May 15, 2010 - A meeting was held last week at PAC to seek out writers and photographers. A Writers and Photographers Guild was formed right then and there.
Most of those who attended were already personalities in church: Elders, Youth leaders, members of the pastoral staff and other youth members who were already making marks in the line of photography. Without a question, I was one of those who attended. I was already jumping with glee when I first heard of the meeting. I was expecting to find new writers within the congregation.
I was disappointed to see old faces, but was happy as well because we were able to organize ourselves for the first time. Hopefully this would be a successful attempt at creating a media team for the various activities and ministries of the church.
Actually, I was not able to join at the start of the meeting. Due to certain circumstances, I was late. I crept in as quietly as I could since they were already discussing something when I came in. When I eased myself at the meeting and joined in on the discussion, I was surprised to find out that they were already discussing assignments – the beats for the newly formed PAC-MAC or Media Action Center. I was more surprised when I found my name on top of the list.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I learned that it was about the prayer marathon that we had a week ago. Not only did I attend the event, I was even one of the organizers. My task was to write a news report of the event.
I thought it was easy.
I was reminded that it wasn’t.
The thing is, I haven’t written a news article in 7 years. Back then, those that I have written could be counted ON YOUR FINGERS ON ONE HAND. It was that few. I had more experience with the feature articles, it was my department. That was home for me. Give me some feature topics to write about any day and I’d finish it in a heartbeat.
The day before the deadline, I remembered how hard it was to write a news article. Any other person, it should have been easy. You just lay down the facts to your reader straight sans opinions, flowery words, emotions or personal references.
You just tell them what happened, where it happened, why it happened, how it happened and who made it happen. What you feel and what you think about the event is not important.
That’s my first issue with the news article. You have to dig facts, rattle people, look at manuscripts, and attend events to write about it. You have to be accurate, unbiased and balanced. Those are the things that I couldn’t be. I am more of a live-with-what-I-have-and-don’t-bother-if-it-lacked-detail guy. Hence, essays are easier for me.
Aside from that, let’s face it; I’m more of a flowery-word-guy. It’s a struggle to stop myself from putting my opinions or describe events using words that would incite emotions especially after reading the books that inspired me to adopt that style. Several times while writing the report, I had to straighten my face and rewrite several passages to make it straight news.
Moreover, I find news writing to be more rigid than features or essays. The news has to have structure. Some sort of backbone. I actually remember that the basic structure is an inverted pyramid. Most important and juicy facts first and moving on towards the less important or sometimes irrelevant nice-to-know facts last. I’m not really favoring the free flowing articles, since I find that constipating to the mind. Instead, I find it more favorable to be free but bound by a certain structure, something where you could combine a hard-hitting or a captivating introduction with a nice and juicy conclusion.
Complaints and issues aside, I was able to complete the task. I was able to submit it on time. By on time, I mean the editor already texted me twice about the report due on that day and he was already sitting beside me when I emailed it.
Yet as I looked at my work, I was reminded of another issue that I had when writing news pieces. I felt dissatisfied. It’s the same feeling I felt when I submitted my first news article as a high school student. Somehow, there is still a lingering doubt that I had completely covered the event. There’s this feeling that I have left out certain facts but could not add another sentence. I felt that I submitted something half-baked.
Amidst all my issues and complaints against news writing, I still find the experience refreshing. I find myself reminded by God that I still have a long way to go when it comes to writing. Despite the more than hundreds of posts on the internet, and several articles on devotionals, I still experience mistakes in grammar, illogical sentences constructions and contradicting statements often. It just means that even though I have had enough practice, it doesn’t mean that I already know everything there is to the craft. In fact, those quips and mistakes remind that I need to go further. The only thing that keeps me doing this despite the mistakes is my love for the craft and the accomplishment I get after seeing my posts online.
I guess, giving me news writing assignments is God given. It’s great to write again!
"This city is shouting you down; a personal music player is a form of self defense. It creates a force field around you, shuts out the world that is trying to swallow you whole, and defines, however tenuously, a space that is yours." - Jessica Zafra, Twisted 8 1/2
