Comments on: In Tough Times, the Joys of Journalism

By: wordwych

wordwych — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:02:04 +0000

Oops – brainfart! It’s Jack Hanna, not Hannah.

By: wordwych

wordwych — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:58:28 +0000

I’ve settled into primarily human interest stories, where I can meet cool people and tell their stories. I love discovering The Story – and everyone has one.

I love the unpredictability of what I do – in the past two weeks, I’ve interviewed two high school seniors who did their senior projects on Alzheimer’s in order to share the effects of the disease on their families, two women who pulled themselves out the downward spiral of drug addiction and jail time, a woman who has become active in endorsing organ donorship after her daughter’s death, and several folks who get together and kick up their heels doing ballroom dance. Today, I shook Jack Hannah’s hand (yes, THAT Jack Hannah), took photos, and got the opportunity to stroke a young cheetah’s fur. In two weeks, I’ll be speaking at a veteran’s appreciation day gathering, encouraging local vets (WWII and on up) to share their stories to be preserved in three local town halls for future inclusion in an area museum.

My job kicks a**!!!!!

By: Elaine Grant

Elaine Grant — Fri, 15 May 2009 18:36:02 +0000

Yeah — the tyranny of specialization. I’m kind of a funny beast — I believe in having beats, because specializing in just one or two broad areas does a couple of good things. It makes writers more appealing to editors, and it gives a writer confidence in his or her knowledge base. Finally, when you cover a beat, you get to know the players, and thus year hear about more stories — so reporting one spawns the next, and the next, and so on. On the other hand, obviously I’m pretty flexible, and curious about a wide variety of things! And that keeps life — and journalism – fun and interesting.

Elaine
http://www.twitter.com/eapplegrant

By: The joys of writing — even during tough times « Finding Your Voice

The joys of writing — even during tough times « Finding Your Voice — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:11:06 +0000

[...] blog post over at The Renegade Writer blog on the joys of journalism even during tough times got me thinking [...]

By: QuinnCreative

QuinnCreative — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:58:49 +0000

For many years, I thought everyone was interested in everything, all the time. Slowly it dawned on me that a lot of people don’t care about how things work, how they got that way, why things happen. I kept my secret, asking a lot of questions. I could say that because I wasn’t pretty, I had to be interesting, and it would be true. But now that I’m older, and pretty is off the table, I’m glad I want to know things. It makes having conversations all that easier.

What I still find surprising is how my clients react. “You can’t be both a writer and a trainer,” or “What? You are an artist? I thought you were a writer?” So limiting.