by Shakirah Dawud

Please welcome guest Lynette Benton, writing teacher, mentor, and fabulous storyteller. 

The six years I spent as a technical writer nearly killed my creative writing career. I managed to publish a couple of personal essays during that period, but it was difficult. For the first time in my life, words didn’t flow with easy speed from my fingers, and I had to make a conscious effort to banish jargon and the passive voice (so rampant in business writing of any kind) from my work.

After my stint in high tech, I became a business and marketing writer. But I was determined not to let my creative writing suffer as before. Though I worked my share of 60-hour weeks as a marketing communications manager, I made it a point to keep the professional writing from squeezing the life out of my creative writing. By doggedly working on my creative writing whenever I had even fifteen minutes to spare, I was able to get more of it published than during any other period up to then.

There are inherent conflicts in the two types of writing, business and creative. Though readers always bring their own imagination to anything they read, business copy and creative writing engage readers through almost opposing means. Each type of writing employs different “voices,” determined by the pace we set and the specific words we choose. But, the copywriter proclaims the point of the copy immediately—in the title, if possible—then, except in the case of (to my mind) those overly long sales letters, usually briefly describes the product or service being promoted and how it will benefit users. Finally, the copywriter includes a clear call to action in the closing.

In creative writing, on the other hand, we invite readers to take a desultory journey of discovery with us, follow our meandering thoughts, then draw their own conclusions, taking from the experience what they will.

What comes first?

Now that I do freelance writing for clients from my home office, I’m pretty strict about keeping my creative writing time inviolately separate from my client work. But, I wondered how other writers handled the various tensions between business and creative writing.

Shari Lopatin: Rogue Writer told me, “I find the mindset for business, marketing, and journalistic writing is different from the mindset for creative work. I hold a salaried position where the majority of my business writing is completed during the day, allowing me free time I can use creatively.

“However, when a freelance job comes along, my free time goes towards that job. Later I’ll spend time on my creative writing. This attitude allows me to put forth my best effort for the paying job.”

Katherine Krige, a writer living in Canada, says she schedules her work-related writing for the daytime, although if she can sneak it in, she also works on her book about her travels through Africa, during the day. Working on her “first loves—poetry and short stories—must wait until after the children are in bed at night.”

But she admits that “sometimes so much effort goes into other people’s words that my own fall quiet by the end of the day.”

I personally tend to inhabit two different writing time zones, so to speak. Typically, my early mornings are reserved for creative writing—before client work (or household chores and errands) impinge on my mind, usurping my creative impulses. Clients get the lion’s share of my attention from 1:00 in the afternoon until after dinner.

But it seems that most writers feel that their creative writing must come after their paid writing. When I tweeted that I was looking to talk to business/creative writers, one writer responded emphatically, “Paid work always comes first.”

“I work in an office all day doing nonprofit writing (fundraising, PR, etc.),” said writer Michele Chiappetta.  “What is very hard is making enough time for my creative writing, since occasionally I also freelance write and edit to make extra money. When it comes down to doing what I have to do to make money vs. something that’s not paying (yet), I pick the money first. I’m single and I’m not rich, so I’ve got to be practical.”

Is Blogging Creative or Business Writing?

While preparing to deliver a lecture about essay writing to a college class recently, I realized that blogging seems to straddle the two types of writing, since blogs are a recent forum for personal essays. My own blog is both an extension of the business and creative writing classes I teach and an outlet for my creative writing.

However, Shari, who serves up posts that seemingly are written with the utmost ease, considers blogging part of her business writing. “Writing blog posts and managing my blog’s accompanying social media takes the business writing mindset. I work on these during the week, while my mind remains in work mode. I reserve my weekends for creative writing.”

Lynette Benton is a published writer and writing instructor. She is the author of Polish and Publish. Don’t forget to visit her blog for more practical and personal writing insights. Contact her at Relief11@comcast.net. 

Photo credit: Katie Harris, courtesy of Flickr, CC 2.0.