How far can one story take you?
In some cases, only a couple of hours on the front page before you are bumped off.
In other cases, it's a lot of research, a front page, and a job offer.
That was the case with one story I wrote for the NEWS 605: News Writing about a month ago. The assignment was an Enterprise story, which is a story that is not breaking and is applicable anytime.
It was about the Connective Corridor, which is an initiative to highlight arts and culture in Syracuse, according to the director of the project, Robbi Farschman, who I interviewed. Anyway, she, probably being so impressed by my interviewing skills, offered to post the story on the Corridor website, after I finished.
But me, being an ambitious type, wanted better. I pitched the story to one of the local papers, "The Eagle" and the "New Times"
Two weeks passed. And no reply from anyone.
I got impatient, as I usually do, and started to doubt whether or not that was a good article, which also usually happens. Who cares that I got an A on the article? No one wanted to publish it, and that was a bigger insult.
So finally, dejected, I e-mailed the story to Robbi and washed my hands of it. It would appear in the Corridor newsletter and I could just forget about the rejection.
And then suddenly, a day after while I was on vacation in Boston, Ami Olson, editor of "The Eagle," e-mailed me. She wanted the story for the front page.
At the same time, Robbi e-mailed me saying that she wanted me to work for her as a paid intern.
There I was, my first night in Boston and I had what felt like a catastrophe on my hand. On one hand, I was smacking myself over the head for not being patient enough with the story. I could have been the front page of a paper!
On the other hand, if I hadn't e-mailed it to Robbi, she never would have known that I was a pretty decent writer (I think she used the word "spectacular," which I won't say set me glowing). Then she wouldn't have offered me a job.
The main question now was: what do I do?
I e-mailed my professor for news-writing Walter Wasilewski, he told me not worry and that I was better off explaining everything. But here is a thought too, Ami should have replied to me sooner and I shouldn't feel guilty about giving the story away to someone else. That made me feel better.
What was awesome ("she shoots, she scores!" - he wrote) was that I had an internship, paid, for the fall.
Then another turn: I couldn't even work for Robbi now. I had another internship in New York City, which was not paid, which would be a better experience (it was "Back Stage," an actual publication). So much for that highlight.
So now we are back to Square 1, which is non-excitement and one less story to worry about. Though for one story, that brought on a multitude of excitement and many different ways it could have turned out. Next time, I hope that drama actually benefits me in some way rather than being events that have no real ripples in the grand scheme of things.
I think there was a lesson in all of this but I'm still trying to figure it out...
P.S. And if anyone is interested, here is the story, which spent two days on the front page of the Corridor website before it was bumped off. Such is life.
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