those are the words the director of my journalism program passed on to us as the key to success in the field. i've only now come to understand the truth of it.
reading- you've got to keep up with what's going on in the world and you have to be on the look out for potential story ideas. if you're a freelancer, you've got to find out what publications are out there, what's been published already, what has room for a story for you to pitch.
writing- this goes without saying. in jobs, there's just a million stories to crank out. in freelancing, you're paid by the word, so the faster you type them, the more money you make. (the average ap reporter can type 100 words a minute).
making it fast- there's not enough time to do everything, but so much to do. so you really have to do everything as efficiently and as quickly as you can.
i keep waffling between freelance, featurey stuff and daily journalism. there's more room for style and creativity in feature articles, but there's a certain joy and empowerment that comes from knowing your beat, knowing your community.
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1 comment:
you said it, Anne! thanks for posting these words. I'm learning from you.
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