The Online Reflector

University of Indianapolis graduate Ryan Brock used his passion for writing to start a company for creative writers. Metonymy Media is a group of writers who do copy writing for many different companies, including UIndy.

Wade Thiel, a Metonymy Media intern and UIndy creative writing student, works on a project at his internship.

Brock graduated from UIndy in 2010 with majors in philosophy, religion and English. He spent his time after graduation sitting at home or in Starbucks just writing. Like many aspiring writers, he soon realized how difficult it is to make connections and get published.
Brock started a company dedicated to making publishing easier for unknown authors.  In the meantime, he started blogging and interviewing people who were in business, marketing or doing storytelling in any interesting ways. Eventually, Brock made the connection he needed to help him gain experience in the field.
“Eventually, things just lined up for me, and I interviewed the right person that needed some freelance writing help,” Brock said. “As anyone that does freelance writing knows, finding your first job is one the most impossible things to do. Once you do, you are pretty much set.”
Brock began to write about travel insurance. Because of his unique background in literature, his client liked the way he was writing and wanted to give him as much work as he could. The client instructed Brock to hire people with creative writing degrees and teach them things such as blogging.
“I wanted to hire people who were or would be poets, fiction writers and novelists to help them make some type of living off of their writing,” Brock said. “I started Metonymy Media with this in mind.”
In 2011, Brock launched Metonymy Media. His first writer was Scott Blanton,  the first creative writing major from UIndy.  The company now writes about many different subjects including insurance, technology, engineering, education, healthcare and food.
“I love having the opportunity to wake up every morning and learn new stories.  I enjoy working with people doing things I myself will never be doing, and learning how to communicate it, even though I will never be a part of their story,” Brock said.
Current Metonymy Media employee and UIndy adjunct faculty in English Carl Corder also enjoys writing about vastly different subjects.
“One day I might be writing about distribution hubs and the next day about the earth and space department, trying to capture that personality,” Corder said.
Corder has done freelance work for the company for a year. He moved to Indiana to become full time in August. Since working at the company, he has discovered Twitter and improved his writing.
“I learned to get over that fear of a blank page. That is a quality you can use in any type of writing,” Corder said.
Metonymy Media has had many connections to the University of  Indianapolis. According to Corder,  company employees are currently in the brainstorming stage of rewriting the UIndy websites. Many students also are interning with the company.
Senior creative writing major Wade Thiel is a current intern at the company. Thiel started his internship at the beginning of the summer and said he has gained a lot from his experience thus far.
Thiel said that when he started, he was given a topic and told just to sit down and write.
“I really didn’t have a clue what I was doing at first,” Thiel said.“It was just learning by doing.”
Thiel said he was given a lot of freedom. He has been able to write about many different topics,  one of his favorites being travel insurance.
“The only problem is now I have a hundred places I want to go,” Thiel said.
Metonymy Media has given many UIndy students internships with the company. According to Brock, the company will have a few open internships for the spring semester. They are looking for creative and inventive people who are not afraid to try new things.
“We have worked with a lot of interns from UIndy in the past. The ones who are the most successful are the ones who are willing to try new things,” Brock said. “We tell them when you come into this world with rules that you know, [those rules] don’t apply. We have to throw those old rules out the window and create our own. Some people struggle letting go of those rules.”
Corder said that anyone who interns or gets a job with Metonymy Media will walk into a fun atmosphere. He finds the work they are doing valuable because they care about the personality and creativity behind the work that people do.
“People don’t like reading boring writing. When you are trying to get people to engage in your writing you want it to be creative, fun and friendly,” Corder said. “In order to write that way I think you need to establish that community. I think that is something we actually do here.”