MY STORIES:

• Sharing a love of books
• Utah Transit Authority, Salt Lake Arts Council team up to bring artwork to TRAX stations

MY BLOG:

Writing a news story was different than I expected. News, to me, had always seemed like the most obscure form of writing. Research papers, I can do. Creative writing, easy. News writing fits somewhere between the two forms, combining the use of facts and knowledge with a zest and flavor that attracts an audience. Research papers are used to portray information, not to entertain, and creative writing hardly uses hard facts to make a point.

Thus my main dilemma first came from this hybrid style of writing that seemed so foreign to me. Trying not to take myself too seriously, I took to news writing the best way I knew how. I donned my coat, gathered my notebook for my interview and dived in.

Finding a topic I was eager to report about was crucial. I am a lover of good writing and one of my favorite ways to spend my time is reading. Being able to report on my favorite local bookstore was easy. It was something I loved, and something I wanted to share.

Playing the part of a reporter, a role I didn’t think I fit, required some digging. I knew less about my subject matter than I thought, and I had a lot to learn before interviewing anyone. By finding out some background information, I also learned who was best to interview.

I’m a first-time news writer. The interviewing process was something new to me. Here, I learned the most about writing and about me. This was the exciting part. To speak with others about a shared interest, to find out I had more in common with a person than I initially thought, and to watch a person speak about something that they are passionate about made my job as a news writer seem important. In the interview process, the story began to unfold. Not the outlined story I thought I would have, but a real, alive and breathing story. About people and life. My focus seemed to change with every question and every answer. I learned that asking the right questions is important, but letting the answers help develop a story was vital. One little question could lead to a branch of something I didn’t even think to cover; it showed what was exciting, what would stick out.

Writing this story showed me that news writing isn’t about making deadlines and breaking news. It can also be about people. It has been a process that I have enjoyed leaning about.

ABOUT ME:

As a junior in college, this is my first semester at the University of Utah. I have spent my last three years school hopping and soul searching.  Born and raised in Salt Lake City, I spent my college years trying to get away. I’ve been to two other universities, in Logan, Utah, and in Hawaii; now I find myself back where I started.

I value hard work more than I value talent. I have had to work hard to get to where I want to be and don’t regret a minute of it. I had to take a year off of school and work full time to pay off my adventures and learned more than I ever expected of the work field. Now juggling school and work, I appreciate my time in the classroom and love being around other students. No atmosphere is so enriching than a place where everyone wants to learn as much as I do.

I live life on a whim and don’t know where it will take me next.