Writing Ain’t Easy
I have the initial interview done and I can’t believe what a challenge it is to mold these random quotes into a story. Blogging has definately taken me off of my A-game but I’m not worried. My most mediocre work is better than what I see in some magazines. ~shrugs~ Just being real.
After the initial interview I put the skeleton of the story together by typing all of the quotes and stories and putting them on the screen for me to arrange. I usually start by taking out any weak or redundant quotes. Then I come up with an interesting lead sentence. Something that will make the reader want to read more. I try to pose a question without actually posing a question. I like to follow up the lead sentence with a visual to get the reader’s senses going.
Then I tell the story usually in pyramid format, which is a typical newspaper way to tell a story by placing the ending at the beginning of the story then going back to explain how that ending came to be.
I tell the story by choosing the strong quotes and connecting them with my own language and style.
For example, if the person said, “I like basketball because it soothes me.” And then they said, “Nothing like a slam dunk to get my blood rushing.”
I might write it like this:
He’s tried football, soccer and even lost his temper trying to learn golf, but nothing has proved quite as therapeutic as palming the lightweight orange ball. “I like basketball because it soothes me,” Jerrod said as he rested his chin atop a newly purchased Spaulding. But basketball has also given him a stamina that he never knew he had allowing him full use of his damaged lungs in a way that most asthma patients never get to enjoy. It’s as if the air up there repairs his condition. “Nothing like a slam dunk to get my blood rushing,” he says as he smiles up at the basketball net. In his case, basketball has saved his life.
See?
They give me the main indegredients to a story but I have to mix it together to create something edible, uh, readable.
Blogging is NOTHING like that. When I write on my blog it may take a while but the blog gets the first draft. It’s unedited, it’s raw.
So I’ve been up for hours working on my stories. My goal is to have them done by tomorrow night because I have other projects I’m working on including an article for one of my favorite sites called Bahiyah Woman who have just accepted me onto their writing team. YAY!
So I gotta run, I never want to deliver less than the best. These artists are depending on me to make them look good.
I’ll leave you with a clip of one of my college profiles. It’s a short one, but it’s sweet.