The life of a writing nomad

ARE YOU COMFORTABLE NOT KNOWING WHAT'S NEXT?

Do you know Heron Preston? He’s a fashion designer with his own popular brand, but let me tell you how he got there.

Heron started at Parsons, which is probably the top fashion design school in the U.S. While at Parsons, Heron started a photography blog simply to satisfy his interest in photography. He kept that blog when he graduated and started working with a creative consulting agency.

With the help of a friend, Heron decided to turn the blog into a photo book that they called The Young and the Banging, and with some of the connections he’d made in Parsons and by attending creative industry events, Heron was able to launch his book at a Nike store. This is all happening in the mid 2000s.

A short while after, Heron was laid off from his creative agency. But because he had that connection with Nike, he was able to secure an interview and within a few months, he landed a job as a marketing specialist and social media director.

Now, Heron lived in New York so he needed to take a second job working at a restaurant to make ends meet. While on shift one day, in walks Virgil Abloh, the popular fashion designer (who sadly past away a few years ago). Heron and Virgil knew each other through each of their blogs. Virgil had a blog named The Brilliance and him and Heron would message their admiration back and forth. So when they saw each other at the restaurant, it was like two friends uniting.

Virgil was already friends with Kanye West at this point, and Heron found himself on tour. While on tour, Heron, Virgil and some other creatives would go to the clubs and DJ the parties. This was just for fun, and they named their crew Been Trill.

They liked the name so they started making merch and Been Trill went semi-viral. However, even though Been Trill was becoming popular, Heron knew that this was just a project. It wasn’t something he was planning to brand himself around forever.

Let’s pause for a second: are you keeping up with how many different creative projects Heron has done so far? He did a photo blog, a book, a release party at Nike, he worked as a creative consultant and marketing specialist, a DJ and dropped merch. And I’m not finished.

Heron would eventually leave Nike to work as a creative consultant for Adidas where he continued his work with Kanye. Since it wasn’t a full time gig, Heron did one-off drops on the side. Basically, he designed whatever creative idea came to his mind, including a racing jacket that really took off.

Then in 2016, Heron had his big idea. He contacted the New York City Sanitation Department (DSNY) and asked if he could remake their uniforms by upcycling their old uniforms. They said yes, gave him the funds to do it, and allowed him to host a fashion show to show off the new collection. The idea was so novel and the designs so on point that Vogue featured Heron in their magazine.

In 2017, Heron finally created his own clothing line.

I’m out of breath just writing all of that. Heron is what I would call a creative nomad. He moves from project to project, none precisely like the one before but still somehow connected. It’s not a progression, per se; not in the linear sense. It’s a far more instinctual, free flowing, nomadic form of creativity that pushes one to be comfortable not knowing what comes next. You’re not chasing anything. Instead, you’re moving where you feel compelled and capitalizing on opportunities.

I’m not sure many of us writers have this mindset or this muscle. We’re typically focused on our aims, almost to the point of becoming narrow. We are authors or we are writers, and our paths have been formed by the industry and our own expectations of what those titles mean.

But what if it wasn’t? What if we freed our minds from whatever path we’re “supposed” to follow? What if we allowed ourselves to shift from creative project to creative project, each time imagining different possibilities. Our minds are so programmed to think straight that we rarely expand our palate; we rarely colour outside of the lines.

Even I catch myself questioning my decisions. I’ve been an editor at two local magazines before starting CRY Mag myself. I built that up (with the help of my creative partner) to nearly 40,000 views/month before shutting that down to focus on WRITERS ARE SUPERSTARS. I’ve done copywriting, I do scriptwriting, I’ve made films and gotten them licensed; all of these are accomplishments to be proud of but the strength of traditional thinking is telling me that these were all just distractions preventing me from becoming a full-time author.

How wrong is that last statement? So wrong. As writers, we shouldn’t be afraid to step out of our boxes and let the wind take us where it may. Because it takes creativity to write, and that creativity can be applied to so many different outlets. Why does that frighten us like it does?

I want you to do something for me. I want you to produce one creative project this year. The only criteria is that this project does not involve your current form of writing. So if you already have a newsletter, you can’t do that. If you’re already working on a book, you can’t do that. I want you to really push yourself to create something new.

And when you create that idea, tell me about it. I bet you already have an idea that’s been percolating in your mind. Can you say it out loud? Can you share it in the comment section of this post? Let’s get outside of ourselves and not be afraid to not follow the designed path.