it's a sydney bristow kind of day

[theladyrose]

Ingredients for an Alias episode:

Intertwining storylines: check
Random conspiracies: check (I don't know if I've ever publicly shared my dishwashing gloves theory, have I?)
Journalists checking out a vague sort of conspiracy theory: check, if you loosely define "conspiracy"
Having to work on multiple missions/assignments all at once for fear of being killed/tortured by superiors: check. Newspaper editors behind schedule are SCARY.
Occasionally freaky family dynamics: half a check?
Having issues balancing public and private lives: check
Surveillance measures: half a check? There was a random bunch of people around the shared driveway with my neighbors' house taking pictures of said house for reasons unknown, and said house is right across from mine. I personally suspect it has to do with the whole armed robbery thing, and that these spectators are morbidly curious neighbors who have come to feast upon misfortune.
Outrageous disguises complete with wigs: I'll have to work on that one

My life is bearing a really eerie resemblance.

I've felt a little like that Mad TV spoof of Alias-where does Sydney Bristow get all of that time to go to grad school, save the world but actually work for the opposition, actually save the world while having to disguise these heroic activities from the opposition, keep her best friend from discovering the opposition as well as help open up her roommate's restaurant? I need those time management skills! I've been working on at least four different articles for two different publications in a mad process of interviewing, writing, rewriting and editing this afternoon and the distinctions between all of the stories are starting to get really blurry. I have seriously earned newfound respect for professional journalists whose word counts are longer than 600 words and have to do more research for their stories on just as short deadlines. I haven't even finished layout for my own paper yet because InDesign wouldn't open on the first two computers I was working on and then claimed that Times New Roman as a font didn't exist and started highlighting all of the text boxes in this awful shade of salmon pink.

I carried on my longest interview ever with the school counselor for my eating disorders article; as I spent an hour instead of twenty minutes talking to her with eyepiece_simile accompanying me, I missed an appointment. Time flies when you're talking about misperceptions of bulemia. It was a very informative interview, certainly, but I'm starting to wonder how I'm going to incorporate all of these perspectives I'm getting in 800 words when I can think of even more people I should to talk to. My story angle keeps on making multiple revolutions around the unit circle.

That was a bad attempt at a math joke. I'll shut up now.


Perhaps I'm slightly crazy, but I swear that articles begin to develop personalities of their own if they're really worth it. They nag at you for more research, a better story angle, better struture. You can't stop thinking about who you should tap for sources. You try testing out different soft ledes, (hard ledes really don't work for this subject material, which is a pain because I'm terrible at "creative" ledes) and you can immediately feel what fits in with the fabric of the story and what doesn't. They argue with you on phrasing, the clarity of presentation of the facts. Despite all of the frustration these kinds of stories can cause, I'm taking this as a good sign. Seriously, I haven't felt this inspired by an article in years-you can only cover so much about the new schedule or a VIP assembly or winter formal. They're of temporary importance and interest; they are relatively conflictless and chronicle all of the little events that the archives don't want to waste too much time on. It's gingerbread reading material that has filled up too much of the word count for so long that nobody expects to read real news anymore.

There's an egotistical spark of hope that wonders if maybe I can actually get students engaged and bring awareness to the issue of eating disorders. We're covering something of real relevance that hasn't been publicly discussed (at least not in print) for the last seven years. This may well be the only other article I've written that I actually care about that could be of real quality. Even if no one ends up reading it like that one other feature I wrote that trashed Counterpoint even further, I want to be proud of this work.

I know I'm getting my hopes too high, but that's what hopes are for.

Comments

[eyepiece-simile.livejournal.com]

You should be proud of it. You're bringing something into the spotlight that needs to be shown. And, personally, I think people will read it, whether or not they say they did because most people have a sort of morbid curiosity about these sorts of things.

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The focus of the article really shifted, especially because the counselor understandably wanted to look over it. There's virtually nothing about student perceptions/misconceptions about eating disorders now. It's mostly about more of the counselor's office/adminstrative side of things, and just describing that took me more than 250 words over the original length. Perhaps I could write a follow up on what students could do? I still haven't figured it out.

And we need to plan out how to structure the possible student discussions, too. When's a good time for you?

[blofeldscat.livejournal.com]

"Having issues balancing public and private lives"

I can testify for that. :(

:)

[theladyrose.livejournal.com]

Sorry; I've been neglecting e-mail lately. I try to make up for it with comments, but it isn't the same :(

[blofeldscat.livejournal.com]

No probs. Most of my e-mails are usually questions whether you're available during the weekend or not, and those are pretty self-explanatory. :p But we really need to catch up, the ammount of stuff I have to share grows bigger and bigger - more stuff arrived for you regarding you're favourite series. I'm not talking about Alias, but the one from the 60s. ;)