As the editor of my college newspaper, I’ve had a lot of time recently to ponder my life and what it takes to keep going. And the jury’s not too happy.
I’ve been herding a large group of cats and I’ve got the scars to prove it. I’m not even sure my medical insurance covers this.
All writing, is not the same. Maybe you’ve written a book review for your blog or an ”A” term paper for a Sociology or Poly Sci class. You might harbor a secret from the world that you are the next Stephen King or Jennifer Weiner (chic lit). You can even line your shelves with Literature awards. But in all these cases, we’re compairing apples to oranges.
Gray Cat
If you haven’t written and published in a newspaper, you haven’t written and been published in a newspaper. Maybe you want to learn to write for a newspaper though your feelings get hurt easily. Quit now. Yes, you. Run away!
My first foray into Journalism happened when I was a high school freshman. Writing was the furthest thing from my mind. My Mom insisted that I join the staff because she thought it get me out of my shell; make me go out and talk to strange people I didn’t know.
Well, the first try was a disaster. The teacher expected me to go out and get ads. Anybody who knews me then, knew that I would’ve had a better chance joining Fleetwood Mac. So I dropped that class quick!
The next year my family moved out of town so I went to a new school where the advisor didn’t breathe a word about those nasty ads. So I stuck around long enough to get out of my own way and learn to write. But it was a tearful lesson in squelching my ego.
I don’t know how many times I showed my stories to the editor before she quit marking up my paper. That page looked like a schematic drawn in the dark by a crazy person when she got done with it. I cried. And cried some more.
But I wouldn’t give up. I knew eventually that I would get it. I was smart and I just kept trying. Most times I didn’t even understand what I’d done wrong. I heard the words of the advisor and the editor but I just couldn’t understand what they were asking me to do.
I kept plugging along in the newspaper writing class and eventually, I got it. I got it so well, that when any story came up that nobody else wanted, I took it. I wrote so many stories that they made an award for me: “The Most Contributions.”
That award was the first I’d ever recieved and the one that made me most proud.
Now, with three years of Journalism behind me, I sign up at Gavilan College. I know about newspapers, I’ll take ‘em by storm I thought. Wrong!
After reading my first story, the student editor said, “I suggest you take Logic and come back here. I don’t know what you are trying to say in your story.” I didn’t get it. I was a star in high school and suddenly I couldn’t write?
I cried when I signed up for Logic. And I cried when I dropped the class. I figured I lacked the logic to understand a Logic class. But I wouldn’t give up Journalism. I continued to turn in stories, on deadline. In addition, I kept working hard in my newspaper writing class.
And eventually, my stories got marked up less. Then one day, my story was hardly written on at all. I was so thrilled. I finally got it!
Thank God I stuck it out. Nobody had a personal vendetta against me. Everyone knew what they were doing and what they were trying to show me. Had I not removed my ego, I never woud have learned.
Different stories call for different word length. Different tones are also used. It isn’t personal if you are assigned a 700 expose’ and someone else is asked to do a 500 personal profile.
We need to tell a story in an economy of words. People’s attention spans are shorter all the time. You might be proud you took up 1000 words to tell a story that could be told in 400 words. But how you will you feel if the majority of readers don’t finish reading because they feel too lazy?
I rest my case.
triciachambers
