Embrace Your Love of Variety
Why niches feel like nowhere
Too often as creators, we’re told to do one thing and stick to it, or pick one style and not veer away from it. We’d have missed out on the awesome creations of many brilliant artists, writers, and inventors if they had listened to that advice.
Nature, on the other hand, is not afraid of variety. The vast array of flowers, the myriad bird species, the sheer creativity of human costuming in a Halloween parade (or mask designs in the coronavirus pandemic) all serve to remind us of the wonder of the variety in creation.
Niches are Limiting
Shutting off pieces of oneself just to fit into someone else’s limited version of what a human can be simply doesn’t make sense — and yet this is a prevailing idea in the realm of Internet, art, and business. While claiming a niche can be helpful to get paid, it can squeeze you into a box that you eventually outgrow.
Change is natural, necessary, and part of human evolution. For the first ten years of my career, I was a researcher and analyst. Eventually, that grew into writing because I had to write about my research findings. After about six years of writing about internet trends and online advertising, I transitioned into writing about recruiting and human resources, which I found much more rewarding. I also write memoir and personal stories, and like a lot of writers, I write about writing.
Somehow Internet marketing culture has taught us to simplify into one-dimensional beings (with a hobby thrown in for good measure) as if we are brands. But humans are so much more complex than brands. There are 70 trillion unique cells in your body existing in a particular time and location where no other human happens to be. You are the only collection of those particular cells in your location, reading these words on that device. You are so much more than whatever label you picked(or someone picked for you). You are a miraculous collection of experiences, hopes, fears, and desires. In other words, you are limitless.
How writing helped me put varied interests together
I made the above illustration in a moment in which I was contemplating all the art and writing projects I’m engaged in. My creative activities include writing, drawing, sewing, and making patterns, gifs, art, and illustrations. My day job is mostly writing, but I’m continually fascinated by the range of topics I can be paid to write about. Simply put, I delight in variety. I couldn’t, and don’t want to, do the same things all day, every day.
The key to coming to peace with my varied interests is knowing that the essence of me is included in everything I do. Whether it’s writing or design, sewing or painting, cooking or decorating my home, there’s an essence of me that runs throughout my work.
For most of my career, I kept personal interests separate from professional ones. At some point, this started to hurt. I acted like a corporate stiff in one area of my life and a joyful, spontaneous creative person in another. I had a professional website and a personal website. Writing has been the bridge that finally allowed me to put them together. When I began writing what I was personally interested in and combining it with my artwork, I found a new path. Then, I wrote an ebook about the process of what I get paid to do in the corporate world (and designed the cover), but I needed a place to put it. I was determined, once and for all, to be one person with one website.
When the solution to my varied narrative came to me, I was thrilled. The corporate experience offers credibility to my ebook. The art offers a refreshing break from verbal focus. Finally, I made a digital space for all of me (and deleted my professional portfolio site).
How could you bring your interests together?
The skill of writing allow us to express anything, including our hesitations, fears, and passions. Can that be the thread that will help you tie it all together?
