It all started when I was 10 years old. I remember reading ahead every English chapter ahead because I was mindlessly bored with the time it was taking for the teacher to get there. Once I finished all my lessons, I would borrow English textbooks from higher classes to pass my time in class. I remember visiting the library and sitting there until closing time to finish a book because 10-year-old students weren’t allowed to check out a book.
As the years went by, I only grew more engrossed with stories around me. I read everything I could, irrespective of the language. My first encounter with content creation happened when I was 13. Every class was supposed to submit a creative for the Annual School Year Book. I was tasked with the responsibility of writing a poem for the yearbook. While I hesitated in the beginning, the moment I put pen to paper, the words flowed naturally.
The creative I submitted garnered appreciation from the headmaster herself. This incident prompted me to begin writing. I slowly started writing, short poems at first, rhyming them carefully to bring the flow. I then ventured into prose. When I encountered a block, I took the help of my teachers to understand how to proceed further.
My biggest challenge, however, came in the form of stage fear. While my writing skills improved, my ability to present my content in front of an audience took a backstage. I choked every time I was called to speak in front of the class. Before I could work on my orating abilities, I left school and my journey with content came to an abrupt end.
It was only 2 years later I started re-discovering my passion for writing. During college, I was part of the entrepreneurship cell that helped many college start-ups get funding. We worked with various industrial pioneers to organize events where budding entrepreneurs could pitch their ideas and get funded. As a part of the digital marketing team of the E-Cell, I was in charge of creating content for social media, including Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Additionally, I helped design the posters to promote the event and wrote introductory speeches to present the dignitaries. Through E-cell, I was introduced to other writers who helped me gain a perspective on my writing style. We met every week to discuss the projects we worked on for the week and edited each other’s work. I finally had a community that had my back and pushed me to work harder.
Another incident that gave me confidence as a writer happened during my final year of college. As the head of the marketing team of the E-cell, I was entrusted to promote the event “SHE” that was being conducted on Women’s Day. It focused on throwing the spotlight on the women of my college and their skills. We had more than 50 stalls set up, each focusing on a different skill. The juniors were assigned offline promotions.
However, due to the hectic schedule, they couldn’t manage to complete the task. My fellow marketer and I, along with two juniors, sat overnight and devised 35 copies to promote the event “SHE”. We wrote the copies on cut cardboard boxes and hung them up on trees, walls, and any place that people would notice. The copies helped generate mouth publicity and the event was a success. While I always believed in my abilities to produce compelling long-form content, it was that event that portrayed my skills as a copywriter.
Until that point, I pursued writing only as a passion. It was something I did for myself. My shift to taking writing as a career was purely an accident. I was initially selected to work as a digital marketing executive for a reputed bank. However, I was transferred to sales the first week of my joining, which left me frustrated and unsatisfied. I suddenly came upon a Whatsapp status of my collzege senior that read “Content Writers Needed”. I took that as a sign and immediately messaged her, expecting nothing. As luck would have it, I got selected for the position and thus began my journey as a professional content writer.
As the only writer at the company, I was responsible for creating website content, blogs, social media posts, copywriting, and more. Not only did the job allow me to get a taste of different forms of content, but it also helped me meet several pathbreakers of the edu-tech industry. Over the course of my career, I had the opportunity to work with content across industries. Apart from Edu-tech content, I worked with digital marketing, media, real estate, tech, finance, food, and social media. Through free-lancing, I worked to improve my skills and increase my portfolio.
As an avid reader, I read everything I find interesting. This habit of mine came to the rescue every time I ventured into a new type of content. I even had the opportunity to try copywriting for a while and I worked with YouTube creators to increase their reach and followers.
Professionally, content was my moneymaker. However, personally, it was something that came to me as naturally as breathing. As a young girl, I have vivid memories of seeing my father always with a book in his hand. In the mornings, the daily paper took its place, however, the lazy afternoons were filled with his books. My grandma sat us all down( my siblings and I) and narrated stories to calm us down and get us to eat. It was a ritual we loved and follow to this day.
My biggest influence and inspiration are the Telugu teachers of my school. To prevent our lazy heads from falling asleep during the lessons, they acted and enacted plays to make things interesting. They encouraged us to write essays using our own heads instead of rote learning. In the hours we found ourselves amid boring sessions, they would simply shut the books and narrate to us a part of their life. My school was the place where the storytelling bug bit me. I participated in plays, attended several quizzes, and worked on several dramas due to the encouragement of my teachers.
As a child, it was always fascinating to watch people weave stories. No story sounded the same. Even the well-known Ramayana, sounded different when told by a different person. Everyone added their own magic to the story. Watching this magic captivated me and somewhere, deep down, pulled me towards the field of storytelling.
My most memorable experience as a storyteller came when I worked with a charity organization in Hyderabad. Every weekend, the team collected excessive food, books, clothes, or anything anyone could spare from hostels, hotels, homes, and events and distributed them to the nearby slum. During one such visit, we went to a slum that had a lot of kids, all of whom depended on brutal means to get by. None of the kids attended school, so our task that day was to get them interested in joining the school opened by our organization.
However, it was proving very difficult since they didn’t know any life other than the one they were currently living. School wasn’t something that fed them. After nearly an hour of gentle persuasion and defeat, we began distributing the goods. A small kid approached us and started helping us distribute. Without any prompting, he began telling us about what he does and everything he sees during his day. The moment he was done, another kid came up to us and started going on about his day. Slowly the kids gathered around and started speaking to us like we were a part of their community. This went on for a while.
Once the distribution was done, we made space for ourselves and sat there listening to them.
Slowly, I began adding tidbits of my life into the conversation, every chance I got. I then began narrating the stories I heard as a kid, from my father, grandmother, and my teachers. I re-enacted the parts just like my teachers did and the kids listened uninterruptedly, fascinated by elephants, kings, and the evils beyond their comprehension. The moment a story was done, they asked for more. It was well into the evening by the time we left.
Even though it was a long shot, we gave the address of the school and urged them to go there if they were interested in listening to more stories. To our pleasant surprise, most of them turned up and gradually enrolled to study.
The art of storytelling is what sustained us over the centuries. When there was nothing, stories prevailed. They were passed down from generation to generation, binding us all with an invisible string. Being part of this field allows me to carry the stories forward by pouring a little of my heart into them and making them my own.
Despite the different types of content I create, they are all, at their core, storytelling.
Gmail :- greeshuangel.45@gmail.com