Finding Motivation, and Staying Motivated

Two of the essays in part IX of Telling True Stories stood out to me.  Stewart O’Nan’s Not Stopping: Time Management for Writers, and Susan Orlean’s A Passion for Writing.

O’Nan begins his essay with a quote from Joseph Conrad.

There are only two difficult things about writing:  starting and not stopping.

While there are certainly other difficult parts of the writing process, I do agree that forcing myself to write is really one of the more painful parts of the process.

I first started writing when I was about 15.  I guess what I was doing was keeping a journal, but I didn’t really call it that.  I would write every so often, maybe every two weeks, sometimes more time would lapse, and I would write about things going on in my life.  My entries would usually start off with a description of some event, a soccer game, a party, etc.  but somewhere in writing about some event I would usually come across some new fresh almost philosophical idea.

Not that these entries would mean anything to anyone else, but my favorite part about writing was going back and reading previous entries before creating a new one.

I never would make myself write, I would only sit down and write if I had an idea that I needed to put on paper.  But I always enjoyed my own writing, and would find these new ideas other from what I sat down to write.

So I guess there are countless ideas I could have stumbled upon had I forced myself to write more frequently.

Susan Orlean writes about her passion for writing.

Susan Orlean image courtesy of www.susanorlean.com

Occasional discomfort, both physical and emotional, is one of the burdens of being a narrative writer.  This isn’t a desk job.  As much as I might resist getting out there, it’s the only thing that works.  Every time I push myself out the door, I try to remember that there will be a payoff.  Often when I’m out reporting, my deepest desire is to go home.  By forcing myself to stay out there, I usually discover something on which the whole story turns.

Orlean writes about taking pride in her work.  I’ve heard reporters talk about loving being out there chasing a story, being in a new setting everyday.  My passion for writing more closely resembles Orlean’s.  I like reading my work, well I do when it’s good, that’s why I started writing for fun when i was 15 and why I chose to try and pursue it as a career.

Whatever grunt work goes into it, it is important to remember that something is going to come out of it that you will be proud to have your name on.  That is what I took from Orlean’s essay, and I couldn’t agree more.

Media Coverage of Plaxico Burress Shooting

 

A year and day after Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor was murdered in his home, New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burress accidently shot himself in the leg.

Burress was out with teammates in a Manhattan nightclub when a handgun he was carrying went off and wounded his right thigh.

In the days since there has been much media coverage about the questionable judgment of Burress. 

Plaxico Burress (Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)

Sportswriters and former players alike have been critical of Burress.  And I agree he did not act in the most responsible way, but where is the mention of the need of high-profile athletes to protect themselves.

I feel the media coverage shows a common theme in sports coverage.  I find that most sportswriters or former players come analysts foster a resentment towards today’s players and their high salaries. 

Sean Taylor was murdered a year ago.  On September 25, 2000 Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce was stabbed 11 times in the face and neck at a nightclub in Boston.

I am not saying that Burress was acting responsibly, but maybe the NFL should adopt a program that educates players on personal safety and security.

Burress was carrying a weapon he did not have a permit for, there is no excuse.  But I am saying I understand his concern for personal safety, and wish that someone in the media might also bring this up.

23-Year-Old Blogger Lectures Class

“If any of you are ever offered a job covering politics and asked to start the day before Election Day, don’t do it. It’s a bad idea.”

Jimmy Vielkind, 23 of Troy, NY, spoke to a group of journalism students tonight at UAlbany. Vielkind, former cops reporter for the Times Union, recently took a position as a blogger for politickerny.com. Vielkind covers all things upstate New York politics for the site.

Vielkind admits that his recent career choice has its risk.

Jimmy Vielkind image courtesy of timesunion.com

“I left the Times Union, bastion of stability and important part of community, to join an online media outlet that might not be around in 153 days,” said Vielkind.

Some of his colleagues at the Times Union thought he was nuts, but Vielkind would argue it was a well-reasoned move.

“Online media appeals to me. I’m convinced online media is the way to go. Every morning you wake up and get the newspaper delivered to your door, its state of the art technology as of 100 years ago,” said Vielkind. “You don’t have to just use words; you’re not constrained as a writer to just use words. It’s a more powerful medium.”

The new challenge of using photos, links, and videos to supplement his work is not the only perk of his new job. Vielkind said that during his time at the Times Union he worked the night time cop shift from 4 p.m. to midnight.

“The only people I would socialize with were the old women at the library where I would check books out in the morning,” said Vielkind.

His new job at politickerny.com offers him more regular hours.

Overall Vielkind couldn’t have seemed happier with his new job, and his optimism about the field of online journalism was inspiring to the room full of students.

“I’m seriously convinced that this is the future. As we as a society figure out how we are going to consume news and information in the future, and we as journalists are deciding how to report news in the future, I want to be a part of it,” said Vielkind.

Do not add. Do not deceive.

 

In my time studying journalism, the most talked about topic in each of my different classes has been ethics. 

The book Telling True Stories devotes a section to ethics with passages from a number of different writers.

I have never seen the issues journalists face described so simply and as completely as Roy Peter Clark has in his essay “The Line Between Fact and Fiction.”

“Do not add.  Do not deceive.”

image courtesy of Poynter Online (credit- Bob Croslin)

I really think that most any ethical debate or dilemma can be resolved by following these two principles.  If a journalist has created a tone to a story that is meant to deceive the reader, if photos are altered in a way that is meant to deceive the viewer, or if any quotes or facts are added, it is wrong.

I think that journalist should always keep Clark’s words in the back of their minds while working on a story.

I don’t think Debra Dickerson’s essay “Ethics in Personal Writing” belongs in a section of Telling True Stories devoted to ethics.

Dickerson tells a writes about a story she wrote about her own nephew who had been shot.  She ended her story about her nephew’s shooting with a terribly personal few sentences.

“Alone, lying in the road bleeding and paralyzed but hideously conscious, Johnny had lain helpless as he watched his would-be murderer come to stand over him and offer this prophecy: “Betch’ou won’t be doin’ nomo’ wavin’, motha’ fucker.” 
Fuck you, asshole. He’s fine from the waist up. You just can’t do 
anything right, can you?”

I don’t agree with what Dickerson did.  I think that she was being exploitive of her nephew.  It is a story that deserves to be told by an impartial writer.  And it was a terrible tragedy.  Certainly a journalist who is not personally connected to the victim could still show the reader what a sad act of violence this was. 

What Dickerson did was make the story about her.  She put her personal feelings in it in a way that overshadows the story itself.  The reader is forced to react to how she feels, not decide how they feel themselves.

Finally one of my favorite passages from the section on ethics in Telling True Stories is the short passage written by Katherine Boo.

Katherine Boo writes about ethical decisions in choosing who or what to write about.   She writes about colleagues telling her that they can’t walk in certain neighborhoods because they wrote something unflattering about that area.  Boo’s response is that if one can’t face their subjects then they should ask themselves if they really told the truth.

I think this is a great test for a journalist.  I don’t ever want to write something that I am ashamed of and can’t stand in front of someone and own it. 

 

Obama and Media Coverage

On Tuesday November 4th the people of the United States elected Senator Barack Obama their 43th President.

This was a truly historic election. For the first time the people of the United States elected a black President, an accomplishment of equality that many people doubted would happen in their lifetimes.

The media coverage of Obama’s historic campaign and victory has proved to be very interesting. On the day after the election most coverage focused on the historic relevance of the election. And all of the coverage I took in was very positive.

First Reaction

From New York Times November 5^th:

But it was just as much a strikingly symbolic moment in the evolution of the nation’s fraught racial history, a breakthrough that would have seemed unthinkable just two years ago.

Whether they voted for Obama or not, I don’t think anyone can deny that our country took a positive step by electing an African-American President. I think it is an important step towards further civil rights equality, and the media coverage recognized this.

Candidate of Change

Now a week later the media has continued its coverage of President-Elect Obama, but is focusing on different themes.

Obama ran his campaign focused on change. From today’s Washington Post:

Barack Obama campaigned as an anti-Washington candidate, and the leader of his presidential transition team made it clear that the president-elect would seek to build on that theme over the next two months.

This story shows Obama working to live up to his promise of change in Washington. I found it to have a very positive tone. It seemed hopeful, hopeful that Obama would bring the change that the American people count on him to.

My Favorite Story of the Past Week

Barack Obama’s victory was very successful in changing the way America is perceived in other parts of the world.

This from France (and the Boston Globe), the country the Bush administration urged us all to hate, well because they hated us:

A manifesto published Sunday – subtitled “Oui, nous pouvons!”, the French translation of Obama’s campaign slogan “Yes, we can!” – urges affirmative action-like policies and other steps to turn French ideals of equality into reality for millions of blacks, Arabs, and other alienated minorities.

Our country has quickly become an example of racial tolerance to the rest of the world. Who would have imagined that?

My Favorite Quote from the Past Week

So I guess some people weren’t encouraged by Obama’s victory and have rushed out to buy guns:

He’s a gun-snatcher,” said Jim Pruett, owner of Jim Pruett’s Guns and Ammo in northwest Houston, which was packed with shoppers on Thursday.

“He wants to take our guns from us and create a socialist society policed by his own police force,” added Mr. Pruett, a former radio personality, of President-elect Barack Obama.

This story is from the New York Times. I find the idea OF Mr. Pruett and his friends with all their newly purchased guns a lot more frightening than being ‘policed by his (Obama’s) own police force.’ But maybe that’s just me.

My Favorite Election Joke from the Past Week

It comes about 3:30 in: ’senior-citizen and woman beaten by black man.’

Tom Wolfe and the Power of Non-Fiction

 

While reading Tom Wolfe’s article The Emotional Core of the Story, I couldn’t help but think of a magazine article I read months back. 

Wolfe writes that non-fiction writing is more powerful than fiction.

Tom Wolfe image courtesy of www.tomwolfe.com

“and I can tell you that the problem with fiction today is that fiction has to be plausible.  And plausible is not the first word that comes to mind to describe an age like this…”

Although Mr. Wolfe does sound his age in describing ‘an age like this’ maybe he does have a point.  Maybe readers only like outlandish unbelievable stories is they are true, and maybe for that reason non-fiction writing is more powerful than fiction.

In the June 2008 issue of Vanity Fair, Evgenia Peretz tells the story of James Frey and his fall from grace.  Many people know the story of James Frey.  He wrote a memoir detailing his struggles with addiction; Oprah fell in love with it and featured it in her book club, quite possibly the ultimate goal of a writer today.  But his A Million Little Pieces wasn’t an entirely true story. 

Frey used his real-life struggles as a jumping off point to craft an unbelievable story of an uncontrollable badass, who was wanted in 3 states, once served time, and had beaten a preist to death.

Frey didn’t really do these things.  Well at least the real-life James Frey didn’t, but does that make his book any less of a compelling read?

Peretz’s Vanity Fair article explains that it was never Frey’s intention to have A Million Little Pieces be a memoir.  He had always called it an autobiographical novel, but his publisher wanted to sell it as a memoir for the same reason Tom Wolfe writes about.

James Frey photo by Terry Richarson

Somehow true stories are more powerful to the reader.  Frey is a great example.  Millions of people loved his book, and when they found out it wasn’t a true story it changed how they felt about it.  As a successful writer of both fiction and non-fiction Wolfe provides a unique perspective about the responsibility journalists have and their ability to capture a reader’s imagination.