kendall tysinger
story
The pandemic caused some major hiccups in my writing career, in more ways than one. When the pandemic struck, I was working as Seattle magazine’s office manager following my completion of their editorial assistantship. I was able to write for the magazine and was exposed to the inner workings of the publication process under the guidance of a whip-smart editorial team. Even though the publication company that owned the magazine was dealing with some financial hardship—just about every print publication was—I felt like my writing career was looking up towards endless potential.
Then March of 2020 happened. The publication company was forced to lay off most of its staff, including myself, leaving only a skeleton crew to keep the magazine afloat until it was eventually bought out by a new owner. But I was out of a job, and with no end in sight to masks, social isolation, and Zoom calls, I wasn’t confident that another dream writing job was going to come along any time soon. I still continued to work on my personal creative writing projects—poems, short stories, unfinished novels. But even though I had all the time in the world on my hands, the monotony of those first few months of the pandemic was incredibly stifling. It was difficult to feel inspired when it felt like life itself was paused. We weren’t going anywhere. We weren’t doing anything. So, with what little creative energy I still had, that’s what I found myself writing about.
A few months later I decided to take a job working on the admin team at a nonprofit preschool, figuring that education might be a more stable, long-term option. But the job ground me down, fast. We were perpetually understaffed, parents were on edge, and I was in charge of enforcing ever-changing health and safety protocols. It left me so emotionally depleted that I stopped writing altogether. Though I still grew professionally in that role, I inevitably regressed artistically.
I eventually decided to leave that role and take some time off. By that point, most people had been vaccinated, mask mandates were dropping off, and we were easing into a new era that had a semblance of normalcy. I realized how far I had strayed from my writing ambitions and was determined to resurrect them. Soon after I landed a role as the Staff Writer & Editor at a local marketing company which lasted just under four years. More importantly, I got back on the writing saddle and had the time and energy to work on my personal projects daily. If there was one good thing that came from the pandemic, it reminded me that even when I try something new and it doesn’t work out, listening to my gut and creative voice will always allow me to carve a new path forward.
biography
Kendall Tysinger is a Seattle-based writer and editor with experience as an editorial journalist, early childhood educator, content marketer, and copywriter. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington’s creative writing program in 2019 where she won that year’s Arthur Oberg Prize for Poetry. She then worked as an editorial assistant for Seattle magazine after college and later as an administrator at a local nonprofit preschool run by Refugee Women’s Alliance. After taking some time off to solo travel around the U.S. and Puerto Rico, Kendall became the Staff Writer & Editor for a lead generation marketing and technology company she where managed the full editorial process for a family of educational websites. This included researching and writing evergreen content, blog articles, and other SEO-friendly web copy designed to inform, engage, build trust, and convert.
When she’s not writing or nose-deep in a good book, Kendall enjoys hiking and camping around the Pacific Northwest, playing video games, traveling, doing yoga, nerding out with Dungeons & Dragons, and performing genealogical research.
