My writing responsibilities (and yes, I do call them responsibilities because any art is a discipline, therefore you must train yourself in an Obi Wan-esque fashion to stay dedicated to your craft) include…
journalism (freelance and for my job at Magic City Post)
diary (every day)
pen pals (I’ve got two. Katherine with a K and Catherine with a C. You could say I have an Abundance of Katherines. Get it? Any John Green fans out there? I digress…)
this blog (haven’t been too good about that lately… *winces uncomfortably*)
my novel (still very much a work in progress, but moving steadily along)
submitting my writing (while that’s not exactly writing in itself, it still takes awhile and is necessary. Just like editing is part of photography.)
poetry (I realize I’m not the best poet. But I still chug away at it.)
So yeah. I love it all. I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything else. Still gets a bit time consuming though.
And I find myself a rather distracted person…
I don’t know what it is! Some days I sit down to work on my novel and I suddenly feel this insatiable urge to reorganize my closet or vacuum the floors or color coordinate my books or play my guitar that I haven’t touched in 3 years or look up grad schools that I’m at least two years away from applying to.
Yep. Such is my life.
So I ask you… Do you distract yourself with meaningless, mundane tasks? If so, how do you prevent yourself from digressing completely into some black hole oblivion? I need to know your secret…
I saw this when I logged on to Goodreads today. I was curious to see where journaling ranked. That’s of course what I voted for.
I posted this purely for a matter of interest. I realize that polls are not accurate because they’re voluntary response and cannot target a representative sample of the overall population. [nerdy disclaimer]
I want to hear! Tell me about your favorite used bookstore!
My personal favorite is 2nd and Charles in Birmingham, AL. It’s massive and I can’t leave without spending at least $15, but that will buy you a surprising lot there…
And if you’re familiar with the southeastern United States, feel free to recommend me bookstores! My overflowing shelves and I would greatly appreciate it.
So today in Journalism discussion, we reviewed Citizen Journalism and its positives and negatives.
Citizen journalism is when any public citizen collects, analyzes and shares what they write or report. For example, anyone with a camera phone who films a riot outside of a school. Apparently,…
I personally think citizen journalists are important because journalists can’t be everywhere at once. However, I think citizen journalism should be purely circumstantial—if you happen to be in a place where something noteworthy is going on, document it. But I don’t think citizen journalists should go out seeking to cover news and reporting it as if they are a verified news source.
No, not just anyone can be a journalist. Legitimate journalists have rights and laws that protect them and their sources so they can do their jobs. Average citizens, including citizen journalists and bloggers, do not have these rights. For example, journalists working for a recognized media outlet can conduct anonymous interviews for that media. This is essential for politics in particular. But if a citizen journalist attempts to conduct an anonymous interview, they cannot guarantee their source anonymity. If, for example, that source was wanted by the police, the police could contact the interviewer and force the person to disclose the source. The police cannot force a legitimate journalist working for a recognized media outlet to disclose their sources.
All in all, I think citizen journalists should only push the content they collect if it is absolutely necessary for others to be made aware. Otherwise, let journalists do their jobs, and if these citizen journalists care so much about informing the public, they should apply to journalism school or get a job with a recognized media outlet.
Alright! I get it… I’ve kind of dropped off the blogging map a bit. BUT I do intend to win your readership back with these exciting tales!
So tales first… When I have not been in the office writing, I have been out of the office searching for stories, interviewing people, or attending awesome events around town!
Some of my adventures in journalism thus far include:
Climbing through the window of an abandoned bingo hall in search of a story.
Going in (what I thought) was an abandoned club in search of a story and being cornered by two (surprisingly friendly) pitbulls and a lady with a thick Chicago accent (I’m in Birmingham in case you don’t know).
I’ve found myself at an Alabama Shakes concert!! (Seriously, you HAVE to check them out).
I’ve found myself dancing in the street with my editor to music that sounded like Skrillex and Bob Marley had a lovechild. But it was with wireless headphones, so I feel kind of sorry for the people who couldn’t hear anything and did not understand our elation. If you haven’t been to a silent disco, GO.
I got to speak on digital media at a high school journalism club meeting.
I got to visit an urban farm and pet chickens.
I met a fantastic improv comedy troop and have been going to their shows. (I’d also quite like to go on a date with a particular member of the group, but… that’s a different story).
I got to interview James Spann! (Y’all Alabama folk know he’s awesome.)
I went to an undocumented youth rally and witnessed members of The Anonymous Collective save a teenage girl undocumented youth from being hurt by a crazy crackhead that strangely resembled DMX.
So I’ve covered the “being social” part. Now on to the “existential crisis”…
I should preface by saying that a lot of my friends are graduating in the next month, so they’re all freaking out about what they’re going to do with their lives. But who hasn’t had a day like that? I’d say that unless there’s something, like graduation, closely pending you tend not to suddenly have existential crises at inopportune times.
I’m about to finish my junior year of undergrad and I’ve already planned to take a year off before grad school, so I’ve got at least 2 years to decide whether I want to be a journalist or a novelist. Therefore, I was not expecting existential crisis today.
I should also preface by saying that I don’t think existential crises are bad. Quite the opposite actually. But I’d say if you’ve got 2 years to decide something about your future, you probably want to make an appointment with a career counselor or a mentor or something and plan to have your existential crisis with that person. I didn’t plan mine today, but it happened…
My editor (who is seriously the coolest person I know) asked me to write an editorial piece on my experience at the undocumented youth rally. It was a powerful thing that profoundly affected me. So when she gave me license to do an editorial, I lost myself.
I wrote two pages of riveting flowery prose. I wanted the reader to feel the pain the undocumented youth felt of being separated from their families, forced out of school and work, told they could not go to college despite being top of their classes, having to live in hiding for fear of being deported, and how they just wanted an education and the same rights as other Americans because they’d been here since they were 3. They said when they heard the “Star-Spangled Banner” they thought it was their country’s national anthem. As far as I’m concerned, it is.
So I wrote her what is essentially a politically motivated powerful short story. Well, that’s great if you’re writing a novel, but it’s not what you need for journalism. When I saw her edits, I could hardly believe it was the same piece. Drastically different, but much better for journalistic purposes.Then she asked me…
“Do you want to be a journalist or a novelist?”
Being asked that in itself is a crisis because I’ve been asking myself that same question pretty much all my life, but I’ve asked myself nearly every day, multiple times per day, for the last 3 years. I kept thinking I’d get some epiphany and I’d suddenly know what my writing destiny is. But I haven’t. Not yet anyway.
She asked because I’m currently going to a small private school that doesn’t have a journalism major or minor. There’s only one journalism class and the college paper. She said if I wanted to be a journalist and I knew that for sure, I should probably transfer to an undergrad school that has a competitive journalism program.
This scares me for 2 reasons. One, I was not planning on moving out of state for another year at least. I’ve just now got to where I really, really like Birmingham. The other is because I’ve only got one year of college left. If I transfer, all the work I’ve done my junior year won’t count for anything.
BUT if I do decide on journalism and I don’t transfer, the whole English degree won’t do me much good at all. She was telling me how journalism schools are reluctant to take English students because it’s so hard for them to separate their journalistic voice from their novelist voice. I can relate to that…
So I’ve got a lot to think about… It’s definitely good to think about it, I’d just been having one of those weeks were I was kind of distracted from school stress and messing up an array of small things that had begun to accumulate and seem much larger in my head, so I probably didn’t take it as well as I should have. Although I know she’s right.
And that brings me to the final part, the “coping with the symptoms of pursuing an English degree” part…
When I started my internship about 3 weeks ago. I didn’t really know what to expect. I know the Magic City Post (magiccitypost.com) was online only, so I knew I’d be learning social media and websites. That’s been more interesting than I had originally thought! I never really pictured myself as much of a techie, but I’m seriously getting into it!
Plus there’s the writing. In case you can’t tell, I’m certainly more Faulker-ian than Hemingway-esque. I’m working on it… My method for writing an article has always been to write it all out then pare it down. Sure it works alright, but it takes a long time. Not exactly marketable.
So that’s basically what I’ve been doing and what’s been on my mind lately. And that doesn’t even include school stuff, which entails a lengthy talk with my fiction professor about how I should submit to literary magazines because I’ve got good stories. I’ll detail that in a later post, as well as an album titled “Adventures in Journalism: Photographic Evidence.”
she didn’t think I’d take it so literally. There are times when I worry that my brutal honesty might not set me free in a positive connotation of the phrase, but rather the truth might turn me loose or kick me out of whatever I was in.
Well, we’ll see.
I remember how I got my first journalism internship. I was ranting to my creative mentor about the publication. I told her, “It pains me to read it! They clearly don’t spell check. I counted twelve errors in the last sports section alone. And I don’t evenreadthe sports section. I just glance over it to see if I recognize anyone’s name. They need to hire someone to come in and proofread. Hell, I’ll do it for free if they’d have me!”
I didn’t realize one of my creative mentor’s closest friends was a reporter at said publication.
I saw my creative mentor two days later. “So I talked to my friend _______ at _________ News. She said the editor wants to meet you. He said to ask you to drop by after work one night with some writing samples.”
I was horrified.
But I did it and it turned out to be a great experience. I met one of my closest friends there (and if said friend is reading this, he needs to update his own writing blog! *cough cough*).
That incident of my blatant honesty turned out well.
So I’ve decided to chance it again. I want to be on the editorial staff of my college’s newspaper. The application included an essay section. The essay was supposed to answer two questions: 1) Where do you believe your strengths lie, and how can they be used to better the paper? and 2) When was a time you have failed or missed a deadline, and what do you think you could have done differently?
Note that neither of those two questions encourages ranting. But I believe that you have to make yourself stand out if you want to get anywhere in life. So I answered the essay questions, but used them as a platform for my rants.
I’ll post it below. Tell me if you think I went too far…(I intentionally left out the second essay’s answer because it wasn’t that interesting.
One of my main strengths is organizational ability. I like to plan out articles with plenty of notice and assign them accordingly. It’s important that the writers in your section know when their deadlines are and that they can come to you for guidance, instruction, and ideas. There should be a hierarchy of professionalism.
Part of organizational ability is also understanding that the publication will only be as good as the team that puts it together. The editorial staff has to be a cohesive team where everyone works together. That means getting things done on time, and not being afraid to ask for assistance should something prevent a task from being completed in a timely manner. The integrity of the publication should not be compromised over someone’s personal matter or failure to budget time accordingly.
There needs to be a clear delegation of responsibilities. For example, when there’s a deadline to apply for an editorial position for The Hilltop News, someone should have taken to initiative to have a campus-wide email sent out instead of leaving it for word of mouth or for people to happen upon on the website.
I feel that the paper should also be more involved in SGA. Because SGA funds The Hilltop News, I feel that at least one member from the editorial staff should be at every SGA meeting. Based on articles in the News section and the Letters to the Editor in the last issue, there is clearly bad blood between the two that needs a transfusion. The Hilltop News needs SGA’s funding for its existence, so I believe the paper should be more careful about printing inflammatory remarks about them, and should include the SGA meeting minutes in a section on the back of the paper. This would also encourage students to become more involved in the decisions that affect them and give the paper plenty of topics to cover.
I also think The Hilltop News website needs work. First, few students read it. Most rely on the print edition. There’s nothing wrong with that, but because things can be uploaded to the website immediately, it should, in theory, be even more reliable than the print edition. The website could serve as a forum to foster constructive dialogue. All print articles should be uploaded to the site and all articles on the site should end asking readers a question to facilitate discussion. The website needs to be more engaging. After the site is improved, a weekly email, like the ones for the Monday Morning and Student Link, should be sent out for The Hilltop News. The paper also needs to make better use of its social media outlets. I suggest adding the position of Social Media Editor.
Lastly, actions need to be taken to change student opinions about The Hilltop News. To be blunt, many students think the paper is a joke. I can’t help but think that comes from the obvious lack of organization and less than newsworthy articles written. I want The Hilltop News to be a publication that I can be proud to put on a resume, and I believe it can easily reach that point if there was more dedication and openness on the part of the paper’s staff. If there needs to be a co-editor for every section, so be it. If there is anything feasible that will help the integrity of the paper, do it.
I’m not trying to imply that I’m the solution to the paper’s problems. I’m not—no single person is. It takes more than one person, no matter the level of dedication, to run a paper. However the paper’s team, including writers, faculty, and editorial staff, needs to have a vision for its progression and be dedicated to making that vision happen in a realistic manner. I have a vision for The Hilltop News and I have experience in working with the problems I’ve stated.
As you may or may not know, on March 28, Adrienne Rich, one of the most prolific poets of the 20th century passed away. Not only was she a poet, but an activist, particularly for women’s rights.
This is my eulogy to her. Although I did not, I felt that I knew her very personally.
I remember the first time I read an Adrienne Rich poem. I was in Intro to Creative Writing my freshman year of college. I was in a strange place in my life. I’d just broken up with my long time high school boyfriend and found that I was becoming a person entirely different than I ever imagined I’d be.
As part of that, I suddenly had a need for attention. Before I’d always been the girl behind the camera, behind the spiral notebook, behind the group of people enjoying themselves at the party. I was in the background, part of the wallpaper; an observer, but never a participant. In college, and once I shed the skin of the past, I realized that I never wanted to live like that.
I remember coming to the realization that I wanted to be remembered for something, and that something had to be my writing. I remember thinking that it was time for me to reach out and become contiguous with my dreams, instead of thinking of them as removed from me, something to be attained later. I remember determining that no one writes solely for him- or herself. If people wrote for themselves, they wouldn’t write at all.
For all these reasons, and a plethora of many more unspeakable reasons, I was moved by “Diving Into the Wreck.” This will forever be one of the poems that saved my life. Thank you, Adrienne Rich, for giving me the gift of inspiration and challenging me to be better than I was.
Thank you for making me realize that I did not want to live a life where people read a book of myths in which my name did not appear.
“Diving Into the Wreck”
First having read the book of myths, and loaded the camera, and checked the edge of the knife-blade, I put on the body-armor of black rubber the absurd flippers the grave and awkward mask. I am having to do this not like Cousteau with his assiduous team aboard the sun-flooded schooner but here alone.
There is a ladder. The ladder is always there hanging innocently close to the side of the schooner. We know what it is for, we who have used it. Otherwise it is a piece of maritime floss some sundry equipment.
I go down. Rung after rung and still the oxygen immerses me the blue light the clear atoms of our human air. I go down. My flippers cripple me, I crawl like an insect down the ladder and there is no one to tell me when the ocean will begin.
First the air is blue and then it is bluer and then green and then black I am blacking out and yet my mask is powerful it pumps my blood with power the sea is another story the sea is not a question of power I have to learn alone to turn my body without force in the deep element.
And now: it is easy to forget what I came for among so many who have always lived here swaying their crenellated fans between the reefs and besides you breathe differently down here.
I came to explore the wreck. The words are purposes. The words are maps. I came to see the damage that was done and the treasures that prevail. I stroke the beam of my lamp slowly along the flank of something more permanent than fish or weed
the thing I came for: the wreck and not the story of the wreck the thing itself and not the myth the drowned face always staring toward the sun the evidence of damage worn by salt and sway into this threadbare beauty the ribs of the disaster curving their assertion among the tentative haunters.
This is the place. And I am here, the mermaid whose dark hair streams black, the merman in his armored body. We circle silently about the wreck we dive into the hold. I am she: I am he
whose drowned face sleeps with open eyes whose breasts still bear the stress whose silver, copper, vermeil cargo lies obscurely inside barrels half-wedged and left to rot we are the half-destroyed instruments that once held to a course the water-eaten log the fouled compass
We are, I am, you are by cowardice or courage the one who find our way back to this scene carrying a knife, a camera a book of myths in which our names do not appear.
![I saw this when I logged on to Goodreads today. I was curious to see where journaling ranked. That’s of course what I voted for.
I posted this purely for a matter of interest. I realize that polls are not accurate because they’re voluntary response and cannot target a representative sample of the overall population. [nerdy disclaimer]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m46qk2Av3n1qc7s6io1_400.jpg)
