How's This For A Promotion? (aka Non-Sappy Sunday #1)

Hello people of the blogosphere! Thank you for stopping by, if indeed you are actually reading this. You're so special and I love you. I. Love. You.

Anyway, I've been following a certain blogger's blog (blogger's blog...haha...that sounds so funny for some reason...) for a few weeks now, and she really knows her stuff. I don't readily admit when someone is younger than me and can write circles around what I do, but here I go:

She can write circles around me, and I like it.

She likes to go by the name Silent Pages, and quite frankly, I'm glad. As long as she's hiding behind that pseudonym, I can still have that tiny belief in the back of my mind that she might just be a figment of my imagination concocted to make me feel bad about my own writing skillz. Those things do happen, you know. Really, they do.

But, since I'm on the topic of great ideas, writing tips, and so on, I would like to pass her link on to you folks so y'all can each get an idea of what I'm trying to say. Whatever that may be.

Without further ado, I give you Silent Pages' blog. Go crazy. (Warning: Her blog posts are so amazingly long, wonderful, and wise that you will feel inadequate, but be comforted in the fact that everyone else is feeling the same way.)

Reporterly Things

Image via WikipediaSo I may or may not have mentioned in an earlier blog post that I am a writer for my college's paper, The Vanguard. Since I have the memory of--and I hate to use this analogy--a squirrel, I really have no clue what I've actually talked about without going back and looking. But since I am sure I've told you I'm lazy, I'm sure you can understand why I haven't done so.

As it is, I have been promoted (without my knowledge, which is kinda funny) from "Contributing Writer" to "Staff Writer" on the paper. I don't know if that means anything in the long run, but I like to think they've grown rather fond of me and my often odd story ideas. (Refer to this post to get an idea of what I mean.)

Anyway, there's all of that and my continuing dislike of actually doing the actual articles. Don't get me wrong. I love my part-time job as a "Staff Writer" and it pays the coffee bill, but I hate writing in the journalistic style. It's so boring.

That's why I'm glad they don't make me do "hard news" stories. I'm pretty free to write whatever I want so long as they like it and think people will read it. So, I do book reviews and write crazy stories about squirrels, and I spout off my opinions about various things like Egypt and other stuff while citing sources to support me, and things are cool.

Yet...the idea of being a reporter just bugs me. I'm lazy. I love writing, but I don't like interviewing people or finding sources. I have to do that for my journalism class and it drives me insane. Mostly because I have to listen to my teacher explain things so thoroughly my mind shuts down and I drift into a coma, but also because we can't write creatively in that class.

I feel like I've come to the real problem. Journalism tries to contain me in a small space that has no room for my crazy, artistic side to breathe. It gets claustrophobic in the confines of journalism. Not to say that I'm not grateful to be a paid writer, but still...Bailey don't like being put in a corner.

Does anyone else have this problem? Do you feel like you're being slowly suffocated by the constraints of certain writing styles? Or does it not bother you at all?

I'd be interested to know. And if I'm alone in this, I will need to tell myself to suck it up and be a man. Rub some dirt in it. Or something.

Until next time...happy writing!