We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alexandra Tennant a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alexandra, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

How did you learn to do what you do? 

All writers start as great readers, and apparently, I started reading in the womb. My mother would read the New York Times out loud daily when she was pregnant with me because someone told her it would build my conversational skills (she is also an avid reader, writer, and former TV producer). She also talked to me a lot; even recording her voice reading books on a cassette tape for my daycare workers to play during the day while she was at work.

Reading always came easy to me (a strength I don’t ever take for granted), as did basic sentence structure and grammar rules. That laid a strong foundation for then being able to express myself through the written word. I always kept a diary and through acting, music, and dance, I was able to learn the fundamentals of storytelling, which is essential in any kind of writing.

As I’ve grown as a writer, increasing the variety of what I read has helped the most in developing engaging work. Studying writers who use everything from sophisticated prose to simple listicles to journalism have all taught me about cadence and style.

I’ve also taken advantage of the immense talent here in LA to study improv comedy writing, and I work with an intuitive screenwriting coach (Scott Rodgers) who really helps to reinforce story structure and supports a practice of writing from instinct over intellect.

By immersing myself in the work of others, I developed my own voice, inspired by the writing I found most captivating.

Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process?

Write more! Diversify what I read, take more chances with writing, and most importantly, put my work out there and receive feedback. Sharing personal work can be daunting, but it’s an essential step to grow and refine your skills. Even though writing is a solo sport, community helps you grow so much. I love platforms like Substack, Medium, and even Instagram to share pieces of work and experiment with what resonates with others.

I would have also created more of my own campaigns early on, and experimented with writing challenges and prompts. While creative writing is so subjective, I think practicing within the constraints of a competition has so many benefits and challenges you to do more with less; less time to waffle on an idea and less outside noise to distract from what you are trying to accomplish. Creatives typically want freedom, but I think having some restrictions around your work creates a great environment for discipline and focus. So often we think writing is just sitting down and doing a brain dump, but our brains need to be exercised in a lot of different ways (like brain cross training!). With more time in the day, I’d just deep dive into the genres I really love and explore a variety of different work.

What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Iteration is very important to me. I call it throwing paint on the wall to see what sticks.

As a multi-disciplinary writer, I found UX writing to be surprisingly challenging. I came to it a few years ago and thought, “how hard could writing 3 words be?” The truth is, writing less is an essential skill, and the most masterful writers often say more with less. For commercial writing (marketing/advertising), I’ve been doing a good amount of community listening around brands, which is so important now as companies continue to move towards more consumer-centric marketing strategies. Being able to keep your finger on the pulse of what is happening online and in sub-communities will only improve your messaging.

I also would have found a mentor so much sooner. I have great advisors now, but mentorship is so important. There were (and still are) so many different roles that require narrative storytelling and solid communications skills that I discovered through trial and error; and a mentor would have really helped accelerate that discovery process.

Alexandra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My career path has been anything but linear, but each twist and turn has fueled a fire within me – a passion for weaving captivating stories. In talent management, I helped launch the careers of aspiring actors by crafting their narratives and personal brands, and learned the power of strategic storytelling and the thrill of transforming creative visions into reality.

This love of stories, coupled with an insatiable wanderlust then led me to luxury travel where I spearhead the creation of immersive experiences for high-profile executives, meticulously planning itineraries interwoven with captivating destination narratives. This adventure has instilled in me the ability to navigate intricate systems, manage a multitude of moving parts, and, most importantly, translate those experiences into inspiring stories. Yet, a yearning for an even more of a creative outlet persisted. This passion for storytelling naturally propelled me towards the world of digital content creation, where I’m no longer a bystander but an active contributor.

This journey has been a constant exploration of fresh ideas and collaboration. My time in each role has been a building block – talent management honed my understanding of audience behavior, marketing sharpened my grasp of consumer psychology, and luxury travel instilled the importance of meticulous planning and the power of narrative. While my path may not be conventional, my diverse experiences have become a wellspring of inspiration and authenticity, fueling everything I create.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I’ve always strived to keep a spotlight on storytelling. Everything is story. Storytelling existed before written language, and will survive well after the AI revolution. It’s how we make sense of the world and it is essential for every industry, creative or otherwise. Stories have so much power to make a positive impact, and that is the through line in all of my work – to continue telling stories that serve as a catalyst for real change.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

For a long time, I held this belief that you can reach a point where you “make it.” This meant that there was no real growth beyond your latest and greatest project; you make something successful and you’re then set for life. The more I studied the artists that inspired me, I quickly realized that there is no such thing as “making it.” Sure, you can have commercial and financial success, but the best creatives are always learning, growing, and challenging themselves. Now, “making it” means being in constant process and asking yourself how you can take your creativity and skills to the next level. The truth is that success looks different to everyone, and the idea of success evolves much like we do. Working hard and protecting my creativity is my current definition of “making it,” and I’m sure that will expand and change as I continue to work on my craft and produce meaningful work.

Contact Info:

• • Website: https://itsalexandratennant.substack.com/
  • Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-mendelsontennant/
  • Other: Subscribe to my freshly launched newsletter at: https://itsalexandratennant.substack.com/

Image Credits
All images taken by Daniel Tennant Photography (www.danieltennant.co)