coming along.... i guess...

Okay so I finally sat down to write the intro -- decided to go with a personal anecdote and after showing in to Ron and getting comments back I realized it just didn't work.  Then I was sick and feeling sorry for myself for a week so didn't touch it for a while...  But I rewrote the intro and am working on the body as we speak...  I think the idea I took on was really broad and I guess I was surprised that after my 3 interviews there seemed like less of a link between the 3 immigrant experiences than I thought there would be so strategy today:  write out what I think is important and striking about each interview and worry about the link later.  So that is what i am doing... Claudia Katz is nearly done and next will be richard.  Goal is to have rough copy by monday though I am 99% sure that once finished i will have to rewrite completely as a get a clearer direction --possible thoughts:

narrowing the article to share that one experience each remembers as very telling about the transition so for claudia seeing her first african american man, for richard realizing canada wasn't the same as his image from the movies and not sure about ali yet... oh well... back to the computer.  

And there and there

I have finally finished writing two stories for the journal, and I cannot be any more thrilled!

The road to completion, however, was quite an educational experience.

When I was given my beat -- Business -- I knew I was going to be writing about topics I had zero interest in... I was quite frightened when I received my beat, thinking that I wouldn't be able to focus on stories in the business area. Though I am still somewhat hesitant (but excited) for my future stories, the completion of my stories are pumping me up to write more stories!

I learnt a lot from the two articles I've written:
Number one, that I shouldn't be focused so much on my interviews! I know it sounds horrible to say, considering half the objective of a journalist is to interview the public for insight, but I feel that for my articles, I spent too much time talking to people about superfluous things that never made it into my article. Basically, I'm saying that, though the interview is an important aspect of any story, it should be concise, precise and short; otherwise, there is too much information to sift though, and too much information to preoccupy your mind with. For example, my interview with Neil Richardson for my story on the Seventh Avenue Restoration Project was quite informational, but lasted two hours!! These two hours were spent talking about things that could be found in the company's website, and I felt my questions could have been chopped by half.

Number two, I realized that word-length is really important. My second story for print totaled up close to 2,000 words, when the limit was set at 1,000. I felt so afraid that I would not write enough that I ended up writing way too much! For any future story, I'll know to be concise as much as possible and to not repeat myself.

Number three, I found that shortening my article really put perspective on my writing. By shortening it to 1,000 words from 2,000, I taught myself how to discern between what is needed and what can be taken out. This I found most important for any future stories I will be writing. Sometimes it can be hard to take out information, but if the information is superfluous, it needs to be deleted.

Number four, that research is really important but shouldn't be put on a pedestal. It is good to get some background information on a topic you're writing on, but spending too much time on research could lead to an incomplete story.

And last but not least, I realized that perfection is not needed for everything I do. I am such a perfectionist, but I found with writing my two first stories, my perfectionist nature came out too strong. Everything I wrote needed revising right after I had written it, and I was never satisfied. I am glad that I was given the opportunity to realize this point, and now I know I can change it... next time, I will be less perfectionist, and more rationalist. Does that make any sense?

Hopefully I can take these things I've learnt and apply it to my next stories...here goes nothing!

Way to Go

I can't wait to see our magazine start to come together online - and I want to say a big THANK YOU GEORGES! Because your ideas and creative ability have been awesome (plus I don't know about you guys, but my online design skillzzz are not that strong :P )

New beginning.

So I wrote an intro yesterday and got comments back from Ron.  He totally picked up on the fact that I was kind of without focus and not sure where the article was going.  Which is very true.  So in class while we were talking about different ways to start articles I came up with something more direct but I think more suited to my article and I think I am going to work the angle of people coming at different junctures of their lives.  I am not quite done it but will get to it by sunday for sure... I am currently transcribing my interview from this morning for my brain injury story.  I interviewed 2 people who work at SABIS and it went well.  Lisa, in particular, was very well spoken so I believe I got great quotes from her about how brain injury affects the whole family... now if only a caregiver would agree to an interview...  They are working on it and Garett from BIRC is too but still nothing...   I also have to remember to call Christine the survivor who spoke to me to thank her.  What a lovely woman... I must say brain injury is kind of depressing.  Maybe for my next story I will pick something more upbeat. 

It's all up in the air...

So I am flying to England for a week this Sunday, and while I'm there I think I'll write an article selling the city of Nottingham, where I'll be staying. I've spoken to Ron, who suggested doing an article similar to those found in airplane magazines. 'Don't go to London: Consider Nottingham Instead!' or something along those lines...
I also have quite a few friends in bands there, so could narrow my topic and write about Nottingham's music scene, or a typical night out on on the town...

On another note, I have an interview planned with the head eating disorders counselor and psychologist for MRU this Friday, which will give me a third source for my student body image article...hey presto time to get writing!!

arrghhh! it's still alive?

Hey Guys

Its been a while since my last post and I do apologise for that. I will try to post more often. I am so glad to see that many of peers have already started their second and third stories. I am still waiting to bury my first. Don't get me wrong- I have put this story to rest numerous times but there is a force (shall I call him Gil Grissom?) who just keeps on resurrecting it. Gil keeps demanding that I redo the post-mortem of my story- pointing out little details and facts that I don't feel apply to the original story. I don't think that even the great David Caruso can save me with one of his brilliant lines.

When I first finished my story, I was feeling proud, relieved and anxious- like a parent sending their child to her first day of school. Is she going to do well? How will the other stories react to her? What if she (gasp) doesn't get read?

But now after finding out that Gil wants me to look at irrelevant " evidence" my wanton pride kicks in,"What do you mean,it's not good enough- You're not good enough!" I sputtered , vented and fumed.

So,after calming myself down by boiling numerous cups of tea; I spent some extra time on my story, exploring the suggested avenues, and making the necessary changes without comprising the original body.

However Gil still does not think that it is good enough.

I haven't given up on my story but I am wondering if Gil just being really thorough or just being ridiculous. Some of the details he wants me to look at don't even align with the original story. I am sure that even on CSI, there would be a point where they would smack Gil up the head and unplug the microscope- right?

I don't think that I am making sense right now- it could be the four hours of sleep that I am running on but I think that I am using like two different metaphors to describe the same thing. I hope that I didn't confuse you guys too much.

Is it really immature and silly for me to just wish this story would just be buried ? At this point the only thing that is lying six feet under is my ego.

Started.

So I now have all three interviews with immigrants.  Though i am tempted to interview one more since I have already made contact but we'll see...

The truth is I probably have enough I have just been dragging my feet on starting.  So today i sat down to do it.  I tried a couple of drafts of an intro and they all seemed really cheesy and over the top.  I really wanted to set up the idea the immigrant experience is difficult and something we kind of take for granted and really feel little sympathy for but it was coming off all wrong. So I decided to write what made me personally appreciate immigrants -- the experience of moving to prague and just being really miserable for a period of time.  so I wrote that and i believe it is a much stronger start but I am not sure if we are allowed to put ourselves in the story.  I know its a no-no for newsreporting class but does it fly for this class?  it is a better beginning than i had before so i hope i can keep it.  its not perfect but...

and as for the body now... I just find starting really hard.  now i have to start richards story.  and richard's story is strong as is Claudia's but i might ditch the third in favor of something else.. I am not super feeling it and richard and claudia have the commonality of having left their home countries for political reasons and it makes the third story kind of not fit.. but i dont know if i am not just over thinking it.  i have 3 inerviews i should just go for it right?...

enough thinking.... 

A Decisive Decision on Topics

Tonight, while I was hyping myself up for Paris, I thought of my potential 3 topic ideas for Ron's class!

I'm hoping they are legitamate topics to discuss though, as I feel I am quite picky when it comes to topics. I think I am governed by my indecisiveness... I even think I have a certain set of mental processes that follows an order: first I come up with a topic I think I might enjoy. I get excited about the topic, and my mind wanders. I then do a little bit of research on the said topic, and I hype myself up to the point where I start asking myself too many questions regarding my chosen topic. After five minutes of google-ing said topic, I begin to grow anxious, and with determination, I drop said topic to start back at step 1.

Except! the three chosen topics I came up with are great topics that I think I will keep! If you are at all interested in wanting to know my topics, you will have to discuss them with me...

Ha - I enjoy being mysterious.

Hitting wall after wall, and not the good kind

This week has been crazy hard, I feel a little bit shattered. You know when you are just so off your game, you have no idea what you are actually about anymore? That is me right now.

Both stories I'm working on for Ron's class have hit their respective snafus. The story I want to do on the Berlin Wall - and I am super keen to do this - seems to be hitting problem after problem. Largely in that no one will get back to me. I still have some feelers out, and haven't given up entirely (Carolina, I still want to speak with your dad), but it certainly takes a lot of the enjoyment out of the prospect of writing this piece.

The positive side: I found a Calgary local who has a doctorate in German history, who is on sabbatical in Germany right now. She is my story! She couldn't be more perfect.

The negative side: She is in Germany.

The other story, I'm running into not just passive not-calling-me-back-ness, but outright hostility. I want to interview the woman who teaches reiki at Mount Royal, and the program chair has refused to give me her contact information for privacy reasons. Ron thinks this is bullshit, but when I questioned her on it, she got pretty darn testy. Has anyone else encountered this?

I also found out that you can't just go to a class, and write about your experience there. It goes against the freedom to teach. In order for me to learn Reiki, then write a story about it, I need to get permissions from people who seem all too keen on denying me. Harrumph - it's just been a day. Maybe someone will call me back tomorrow, or the most perfect source will fall from the sky ...

Late but better than never.

Hi my name is Carolina Novotny and I have to admit that I have never blogged before. And this image captures how I feel today about new technology. About Final Cut and about filing stories. Which explains why I am the last to join this forum. But here goes.... 

Though the technology stuff has been stressing me out a bit... I am enjoying the interview aspect.  For this class I am working on two stories:

1) exploring an immigrant's sense of home -- the idea being that their sense of home must be different from a native canadians -- I have been where they consider home their country of origin or canada and why or why not as well as what aspects they miss form home.   I have also been asking what they remember from their transition...  

My first interview (about 2 weeks ago now) was with an argentinian woman,Claudia, who imigrated when she was ten.  She was very frank about having a negative experience transitioning and feeling rootless everywhere.  She considers Calgary home only because this is the place she has made the most connections with other people in.'

My second interview was with Richard a polish imigrant who came to canada in the 70s when he was in his late 20s.  He seemed somewhat disillusioned by his experience.   He wouldn't do it again and he felt he had given up too much of his life for his daughters' futures. 

I was at this point that a touched base with Ron and he suggested that to write a powerful piece I would need to have my interview subject open up and give me annecdotes about how canada compares with the old country...  I think I didnt really get that with Claudia (who is unfortunately now in new york for two months)  but I think I got good descriptions form Richard of what he misses which was the comeradery in the work place.

Today I interviewed my friend Alison's grandmother who immigrated from england when she was widowed at the age of 62.  I now have Ron's tips with me but I must admit it was harder to get her to describe anecdote like stories of home than I expected.  It was interesting to hear her story since it was very different from my other test subjects since she came over much later in life.  

Now I am going to transcribe my interview with her which I taped and I hope to have a rough draft of my article done by wednesday.

Saying it 'out loud' to motivate me....

2) I am also working on a story about how the family is affected when a member of the family suffers from a brain injury.

I interviewed Christine about this and she gave me honest really touching answers.  I am now waiting to hear back from BIRC about interviewing an occupational therapist (it was supposed to happen last week but I got bumped) and tomorrow if I dont hear from them I will contact SABIS as backup.  I also still need to find a family member to interview... will speak to sabis about that one...

So thats is that...

I also have two on the brain ideas:

-organic foods... what guarantee we have that organics are actually that and what is with the new government issue sticker...

-or doing one week of everything envirofriendly... namely NOT driving my car for one week and seeing how I am affected.  not sure about this one -- I would also compost, recycle... I dont know what else to round it out....

ideas...

okay so that is where i am at...

Halloween Stalk

Currently, I am fighting off a terrible cold which has moved from my throat to my nose and ears... I think my eyeball will start tearing up soon...

Regardless of this little tidbit of information, yesterday I went to Walmart to go speak with some Halloween shoppers! For some strange reason, I was completely at ease with approaching people, and I think it might have been because of Sally's assignment at the beginning of the semester which saw us getting out of our comfort zone. It was funny because the more I was meandering around the Halloween section, the more I started feeling comfortable talking to people I didn't know. The first couple of times was a failure, however, as the first people I talked to had no purpose being in the Halloween section: they told me they were just wandering around to see what wares Walmart would be selling this year....

...ButI did finally get some good quotes from one man buying candy, and another man searching for a Halloween costume, who conviently commented on his Halloween spending habits. It was a success!

I still couldn't help but feel like a stalker, though.

Roll On With The Show

In the process of working on my said story idea (see post below), I came up with a better topic to focus on for the Calgary Journal. It is definitely a more time-sensitive piece, which is more of my reason for choosing it: I wish to focus on how the recession is affecting Halloween sales in 2009. I have already set out for a few sources, which have all been quite helpful to me as of right now.

Yesterday, I scurried my way over to a store called Chuckles in the Southwest. It's a store that not only sells Halloween supplies, but also Halloween costumes and all sorts of accessories, namely specializing in gruesome versions of dead babies and severed hands. I spoke to the Manager of the store to get some insight on how the recession has affected her business during the Halloween season. You will have to wait to hear the conclusion...

Close in proximity to Chuckles was Value Village, so after treking my way through wind and sleat, I spoke with the manager of the fine establishment who also had some insightful things to say regarding the recession and the affect it has had on his sales.... more of this later.

All in all, I am still awaiting an email response from Walmart Canada regarding their 2009 Halloween trends and an email from the owner of Twigs on Stephen Avenue, who I was unable to meet personally as he is rarely on sight and constantly busy.

My next story for Ron's class will perhaps be a travel piece on Paris, France, as I plan on spending a weekend in Paris sometime this month. I will most likely take alot of photos during my short stint there, and hopefully get some sources to speak about Paris's Hotspots... and I'm not just talking about the Louvre.

I think I would be what they call "on-a-roll"? Ha! Not quite...

Don't Talk About It

Alright, do I have a posting for you!

I guess I will begin my posting with my morning in Brentwood; then I'll complete it by discussing my interview with Leah Hallman of Campus Pro-Life. Yay!

Last night was a tricky night for me, as I had just decided on what story I should work on for my COMM3707 class, and I wasn't sure whether it was to be a good topic or not. Alas, after much contemplation and roaming around the house looking for ideas, I decided to focus on the new proposed Transit Oriented Development in Brentwood. It is a topic that many journalists in Calgary have already discussed, so I was hesitant at first, but I found my angle: how the new development project is going to affect the small businesses in the area. This is perfect, considering my beat is Business!!! :)

After a few hours of research on the topic (even though Ron has said that research accomplishes nothing, haha), I began to formulate my questions. I was having trouble formulating, as I did not really know what I wanted to know except for "how will this new project affect your small business?", but from that question I began to formulate following questions, and before I knew it, it was 1am in the morning (should that be written 1 in the morning, or 1am-in the morning??) and I had a full page of questions!

Flashfoward to when I was up before first light this morning, and I was on my way to Brentwood to ask my newly formed questions to the beautiful business owners in the area. I first decided to go to the Liquor Depot where I was told to contact a man at headquarters. That was a bust. No worry, I told myself, I will just go over to A Buck or Two and ask my questions there... alas, no luck, again: I was asked to contact the owner of the store another day to initiate a sit-down interview at a better time (it was Christmas inventory today), so I will follow this lead at another date. My next stop was the Fish&Chips resturant owned by a Chinese man who a) didn't speak english, and b) didn't want to speak. Case closed... Next stop, Ginger Beef Peking House whose owner was not around. From there, Pro-Grace Dentistry who made clear that she would not speak to any media regarding the development project. Another case closed. I didn't loose hope though. I walked over to Pizza Hut where I began a lovely conversation with a source who knew more about the development project than she lead me to believe. After a lengthy conversation, I took her name, and NOW HAVE A SOURCE! Moreover, Jameson's is willing to speak with me about the development, so I have ANOTHER SOURCE!!

I think that my determination to find a source was what kept me going. I could have easily walked away from Brentwood expecting everyone to tell me nothing, but my persistence lead to future interviews, and one named source! It feels so good to actually know that I am on the right track.

Directly after my Brentwood excursion, I had to go meet with Leah Hallman for Campus Pro-Life. On my way over to the University campus, I could start feeling nervous; I had my questions all prepared, but I was worried about the conversation: would my questions be good? Will her answers be short or long? Will I know how to pad our conversation so it doesn't seem cold and script-like? Before I could even start worrying about these questions though, I found myself speaking with Leah in a quiet room... this was it! It was at that moment that I just seemed to relax and tell myself that whatever happened, just happened. If I made a stupid comment, then so be it! If I made moments awkward, then I would learn from them!

In all, I felt my interview was quite good! I was even able to fill the pauses with other questions that I never intended to ask, and it went fine. I felt so good afterwards that, again, I accomplished something, and that I was on the right track....

...Now I just have to sift through the 1hour and 15minute recording to find a quote I enjoyed...

A Deciding Change

So after changing my decision to interview my aunt for Sally's class (because I will not be able to use her for the voice over aspect, seeing as she is family), I have been trying to contact the lady who founded a beauty parlor just for women suffering with cancer (it's near to MRU, by Bass Bros). No luck so far! I've tried e-mailing and phoning, but like we were saying, you don't want to come across as too persistent/desperate/annoying. I may try another avenue too, and choose the eating disorder counselor on campus, who has set up a 'positive body image' initiative because she feels that students are a target group for eating disorders and low self-esteem. I could then use this for my body image article for this class too =]

She will probably have great insight into why so many students have eating disorders etc in universities, and would be a great starting point (maybe she could direct me to a student sufferer too hmmm!)

Method Reporting?

I finally had an idea for Ron's class, one that would really interest me. I'd like to do a piece on Reiki healing, what that is all about. I find the hardest part for me in regards to reporting, is finding the angle. I'm great at coming up with story ideas, and I can find people to talk to about it, but then the question is: what next? I'm not sure exactly what my angle should be. Do you gather information before talking to people, or do you talk to people, then discover what angle you want to take afterwards? Or is this like a chicken or egg thing?

The other thing is, how far can you go while researching a story? Mount Royal offers one-day classes in Reiki, something that I would totally do. Could I sign up for a class, and make this part of my story? Or would that affect my perspective too much? Or does it even matter - can't I make up my perspective as I'm going? I feel like I have too many questions, not enough answers right now.