Science and Stories

How My Double Life Feeds My Creativity (and how to manage your email preferences)

Like Hannah Montana — the Disney character that was a normal high school student by day and secret pop star by night — I used to struggle with keeping my two identities separate.

Photo by Diane Picchiottino on Unsplash

I thought of science as my serious work, and writing kids books was my fun.

As a geologist and hydrologist, my life was about water quality data, sediment samples, and bacteria. But early in the morning or after dark, I drafted picture books and chapter books about STEM themes, like my Curious McCarthy series about a little girl who wants to be a scientist.

At first I thought these identities clashed — and that is why I used a pseudonym for my children’s writing; I didn’t want colleagues who knew me as a serious scientist to find out about my sometimes silly children’s books.

But I soon realized that each of these identities fed the other. And project management was a key part of the process that helped me get it all done.

• Science Provides the Facts: Every STEM concept—whether it’s about A Little Round Panda’s unique environment or the way electricity works—is a story waiting to be told.

• Imagination Provides the Magic: By stretching my creativity and writing poetic or funny children’s books, I learned to see the lighter side of science. I was able to communicate some of the more serious stuff in an interesting way.

So, I am starting a new area of my Substack that is all about Creativity, Curiosity, and Consistency in writing.

I will still write about Project Management from the perspective of a scientist. But if you prefer to stick strictly to the core project management content, you can easily opt out of these writing updates by turning off notifications for Tory’s Story Lab in your pmlab account settings. Expect to see my updates monthly.