Journalism is literature in a hurry.
This one will be a challenge for me. Material wise it’s a bit easier, I suppose: it does not require the soul searching and time spent lying awake thinking I had to do in order to come up with the subject of my memoir. For the news story I’ll have to find a lecture or event–that I’m interested in but not involved with–but I’m actually kind of excited about this. The problem will be writing about it. Where the memoir was more free, news writing has a specific voice. I’ve been told I have a pretty distinct writing style, and have been instructed to rein it in a bit for the few pieces of formal writing I’ve done–research papers, newspaper features here and there. I tend to be wordy and write long sentences. Not quite the clear and concise writing necessary for an effective news story. Objectivity is also uncharted territory for me; I’ll have to focus on this in my revisions, I’m sure. In the social media section he book suggests I “think about how you would draw the attention of people in a crowded bar if you had to shout out a single sentence.” I like this idea.
I’ll definitely be reading more news stories to get used to this voice. I just changed my homepage to the New York Times website. Does osmosis work?
Com 201 