Hey everyone! And happy Wednesday! How the devil are you? Today I'm sharing my conversation with Chloe from New Girl in Toon. Chloe is a southerner living in the toon. Over on her blog you'll find restaurant reviews and food photography that will make you drool, as well as ideas for day trips, that will get you planning a weekend away to the toon in no time. We chatted, a month or so ago about, about how hard it can be to come up with an original review, the upsides having a none creative day job, and how writing lets you add the personal touch!
Hi Chloe thanks for agreeing to chat with me! So my first question is one I am asking everyone… Tell me what 'creativity' means to you...
Growing up I always thought that being creative meant that you had to be good at arts and crafts but since starting my blog I’ve come to realise that creativity can be found in so many different places. For me it’s in writing and telling stories through photographs. Creativity is being able to express yourself through something that you love.
I love that! I'm always blown away by how much content you manage to create for New Girl in Toon, and Wow 247 too. Do you see writing and photography as your main creative outlet? And how do you always manage to put your own spin on food/restaurant reviews?
Writing and photography are definitely my creative outlets, before I discovered them I always felt like a creative person who didn’t know where their talent was. I really wanted to be able to paint or draw but was pretty useless so I’m very thankful that writing and photography came along. Writing restaurant reviews is so difficult, I do a lot and making each one different can be tricky. I’m no food critic so instead I try to tell entertaining stories about my experience or speak through my food photographs.
I really relate to that not being a food critic thing! I used to write up a lot more reviews than I do now, but I only ever wanted to be positive about places, I think there are so many GOOD restaurants now, that it's the story behind them, or the people there that really makes it, so capturing that can in many ways be a lot harder than just saying how the food tasted!
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Like I said, you create so much, not just for blogging but your snapchat and instagram too. Do you have any routines that help you keep on top of it all/ help you push through even when you're in a bit of a creative rut?
Creating regular content when you have a full time job can be difficult. I always ensure I only snapchat on days when I’m out and about doing something that compliments my blog, I’ll usually snapchat when I’m at an event or having a sneaky look in a new local restaurant. With all of my content I make sure I’m ahead of myself. I’ll write several blog posts or take a few photos for Instagram on days when I’m inspired so I always have content saved up for days when I’m maybe not so inspired.
I don't actually know what you do as your day job, so you may already get paid for your creativity, but if you don't do you hope that one day you will and would that be with blogging?
My day job is very uncreative which can be a little frustrating. I work on my blog and writing for several hours every night because I enjoy it so much, it’s very long hours on top of my day job but hard work definitely pays off. The dream is to be a freelance writer and blogger full time but for the moment I’m concentrating on paying for my wedding.
I am so SO rubbish at creating content in advance! Part of me likes being more instant with my blog because of the type of thing I post but it does mean I go through blogging droughts. I also think that because my job is really very creative, that I don't have any creative energy left when I get home! Do you think that is a bit of a perk to not having a creative day job, that you still have energy and motivation to fill your evenings with something so productive? I know there are actually days where I miss being a waitress, because I would make so much use of my time off with writing, blogging and creating!
Yes, it’s definitely a perk not having a creative job. I have quite a few friends who have creative jobs and are bloggers and they struggle to write in the evenings. By the time I’ve left work I’m itching to do something creative and can happily sit in front of my computer at home for hours.
As you mentioned earlier, blogging isn’t the only thing taking up your time at the moment. You're getting married! And really soon! Have you been creative with your wedding planning at all?
My wedding is only a few weeks away now! The creative elements of my wedding are definitely with the writing and photography (I’ve stayed well clear of creating my own centre pieces or designing invitations!). I struggled to find many readings that I liked for our ceremony so have written a funny poem about our relationship to be read on the day (I really hope people laugh or I’ll be crushed!) and have also loved coming up with loads of visual ideas for the photographs, luckily my photographer has a great sense of fun.
That's amazing that you are writing your own reading and so personal! Do you write much poetry, or work that I guess you would class as more traditional 'creative writing'?
I dabbled a lot in creative writing when I was younger, I used to take a notebook into the playground so I could write stories during my break time and during my teen years I wrote a lot of rather embarrassing fan fiction. Creating stories is something that I’ve always enjoyed and I think if I ever found some spare time it’s something I could get into again.
I have so many ‘If I has some spare time’ things I’d love to do and creative writing is definitely one of them! So finally do you have a golden piece of advice for anyone struggling to embrace their creativity?
Never try and force creativity, if I ever feel stuck in a rut or uninspired I step back for a few days and spend time doing something that I love. I usually find that really helps to give me fresh content and ideas.
Yes definitely! I so often find I need to turn my brain off and on again when I’m in a rut! Thank you so much for answering all my questions, I’ll let you get back to your no doubt huge list of things to do! Oh and I hope you have a gorgeous wedding day!
ps. Chloe is now happily married, so a big congratulations to her and her new husband, Simon! Lots of love from all of us xx
You can find Chloe over at New Girl In Toon, on twitter and instagram. All the photos in this post are taken from Chloe's blog with permission.
ps. Chloe is now happily married, so a big congratulations to her and her new husband, Simon! Lots of love from all of us xx
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