Sunday, September 14, 2008
When You Write What You Know, You Start the Conversation
I have a hard time coming up with story ideas.Not because I can't think of any. I dream up plenty on any given day. But my brain has a glitch. It works a little too much. To the point where I overthink and overanalyze my ideas so much that I usually find a reason to dispose of them before any editor even gets the chance to. I think it's a side-effect of working in radio: instead of trying to fill up pages, we're trying to ration out minutes. Mere seconds, in some cases.
But it's something I'm actively trying to change. Particularly because right now, assignments are few in the floating/freelance producer world. I've got some time on my hands, and I've been spending it trying to figure out how to spend it.
"Go do a piece," said one of my colleagues (and sometimes-boss). "You're a good writer. Go find a story to do."
She said it so simply, like she was telling me to grab some orange juice out of the fridge. Doesn't she know in this overactive mind of mine, it's just not that easy?
*sigh* Okay. Yes it is. At least it should be. It just isn't, for me.
I was lamenting over this during a roadtrip with Soraya this weekend. "Just write what you know," she said. Basically, she said, there can be a story in anything.
And no sooner than I sign on to the Internet tonight do I see the very proof of her point.
There's the column about insipid commenters on washingtonpost.com (I'd been sniveling about that just a day before). There's the New York Times piece about the evolution of Sarah Palin's hairstyle (I'd been sniveling about that too for the past three weeks). And the Modern Love essay about the downsides -- BIG downsides -- of looking someone up on the Internet before the first date (been there...MAJOR mistake). And let me forget the piece about tattooed wedding rings.
(As an addendum: The articles mentioned above also proved another point that Soraya had made -- that Times clearly has its finger on the pulse of culture -- "It leads the conversation on these things," she said -- and that that's some stuff to aspire to.)
So, with my boss' encouragement in my pocket, Soraya's pep talk fresh in my ear, and examples to follow everywhere I look, I've printed out a little helpful phrase and taped it above the keyboard on my laptop:
"You can write about ANYTHING."
Labels: advice, journalism, lessons, story ideas
continue...Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Resource Corner
Yes, it feels good to be back. But it's been hard getting out of "breaking news mode" and back into the habit of pitching more in-depth story ideas.Thank goodness for helpful, seasoned colleagues. While pitching an education interview, Tracy put me onto the National Conference of State Legislators, and its Issue Areas page is now listed under My Favorites.
The page is essentially a portal to all sorts of public policy issues under debate in state legislatures. And while skimming to find something to supplement the pitch I made earlier today, I also came across a number of other issues that will likely serve as springboards for future pitches.
So have a looksie. And make sure you say "thank you" to Tracy.
Labels: mentorship, story ideas
continue...Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Where do you get story ideas?
My great, and very talented friend ran into a story idea while riding the Red Line train today and she told me about it."I was on leaving Park Street toward Cambridge and this dude gets on playing Stevie Wonder and clears the aisles," she said during a chat on GMail. But wait, it gets better.
"He started break dancing in the middle of the train, then he walks down the aisle, grabs two railings and does a back flip. [I'm thinking] like this never happens in Boston.
"Oh this is wobby, I like it," he says, and does a back handspring on a moving train...this is all between Park and Charles. It was really cool."
That's when I started thinking.
If I saw this in person I'd be thinking as a writer that I need to write this story. But sometimes I think I'm too shy to do what she did: get the story.
"He's apparently a part of a larger traveling performance group from NYC," she found, "but sometimes he breaks away from the group to do his own thing."
I see crazy things like this all the time. Like the guy in Times Square I saw last year who charged people a dollar to tell him off. Like, all the way off. He made money, too. People actually told this guy their life's problems. He actually listened. It was amazing.
But I didn't have the [guts] to ask him what his name was.
Of course, for her part, she got the whooooole story about the Stevie Wonder guy.
"He's 22," she gushed, "and has big muscles."
Labels: shyness, silly sources, story ideas
continue...