Intoxicating
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As I’ve relaunched The Hustle Legacy, I’ve also looked for ways to grow creatively. One way this has manifested in my life was through the form of The Narrative Method - a nonprofit that addresses loneliness through creative expression by hosting weekly zoom writing sessions. After attending a couple of sessions, I became inspired to share the experience with you. I believe cultivating your creativity is a major part of learning how to fully embrace your identity. By showing you parts of my creative process, I hope to inspire you to lean into your own creativity in order to learn more about yourself.
Welcome to The Narrative Method Series - unedited stories, written by me, prompted by my time with The Narrative Method. These articles are meant to be nothing more than to give you a look inside my mind and a front seat to me exploring my own creativity. I invite you to become a part of my process: raw, unfiltered, and always open to interpretation.
The Prompt
Tonight’s writing was based off the imagery of a woman in a warehouse, sitting in front of a couple of paintings of women dancing. This image was prompted with the idea of how sounds and signals hold great meaning in our human experience. The second half of the prompt asked us to respond to the phrase “How did she get the job?”
I added an extra challenge to myself to write a story in theme with this month’s topic - love & dating. Here’s what I came up with:
The Writing
The wind pushed passed my face as I walked back home, as if it was telling me to turn around. As I braced it, something caught my attention from the corner of my eye. An art gallery. Filled with paintings of woman engaged in all sorts of activities.
Tennis.
Chess.
Debate.
Dancing.
It was beautiful - yet, there was something about them that was missing. I couldn't put my finger on it. This convinced me to walk in. As the door announced my entrance with its jingle, I felt a sudden darkness wash over me. Like a sudden weight was placed on my chest.
The more I looked around, the more I realized what was missing. There was no color in sight. The brightest thing in the room came from the burgundy of my flannel. Suddenly, the art gallery felt awfully eerie. Despite every bone in my body telling me to get out of there, something else told me to stay.
This wasn't a typical art gallery.
I began looking at the paintings, observing the women performing each activity. Each painting was done in a different style. Every woman looked different from the last. All shapes, all sizes, all colors... of skin. No other colors.
Yet, despite how different each painting and each woman looked, there was something similar about all of them, something that strung them all together. My eyes landed on the ones of the women dancing. Something about them felt familiar - like I met these women before.
Lost in thought, a man approaches me. "Enjoying the gallery?" he whispers almost menacingly in my ear. It was only then that I noticed we were the only two people here.
I take a step back in discomfort. And to take him all in.
He was dashingly handsome. Tall, definitely over 6 feet. But, the first thing I seemed to notice about him was the cologne that seemed to carry its way to me as I moved away from him.
What was that smell?
It was unlike any cologne I had ever smelt. Smoky... almost repugnant. Yet, I couldn't get enough of it. The more I smelled, the more this scent started to feel like my new favorite cologne.
"I - uhhh..."
"What was it about this painting that caught your eye?" he cuts me off.
"Are you the artist?" I shake my head slightly to regain my wits.
"Yes. In fact, I painted everything you see in this gallery," he prides himself while stretching his arms out as if to show the room.
Doing so, he walked away from me. Too far away from me. I couldn't smell his intoxicating cologne anymore. So, I made my way to him. Casually, of course. "They're... interesting. You could definitely say they caught my eye. On my walk home, I noticed them and felt the need to come in to see what they're about."
"So you live close?" he asked, arching an eyebrow, clearly with intrigue.
"It's a walking city. Close is anywhere."
The Debrief
I found it challenging to relate the prompt to the topic of love & dating. When I finally found my angle, I realized it was loosely based off a book I read earlier this year, Confess by Colleen Hoover. Although that novel was a love story, my writing took a darker tone. I didn’t really know where I was going with it, but the more I wrote, the more sinister the story started to feel. I didn’t know I had this genre of writing in me.
It was an interesting surprise, but a revelation I felt came to me at the wrong time. As we all shared our writing to one another, I realized I steered way too far off from the prompt, never even getting to the second part of it. Listening to everyone else’s stories, they were all so uplifting, sharing beautiful messages of women empowerment and following your dreams. It felt like I did the prompt a disservice by adding my own added challenge to it - like I was forcing the writing to turn into something it was never meant to be.
That’s when I realized that the writing I do for The Narrative Method doesn’t need to relate to The Hustle Legacy’s topic of the month. Doing so was robbing myself of the experience. This wasn’t a writing class (like they reiterate at the beginning of every session). This was a therapeutic activity meant to allow us to explore our own creativity and minds. While I still did do that, I definitely intend to take the prompt for exactly what it is next week, without adding my own rules on top of it. I want to explore my mind without telling myself where it’s supposed to go. Who cares if it doesn’t relate to the topic of the month? It’s still an experience worth sharing.
