As a public relationships professional, I’ve helped edit and write numerous thought leadership articles for clients, but until creating Brain Ink back in 2015, I’d never published anything online before that I’d put my own name to. Writing for public consumption is still more than a little intimidating. Whether I have the potential for 10 readers, 100, or 10,000, there’s the immense pressure to write interesting material and to KEEP DOING IT.  I wish I had an army of editors to tell me what’s working and what’s not. And, of course, to make sure I keep doing it.

To start with, I should tell you about Brain Ink and the reason for its existence.

When I originally put together this blog, it was an assignment for a certificate class on social media for business. We were instructed to pick a topic and at the time I chose “post-graduate life” since I was barely a year out of undergrad, and it’s what I had the most to talk about. It also helped me process the abrupt end of a 20+ year school career, and offer advice to others going through the same transition. But I left myself room to talk about other things that mattered to me, knowing that one day I’d get back into writing fiction more seriously and want to try to publish a book.

Four years ago, when I was sitting on my bed trying to come up with a name for this blog, it kind of just occurred to me what it had to be. There weren’t any clear paths in my thinking process to show how I reached the answer. It was a gift from my brain. (If only the titles for my fiction writing projects would come to me like this!)

It’s been a long time since I’ve written about post-graduate life. And I’ve since taken down most of those posts, because this isn’t going to be that kind of blog anymore.

When the post-grad iteration of this blog fell silent, I took back up one of my great loves — fiction writing. And now I have several finished and work-in-progress projects to show for it. I once thought I only had one story in me, but now I’m learning that’s not true.

So why Brain Ink?

I like to think of Brain Ink as the tangible “stuff” the mind produces and leaves behind. The things we create and put out there in the world. It’s the product produced by inspiration and mental perspiration.

Brain Ink could be anything from a mathematical equation to a painting; the remnants of a 3,000 year old civilization to a family recipe passed down generation after generation. It can even be the 10 sentence story you wrote as a kid about Foo-Foo the dog’s adventures to wonderland.

Your greatest asset is your Brain Ink. It’s your survival kit, your key to success, and potentially your source of purpose and happiness in life. It’s the mark you leave behind.