How My Corporate Job stimulated My Passion for Fiction writing

Thirteen years in the corporate world have been a fascinating journey, filled with deadlines and technical jargons, but what I never expected was that this environment would plant the seed of fiction writing in my mind, eventually leading me to hang up my corporate boots and embrace writing full-time. It's been ten years since I made the switch, and even today, I look forward to each day spent weaving plots and developing characters. I loved my role as a Corporate Communication and PR professional, which I started as a part-timer and eventually transitioned to full-time. 

One of my key responsibilities was curating content for SPIVibes, our company’s monthly newsletter. The biggest challenge? Convincing my techie colleagues, who weren’t exactly wordsmiths, to contribute articles. As Editor-in-Chief, it was my job to make their technical content more engaging and interesting. Filling eight pages every month was a constant challenge. We decided to introduce a section dedicated to birthdays and anniversaries, but as the company grew, we had to discontinue this due to the sheer number of employees. Every month, I found myself collecting materials, following up with people for articles, and working under tight deadlines to ensure the newsletter went out on time. And if the news wasn’t there? I had to create it. 

Apart from the monthly newsletter, I took care of internal communication, sending out press releases, organizing press conferences, arranging media meets with the top bosses, events, quarterly All Heads meet when the top brass visited our India office. It was through this constant exposure to employee interaction, content creation, striving to make it both interesting and informative, that the seed for storytelling was planted. Over time, I found myself observing people more closely, trying to understand their unspoken and unnoticed motives. This curiosity led me to write my first short fictional story. I shared the first two chapters with Michelle, a colleague from the admin and purchase department. From that point on, every time we met, she would ask, “When are you sharing the next chapter?” So there was an audience—someone wanted to read what I had written so I wrote. 

Over a period of time, I realized I enjoyed fiction writing more than reporting facts. The office was a goldmine of stories—ambition, friendship, gossip, office politics, affairs, jealousies, and the intricate web of relationships that made the workplace so dynamic. Every office conversation, every heated discussion, every quiet moment in the conference room, and even those awkward exchanges were rich with potential subplots for my stories.

Note to myself: Observe situations, observe people closely, understand their hidden motivations, jealousies, office gossip, look out for conflicts in personalities, and give wings to your imagination.