When I am at school
in the summer I can let my imagination run wild through the many assignments
given to me throughout the program. I love it! However, when I return home I
have to switch my brain back to AP format and a journalist point of view.
When I became a
journalist I thought, This job won't be
that difficult, I write all the time. Oh, how wrong I was.
Recently I got a
phone call from a local law enforcement officer explaining there had been a
shooting in a nearby town. Throughout the course of the day, different people
called in and gave their side of the story and information they had.
By the afternoon the
story was that a man had hurt a younger girl, and the younger girl called her
father, so the father flew in from the West Coast to get revenge. A shoot-out
began as the two men drove at high speeds down a major highway in our county.
One of the men was shot in the shoulder, but managed to kill the other man and
another woman before he was shot in the head. He still got up and walked
afterwards.
Sounds a little crazy,
right? That's because a lot of it is. It would make an interesting murder
mystery, but in the world of journalism and reporting the news, the truth
is key.
This is where my job
begins. Because the case was spread over multiple small towns in the county, I
first talk to each sheriff. If I can't get in touch with them, I call the
police chiefs in each of the towns. Most of the time, with cases like this, I
get turned over to the bureau of investigations, which opens up another can of
worms, in that they have a press department to deal with reporters, which means
I typically don't get much information.
Piecing together a
story that is accurate takes a lot of time, and people don’t want to wait. If
they hear of a shooting, they want to see an immediate story on our Twitter or
Facebook page. If they don’t, they wonder why on earth this is not being
reported. This is news!! It is, but every single detail in this story MUST be
confirmed, which is not so in creative writing.
The beauty of my job
is, I not only get to gather information and figure out what actually happened
in a jumbled-up case like this, but I am inspired to create new characters.
We can find
characters all around us. I love turning people I talk to on a daily basis into
characters. Not everything has to remain the same, but if I think it's funny that
the local police chief enjoy hunting and prank calling his friends, I might use
that later for one of my characters.
It's always a good
idea to write down interesting places or characteristics because you never know
what you might need later on for a story. While I have to work hard to find out
the truth, the original rumors are much more interesting and can be turned into
something later through my creative writing once I leave the newsroom.
So, here is a challenge:
Go to dinner alone; try a fancy restaurant. Why not treat yourself? Be sure to
bring a notebook and watch the people around you. Try to describe everything
the girl several tables down does. Does she use her cell phone throughout her
meal? Does she have fancy shoes on? Maybe she looks as if she’s dressed for a
date but she’s alone. Take those descriptions and create her character.
PS: I did this in a
restaurant a few weeks ago, and the family a few tables over thought I was so
strange for eating alone (why is that? I love it!) and talked about me the
entire time. The result? I created a nosy woman who talks too loudly about
others because she has a hearing problem. See? It's not that difficult! Now,
let's see what you come up with!
Courtney Warren is a writer for her local newspaper, as well as a graduate student at Hollins University where she is pursuing a degree in Children’s Literature. She has a bachelor’s degree from Delta State University, the home of the Fighting Okra (which she is incredibly proud of). She loves to read just about anything placed on the shelves but has a special place in her heart for the Harry Potter series.
When she is not writing about herself in third person, she loves to write stories about middle schoolers with spunky attitudes who intend to save the world, as well as drinking Earl Grey tea from a very prissy teacup.
Check out her blog, Tea, the Spirit, & a Pen.
