meditative writing

Some writers can function well in a noisy newsroom setting or in a crowded coffee shop bustling with students. I, however, am unable to focus on what I’m writing while eavesdropping on the couple sitting next to me discussing the breakfast sandwiches they’re nibbling on. I am also easily distracted by my iChat icon bouncing up and down and my Facebook live feed updating itself as it peeks over the left side of my blank word document.

I love Ommwriter.

(Image snagged from 10000words.net)

Clarity and calmness are the only two words I can think to describe it. I heard about this on 10,000 Words. Ommwriter (which is free, and only available for Mac users, unfortunately) takes up your entire screen (eliminating any visual distractions) and creates an ambiance complete with serene backgrounds, soothing music, and delicate sounds as you type. It almost puts you in a meditative state to calm you as you work on a story or to thoroughly enjoy writing creatively. Ommwriter makes the writing process a bit more enjoyable — for me, at least. Plus, you can change the Ommwriter’s sounds and visuals to fit your mood.

This is what I’ve been longing for when I write. To get myself in a pleasant state, I usually have to find some relaxing music that won’t distract me too much, take myself somewhere visually nice (lately I’ve found Barnes and Noble to be my refuge. I guess it’s something about their green theme that really does it for me. Or anywhere outside is nice on a sunny day). Ommwriter might just make finding that pleasant state less difficult.

Ommwriter lets me relax as I type and think beautiful thoughts. Staring at a blank word document sucks. This doesn’t.

beautiful weekend

Sunset at the Rec, Tuscaloosa.

Rain at Five Points, Birmingham

interviewing is an art

For me, the most daunting part of working on a story is the interview process. There’s the pressure to gather everything you need, while saying the right things to make someone comfortable enough to open up to you.

We’ve each been assigned to blog about a particular segment from the Better Watchdog Workshop held at UAB this Saturday, hosted by the Investigative Reporters and Editors. I was grateful to cover the “The Art of the Interview.” Rosalind Bentley, a feature writer at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, shared the tactics she uses to conduct a good interview.

While I’ve found that trial and error has made me a much better interviewer than the first story I struggled through for The Crimson White, had I heard only a few of her tips beforehand, I might have been a better interviewer earlier on in my journalism career.

The top ten tips Bentley gave during her lecture:

1. “No” doesn’t mean “no,” it just means “not right now.” Keep asking if someone turns you down again and again for an interview. It might take more than a few requests to get them to talk to you.
2. If you have a lot of time to prepare, research the heck out of the person. A Google search should only be a starting point. (Check out Gigi’s blog to see how we all learned to stalk people before interviewing them.)
3. Be nosey and chat people up. Casual acquaintances can turn out to be sources. (Now this is where I struggle. While I am curious about the world around me, it hasn’t always been in my nature to strike up conversations with everyone. But being able to do this as a journalist is crucial.)
4. Write out your questions ahead of time, put them in the order you’ll want to ask them, and practice saying them out loud.
5. Ask short questions and don’t be afraid of silence in between your question and their answer. (Also something I’ve had to learn to deal with. But it’s sometimes better to just shut up!)
6. Transcribe notes or tapes quickly after interview to see any holes in your reporting.
7. Write down any color or observations.
8. Dress to the situation.
9. If appropriate, write a thank you note after the interview.
10. Always remember that your reputation precedes you.

let’s get a silver bullet trailer

I should be working on a personal culture sketch for my assistantship. Please bear with me as I am in a personal, reflective mood.

It’s funny how one song can bring back a flood of memories. While I was sipping my iced coffee in Strip Teas this morning, “The Calculation” by Regina Spektor started playing overhead. And the nostalgia hit me  so hard I nearly cried. Instantly I longed for early summer mornings of waking up to drive my sister to work in Birmingham. Waking up to trees in my window, a ceiling fan whirring too fast for comfort, thick, heavy heat permeating through the windows, and the smell of coffee heating on the stove. My first summer of fire flies, first summer of Alabama beach with white sand. So many good friends.

And now, as I listen to a cold rain fall hard as I snuggle under a blanket in Tuscaloosa, I am listening to “Folding Chair.”

Come and open up your folding chair next to me. My feet are buried in the sand, and there’s a breeze. There’s a shadow, you can’t see my eyes, and the sea is just a wetter version of the skies.

And all I want is to be tan, to be sipping iced coffee, and to run to the grocery store by just stepping outside and cutting through an alley past a foul dumpster, and a small stream with a neglected boat at its side.

Well if my personal piece were about what I enjoyed about this summer, I would feel relieved. But right now I’m expressing a few hundred words the culture I embrace. I never thought this would be so hard to share to what extent I embrace my Mexican heritage. But every time I get to a point where the piece should wrap itself up, I am unhappy with the tone or what I’ve left the reader with. Ah, story of my life. It’ll get there by tomorrow.

Anyways, it has been a good while since I’ve written anything. Since I last wrote, swarms of Alabama fans took over Los Angeles (I still get excited when I see flashes of crimson, until I remind myself that I’m back in Tuscaloosa), and I helped cover the madness for The Tuscaloosa News:

Alabama fans living in Los Angeles show their pride

UA, UT come together to aid homeless in Pasadena

Saturday I’m heading to UAB for the Birmingham Better Watchdog Workshop. Look for my post discussing “The Art of Interviewing” segment.

eating and writing

Since I watched the movie “Julie & Julia” the other day and browsed through Julie Powell’s actual blog, I’ve been thoroughly entertained by my sisters’ impressions of Julia Child every time we cook.

I guess it’s not the idea of cooking exquisitely — though that is something I aspire to be able to do — that has remained on my mind, as it is writing about something I’m passionate about and experiencing true success. Julie Powell certainly didn’t have any idea that her project would ultimately be made into a motion picture starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. No, no. She just wanted to write with a purpose, write for an audience, and find an outlet where she could release some of the thoughts buzzing around in her head. She wanted to accomplish something with her writing. And it turned out that a lot of people cared about what she wrote.

Anyways a blog as successful as that is something to think about. I feel like this entire blog can be summed up as a yearning for success.

***

And speaking of success — check out my story today in the T-news!

p.s. — only a few more days before all of the Alabama people filter into Pasadena!

Exquisite cooking by Dylann Bralley — chile relleno burritos. My mouth waters.

Journalism students (Knight fellows, in particular) — What more can we do to get ahead?

I stumbled across this on 10,000 Words, my favorite site to waste time on these days: Journalism Grads: 30 Things You Should Do This Summer. This was posted in June, but I mean hey these things don’t have to actually take place over the summer. Particularly for the Knight fellows, this could be our little list of things to accomplish by the end of our program. I felt proud of myself, actually, that I already had quite a few of these checked off. And so many of these items can be taken care of by just a few clicks when we’ve got some down time in lieu of time spent Facebook lurking.

Also, this was funny: 10 news photos that took retouching too far.

Oh, and I’ll be doing some stories for The Tuscaloosa News about Alabama fans coming to Pasadena!

Alabama flag hanging outside our living room window in Altadena.

Valpo in the winter issue of the Tuscaloosa Magazine!

Look at our story about Valparaíso, Chile printed in the winter 2009 issue of the Tuscaloosa Magazine!

City of Living Art

Also, I got a ticket to the game! Yeah yeah gonna watch the Tide roll over Texas in my hometown!

Also, in addition to the lovely photos in the article by Ms. Andrea Mabry, here are some I took for your viewing pleasure:

A view of the city of Valparaiso from the top of Cerro Concepcion.

Homes in Valpo, with laundry hanging out to dry.

Graffiti at the Ex Carcel.

More graffiti at the Ex-Carcel, or ex-prison. The prison was in use until the late '90s, when it was closed. Now it's a place for artists to cover with their masterpieces.

More beautiful graffiti.

And beautiful food — the chorillana. Mary Elizabeth Sims White enjoys a bite of the french fries topped with beef, sauteed onions, and a scrambled egg at J. Cruz in Valpo.

Thank you for indulging me in my trip down memory lane.

Mmmm how about some soul food?

Anyone who hasn’t ventured to Maggie’s Diner, located right next to the train switch yard (underneath the 15th

Maggie's Diner is open for lunch weekdays from 11-3:30. It's located at 1307 Ty Rogers Junior Ave, next to the railroad switching yard under the 15th St. Bridge.

Street Bridge at Lurleen Wallace), needs to sample her flat corn bread, veggies, and meats. Her food is fabulous and is loved by her loyal customers.

I did my video project on her restaurant. Take a look.

Maggie Harris started the diner in 1998. She worked for years as a cafeteria cook for the Tuscaloosa County School System, and once she retired, she found herself looking for something to keep her busy.

“I’ve just always loved working with food,” she said. So she decided to open the diner.

Every day Harris prepares the food from scratch. She gets to work at 8 a.m. every day and gets everything ready by the time customers come wandering in at 11. One other woman helps her with the preparation (though unfortunately I didn’t get to meet her).

Hope you all enjoy the video — don’t judge too harshly. I didn’t use a mic, which I will do next time. And I would have liked better lighting in the restaurant, but I’m just learning how to work with things like that.

Levonda Dodd, a frequent diner at Maggie's, enjoys her lunch.

Maggie Harris spreads icing over her cinnamon rolls before her lunch crowd comes in.

Harris rings up a lot of sales as customers from all over Tuscaloosa and from out of town come by to sample her delicious comfort food.

The diner is located across the street from the railroad switching yard, adding to the sights and sounds of the experience.

***

Oh, and on a different note, can I just comment on how amazed I am by this whole Alabama going to Pasadena thing? I had hoped this would happen the entire time I went to school here, but it just feels surreal now that it’s about to occur. It’ll be so trippy to see Colorado Boulevard dotted with crimson and hear ‘Roll Tides’ coming from every which way. I can’t wait!

And, one more thing — we did it! We finally finished our first semester. Congrats to my fellow Knight Fellows!

published! and we’re getting so close to a break…

My story about Galilee Baptist Church was printed in The Tuscaloosa News! Check it out. In other news, I need to fix my Soundslides presentation and put together some sort of video for Media Production Tools before we show everything in Anniston Dec. 10.

Two weeks from now I’ll be in Altadena! I have so, so much to do before then. Gonna get my research on tonight. Chau!

some thousands of words and a writer’s most common anxiety?

Oh boy! We finally made it to Thankgiving Break! I slept in this morning, made cinnamon coffee, ate raisin bran, and spent at least an hour on 10,000 words. I thought I’d share some links with you all that I stumbled across from my journey of clicking clicking clicking….

1. Oh, if only I actually had an iPhone. I do have an iPod Touch which is quite nifty, but the internet only serves me when I’m reach of wifi. But here are 10 Essential iPhone Apps for Bloggers and Reporters. How snazzy are some of these! Especially the voice recorders. I didn’t see the AP Style Book App that Kiri mentioned to me yesterday. That would be a convenient one to have as you’re typing up stories without having to lug around the latest version while your outdated versions collect dust on your shelf at home.

2. Here are two Twitter-related links I found to be interesting: The Top 7 Mistakes New Twitter Users Make, though I’m not convinced this addresses everything. They are some good things to consider, though. Also, 10 Journalists You Should be Following on Twitter. Check out their Twitters and their blogs.

3. FFFFOUND was one of the blogs listed under The 99 Greatest Blogs You Aren’t Reading. It is definitely a non-journalism blog, but it was quite fun to scroll down and look at the interesting images people come across online.

4. Has everyone else had a chance to look at Gwyneth Paltrow’s blog This is GOOP? I can’t afford to do half the things she suggests, like places to go eat, etc., but there are some nice looking little recipes and cute fashion ideas and interesting looking books to read and movies to see. I spent enough time on it to suggest that you all check it out.

5. Mashable: The Social Media Guide was an interesting looking one. The Knight fellows could probably benefit from clicking the WordPress tab and checking out the different things we could do to make our blogs more appealing and interesting to the community.

6. Finally, interesting as we put together Soundslides presentations and put together our videos, check out The Art of Visual Storytelling. Just some things to keep in mind.

***

On another note, as Kiri and I were putting together our Rick Bragg stories, Kiri said she hoped she would do a good job telling the story of this woman she was writing about. It struck me, because just a few minutes earlier, I was on the phone with the woman I was writing about.

“Can I get a copy of that story when you’re finished with it?” she asked.

A legit question to ask, right? And of course I was planning on showing her what I said about her. But still, I get that twinge in my stomach when someone I wrote about actually reads what I wrote about them. It’s the same sort of anxiety I get when anyone reads what I write — an odd anxiety for a journalist, I suppose. I want to have done an excellent job. And how can I, someone who only met this woman a few days ago, write a story that truly captures her? How can I, someone who lives in a little college bubble and still doesn’t even live 100 percent independently, understand enough about life to share her story? How common are these anxieties with journalists? Even with the most professional?

Maybe as I get older and wiser and more comfortable with my writing will these anxieties lessen. Tal vez, tal vez.