself as an artist. Like I had this idea of what a writer should be, but no concept of what I could be as a writer.
Now instead of pining for this ideal, I’m embodying it. I’m journaling constantly. I’m always thinking about the way narrative appears in my life. I’m exercising my curiosity. Instead of imagining the title of “writer” as a place I could end up, I’m realizing it as a continuous practice, a way of being in the world.
It was with this new understanding of what my creative life could look like that I found January to be just as transformative in 2024 as it had been the year before. I’ve grown to realize that what I want out of my creative life cannot be quantified as a single accomplishment, a destination. I now know that what my creative energy craves is the act of leaning into the creative process, embedding this work into my day-to-day rather than checking off boxes on a creative to-do list.
That is to say, I’m less concerned about what type of creative I can become than with the type of creative I am each day.
I now know that what my creative energy craves is the act of leaning into the creative process, embedding this work into my day-to-day rather than checking off boxes on a creative to-do list.
Around the time I connected with Julie, I had been toying with the idea of “The Midwest Creative” being a podcast where I interviewed different creative people about their lives, their work, and their creative process. I figured Substack was a good as platform as any to test out the concept.
My elevator pitch for my newsletter became “Exploring how to live a sustainable, creative life in the Midwest.” While I’m still deeply interested in what it means to be an artist in this region, I’ve found over the last year that I need to shift the focus to ways that I can sustainably write about this idea for a long time. Exploring the “how” of this life is more conducive to profiles of artists, and while I LOVE meeting other creatives (and if you’d like to be featured, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me!), it’s not something I have the time or energy to do on a weekly basis.
Moving forward, the Midwest Creative will be a newsletter exploring my own experience with creativity in the Midwest.
Truthfully, I don’t know yet exactly what this means. I’m planning a strategy day tomorrow where I dig into my own unique point-of-view, uncover the stories I want to tell and the people I want to reach.
An entry in my journal from this week feels like a great place to start:
“What do I have to say?
I believe that the Midwest is brimming with creative talent. I believe we aren’t adequately tending to the creative ecoystem here, but if we did, we would explode into a new stratosphere of artistic output. Everyone has some sort of creativity living in them, and many people don’t know how to acknowledge it, let alone free it. I want to inspire people to let that creative spark out.
I seek to understand what drives creative people, especially in a place like the Midwest. I want to write for myself, to understand why I can’t leave the Midwest and understand what this space could possibly be. I want to share the stories of cool people and help them grow an audience. I want to understand how to drive creativity in myself. I want to land somewhere between learning about other people and understanding myself.
I hope someone walks away from my writing feeling tapped in to the creative pulse of my Midwest.
I think the entire point of this essay is to acknowledge that my unique point-of-view and the stories I want to tell will continue to shift as I write. I know that I want to share more essays and talk with writers in much different ways than I have, and I want to explore my own life in ways that might encourage you to explore your own.
But for once in my life, I feel comfortable with not having the entire journey planned, to lean into possibility and whim and uncover what I find. I hope you enjoy learning with me.
The Midwest Creative is a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Please consider a subscription to my colleagues’ work to support storytelling across the state of Iowa. All of these authors provide content for free, with paid subscription options. Pick one or more, and help sustain this movement.
You've hit upon your creative niche! I believe the Midwest has a lot to offer and I love to share that view with others around the world. Exploring your own experiences as a creative in the Midwest is a great way for you to go. Some people feel like they can't survive as an artist in Iowa, but you don't have to live in some grand city, or near editors or agents to be successful. Especially now with the internet so accessible to us. I look forward to more of your columns!
Thank you so much!