It’s been almost two years since I walked into the Outlook office on the second floor of Jamison for the first time. No matter how many how many times I walk up those stairs, I still flash back to the first time I walked up them to drop my résumé off to Drew McCall, someone who would later become my first editor and good friend.
I had a lot of doubts as I handed him that that packet of paper. “I’m a child development major,” I told myself, “Why would I work for a newspaper?” I wondered if being an armature writing enthusiast was enough to make writing words my campus job. I felt out of place.
I’m glad I didn’t listen to my doubts. After writing over 130 pieces for the Outlook, and conducting and transcribing twice that many interviews, my skills …show more content…
I was going to have to use that template for my job, so why not let it naturally integrate into all areas of my writing?
The way I write a piece for the Outlook is simple. I interview my sources, compile all the information I learned from them and then pull pieces of it to produce an informative story. I have found that after going through that process so many times, I use the same framework for my creative writing now. Rather than questioning a source for information, my mind interviewers itself. Through an interactive web of neurons, it’s as though I am sitting across the desk from myself and dialog about the piece I want to write.
Sometimes I even try to complement or flatter the part of my brain I am interviewing so he feels comfortable giving me more information, like I do now and then in a real interview. However, I guess interviewing yourself has limits because it never works. He always sees right through my attempts. My information is compiles into a mental document and I write, I pull pieces of the pile down to the page in front of me. It’s sort of a messy process. That’s why I am so thankful for people who are willing to edit my …show more content…
The ones that were most meaningful to me were stories about mission work, art and students learning, growing or making a difference in their community. I have written lighthearted features, like trying to uncover the source of the strange pink glowing greenhouse behind the landscaping building. However, others were more serious, like an in-depth interview process to rediscover what campus was like the day of Sep. 11, 2001, fifteen years after the fact. But no matter the content, there was always something special about the stories I wrote, and that was the people I interviewed, the readers I wrote them for and the friends I wrote them
I had a lot of doubts as I handed him that that packet of paper. “I’m a child development major,” I told myself, “Why would I work for a newspaper?” I wondered if being an armature writing enthusiast was enough to make writing words my campus job. I felt out of place.
I’m glad I didn’t listen to my doubts. After writing over 130 pieces for the Outlook, and conducting and transcribing twice that many interviews, my skills …show more content…
I was going to have to use that template for my job, so why not let it naturally integrate into all areas of my writing?
The way I write a piece for the Outlook is simple. I interview my sources, compile all the information I learned from them and then pull pieces of it to produce an informative story. I have found that after going through that process so many times, I use the same framework for my creative writing now. Rather than questioning a source for information, my mind interviewers itself. Through an interactive web of neurons, it’s as though I am sitting across the desk from myself and dialog about the piece I want to write.
Sometimes I even try to complement or flatter the part of my brain I am interviewing so he feels comfortable giving me more information, like I do now and then in a real interview. However, I guess interviewing yourself has limits because it never works. He always sees right through my attempts. My information is compiles into a mental document and I write, I pull pieces of the pile down to the page in front of me. It’s sort of a messy process. That’s why I am so thankful for people who are willing to edit my …show more content…
The ones that were most meaningful to me were stories about mission work, art and students learning, growing or making a difference in their community. I have written lighthearted features, like trying to uncover the source of the strange pink glowing greenhouse behind the landscaping building. However, others were more serious, like an in-depth interview process to rediscover what campus was like the day of Sep. 11, 2001, fifteen years after the fact. But no matter the content, there was always something special about the stories I wrote, and that was the people I interviewed, the readers I wrote them for and the friends I wrote them