Take two

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/06/18/rock-bridge-student-competes-state-high-school-rodeo/

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/06/18/bull-rider-has-world-champion-aspirations/
The second day of the rodeo for me started much earlier, but it seemed to calm me down a bit. I was hopeful that I could get this story done much sooner, so I wouldn’t be on a bad deadline crunch. I started at 7:30 a.m. It took me being observant to get going. I figured out that the boy I wanted to speak with had a lot of family at the event to watch him. I stood back, did some observing and then started speaking with the Grandma. I was very honest with her and it got me pretty far I think. She had me come sit with her during the event, explained the entire thing and was so willing to answer all of my questions. Being honest about who I was and where I was from seemed to work to my advantage because she took the time to really explain everything. I wrote the story during the day and then went back later to fill in smaller details. It was more challenging than I anticipated. I tracked down the focus of my story, but he was on a horse and didn’t want to speak. He was focused warming up for his event. Then, after his event, he didn’t want to speak with me because he had a bad run. At this point, I just tracked him down and begged him to tell me where I can find his family. He pointed in a direction and I luckily found them. I know he wasn’t happy with me, and I would have loved to check these facts with him, but it was the best I could do for the time allotted. I got my facts checked, but then, Grant proposed an idea.

A second story. So, I did what I was asked. I stayed for the bull riding and was so glad I did. I have never even seen a bull in person. I was exciting, but so nerve wracking! I was cringing the entire time. It was like a train wreck, as people say. It was so horrible to look at, but I couldn’t stop looking away. I just wanted to make sure they were okay and the anticipation of when they are going to fall off is exciting. As tired as I was, I was grateful my editor pushed me to stay because I never would have experienced watching bull riding. It amazes me that parents watch their kids do that so carefree. Getting to see the rodeo, start to finish is an experience I will definitely cherish.

 

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Day one at the rodeo- failed attempt at blending in

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/06/17/state-high-school-rodeo-experience/

The first night at the rodeo was a bit of a struggle to say the least. I found it hard to approach people when everyone is on a horse. Also, the students in their hats and everything all seemed to look a like and the entire event was pretty spread out. This is how I came across the story on a family tailgating at the rodeo. It seemed to be the most approachable thing. A few girls before that were too focused on their horses and seemed to blow me off. It made me a little discouraged. I didn’t know what to ask people to find a story and I wasn’t even sure what I was watching most of the time. I just felt out of place. I was determined to make something come of the rodeo. I kept asking people in the main office for help and they eventually got me in contact with people from Columbia. At this point, it was too late in the night to do an interview. Lucky for me, they were planning on coming back at 7:30 a.m. for cutting. So, I planned to meet them then and I was once again hopeful I could make a story out of this event.

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Artistic roller skating… say what?

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/06/16/artistic-roller-skating-regionals/

When I was asked to look into artistic roller skating, I really didn’t think much of it. I had zero clue what it was. I learned that the easiest way to find my story was to be there. Be there like a fly on the wall. I loved just observing the scene because it was so unique to me. I was challenged with understanding this foreign language. I was not familiar with this sport at all. It took me some time to get used to all the lingo and a lot of repetitive questions as well. Once I understood the sport, it took me a bit to decide if it was worth having in the story. I wrote a first draft that had a lot of it in it and with the help of my editor, realized it isn’t necessary and it took away form the focus of my story. I had, at first, no focus at all. I needed as my editor instructed to focus on what is most important here. I had not really done that. My story was all over the place. I went back to the rink, did more reporting and literally re wrote my entire story. I was lucky enough that I had the luxury of time to do this. With more reporting, I was able to focus my story more. I am worried that tonight, at the rodeo, I won’t be able to write as focused of the story. I won’t have as much time to report or write. I don’t like to back down from challenges, so I am trying to think of this as one I need to concur. Two days of high school rodeo, two unique stories in a time crunch, bring it.

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Look for the unusual

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/06/12/couple-encourages-one-another-through-life/

At the shooting range Sunday, a plethora of old men could easily be seen. They were more than willing to speak with me and teach me the rules of the sport, but I didn’t have a story. I couldn’t seem to ask the right questions to come up with a story amongst them. Instead of trying to make that happen when it was clearly not, I decided I needed to move on from these people. While walking away, a lot of pink caught my eye. A women with a gun in her hand in a matching pink outfit. Perhaps a story. I went up right with her and literally walked in to a story. The right questions needed to be asked though.  I was going to focus on that fact that her and her husband work in the OR and met in the OR. That was going to be my main focus and I was going to walk away. I noticed her hat had the breast cancer awareness ribbon. I was originally curious if maybe she was a survivor or someone close. It’s a hard question to ask. I came up with away around it by saying that I was just at Relay for Life the other night. It sparked a new direction in my story. She participated in the 3-day for walk all on her own. Had I walked away, and didn’t ask the hard question, I wouldn’t have found the angle.

Photographer point of view:

Whenever a photographer is at an event I plan on writing about, I can’t help but observe. I like to see where they shoot from and who they speak to at the event. At the shooting range, the photographer asked for the name of these men and they said they would give her the name if she gave them a hug. Creepy. I don’t think I would of done it, or would I have if it was a great photo. I am honestly not sure what I would have done in that situation. It would of been challenging for me to keep my composure. I feel like that is very degrading as well. Had she been a man photographing them, they wouldn’t have had a problem. This is just something I have been thinking about since it and what is the proper way to handle a situation like this?

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Know your sport

Knowing the rules of shot put really worked to my advantage. With a lot of these sports, like shooting and washers, I just went and asked someone to explain the rules. Having the experience in shot put made me realize the significance of doing background work. Had someone who didn’t have the knowledge of the sport been watching, they most likely wouldn’t have picked up on the things the officials were saying so much and thought of them as significant. Even refreshing ourselves on the rules of the game could be of value. You never know when doing the work beforehand like this will pay off.

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Desperate for stories

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/06/11/volunteers-benefit-missouri-state-senior-games/

There were about 14 participants at washers. The event lasted maybe 20 minutes. All the participants did it because they were already here for previous events. They thought they might as well give washers a try. Was there a story I was missing? I couldn’t help but think that I was just asking the wrong questions. I turned towards something away from the sport. It wasn’t going to be the sport itself that would lend itself to the story. The sport was about as boring as watching paint dry. It ended up being a different angle than we had covered yet in the games, so I thought I would try it out. I think it worked well for the purpose of the event, but so well in terms of covering washers. It is hard to show up to a place not knowing who is going to be there and talking to a lot of people until you have your story. I also ran into a lot of people asking where can I find this and when can I? It made me feel bad because in no way could I put all the people I speak with in the story. I often get a few story ideas after being at events like this for a while and then I narrow it down to a more exciting event.

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Pickleball

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/06/10/lone-iowa-pickleball-ambassadors/

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/06/10/couple-finds-love-through-pickleball/

I arrived at New Haven Elementary School Friday morning at 8 a.m. to about 40 participants looking at me. After speaking with some of them, I calculated that I was the youngest person in the room by 33 years. Not being afraid to speak with people became key. Everyone has a mission at these events, they probably aren’t going to approach you and ask you your mission and tell you the most interesting thing about them. I started speaking with one person and asking if they could direct me towards someone who could tell me more about something. This seemed to work out well. Except when one of the participants I was directed to, the oldest participant, was most definitely deaf. I was screaming at the top of my lungs and he would just smile and nod in response. Regardless to say, I gave up. I learned though, that people love boasting about themselves. If they tell you they are one of the Iowa ambassadors of pickleball, inquire more to how much of an honor that is and don’t just accept their word. This comes with asking more detail questions. Such as if they said they are from St. Louis, where exactly in St. Louis. This will help give my readers extra detail so that they don’t have any questions at the end of the article.

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Keeping in touch

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/06/07/sedalia-tornado-destroys-couples-home-three-days-babys-birth/

I could have easily never let me curiosity take the best of me, but I have never been so glad to let it. Calling back the source that I had met in Sedalia taught me numerous important lessons.  Sources stories aren’t done when we stop asking questions.  They keep on living and there can be two stories on the same sources.  This is what I was able to accomplish.  Structuring my article is something that I learned a lot when speaking with Jeanne on the article.  She was able to help me structure everything to be clearer for readers who don’t necessarily know the background story.  I struggled with putting it in chronological order, but she helped me work through it. I hope that in the future, I’ll be able to better do this by myself.  I was incredibly thankful for her help because with it, I was able to produce an easily readable story.

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Finally done

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/06/06/100-mile-runs-are-just-fun/

 

I started this story my first week at the Missourian, but it didn’t get published until this week. My first week, my stories were such a fast turnaround. I went somewhere, came up with an idea, and wrote about it.  This story was not the case.  I came up with the idea, but it took me a long time to develop it since I got very distracted with stories that needed to have a faster turnaround. I know I got frustrated with this story as well.  When I spoke with me source, he was very very nice, but just very short with me.  Not in a rude way at all, just his nature.  Even his friend that I spoke with said the same thing about him. This frustrated me whenever I tried to get him to elaborate or tell me a story on something.  I got to the point where I just wanted to be done with this article.  Looking back, I now know that i need to be more patience and persevere through sources like this. Grant helped me realize this when editing my story.  I felt like I had spoke with him so many times, but clearly I wasn’t done. I hope to be able to pick up a story like this and have more desire to keep going even when it seems like the source wants to be done with me.

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Never almost done

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/06/04/teacher-plans-paris-brest-paris-bicycle-race-after-friends-heart-attack/

I have been working on three stories this past week, but didn’t get one published until Saturday night.  It’s not that I wasn’t working, but things were just not coming together so smoothly.  I felt like I spent my entire week in the newsroom, running out to do interviews occasionally with very little results. At first, I thought my story on the runner would be good to go when I sent it to get edited, but I clearly spoke to soon. I learned a lot this week, but was too frustrated with the results to post anything sooner.  I just wanted to write my articles and then have them disappear as fast as possible. Sometimes it is important as Grant told me to step away from articles that aren’t on a strict deadline. When Greg suggested I rewrite my entire article, of course I was upset.  I believed I had worked hard on it and like I said before, I was ready to be done with it.  I know I am not good at writing and having someone tell me I need to start completely over, just solidifies that and tears down my confidence. Although, he was right.  After being told more questions that need to be asked, I was able to refocus my article. With the help, I believe it turned out much better.  I just need to not set a date when I want to get rid of it, but be willing to try and work towards the best article I can.

This first happened with the running story that I actually started before the biking story.  As frustrated as I am trying to finish it now, I believe taking a step back and not being married to my first draft will help me.  I am finding it challenging to work past that, though and to find the motivation to write my story.

I have also been working on a follow up to the Sedalia story I wrote May 25.  I have to admit, I am glad for once that my curiosity took the best of me.  I was wondering if the wife of the husband we met in Sedalia had her baby yet. I just called to see how they were doing, and turns out, she was admitted to the hospital the next day.  Had I not called, I would have missed out on this opportunity to tell an amazing story. Often I feel like we meet these people with great stories and thing that’s that.  We did our reporting, we got their story, time to move on and we forget about them.  I feel like this proves that theory wrong.  I often fall into that trap as well, but I am working on trying to break it.  People can have more than one story.  Just because their story has been heard once doesn’t mean there isn’t more there.  I am waiting to hear back from the father and then hoping to send this story on to be published tomorrow.

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