Word on the Street

How Do You Motivate Yourself to Write Personal Essays?

I have a lot of ideas for personal essays that I’ve been wanting to write about lately, but a busy work and social life have led to weeks of procrastination. When I do have free time, distractions get in the way, and I’m left thinking, “Tomorrow. I’ll write tomorrow.”

I have no problem churning out stories for work, mainly because I have deadlines that leave me with little time to worry about being overly self-critical or about perfecting my leads. These inhibitions seem to get in the way, as does the uncertainty of where to start.

The more I think about wanting to write a memoir, the more I wonder: How do you start a memoir? When there’s so much to write about, how do you find focus in a lifetime of memories and experiences?

I think it helps if you decide to write for yourself instead of writing to impress an audience. Thinking about writing for publication, especially when it comes to writing intimate personal essays, can be intimidating and can lead to unnecessary delays in the writing process.

Maybe writing down my ideas will motivate me to pursue them and carve out more time for personal writing. Doesn’t hurt to try.

Ideas:

An essay about Sundays. Growing up, Sundays were always family days. My mom, dad and I would take day trips to Boston, go for bike rides and snack on mocha almond chip ice cream. But that all changed when I saw my mom for the last time on Sunday, Feb. 9, 1997. Her skin was yellow, her eyes sunken in, her face a portrait of pain. She died that day. We should have been at church together. We should have been strolling along the streets of Boston, laughing and forgetting that we had to return to the reality of work and school the next day. Since mom died, Sunday has been my least favorite day and has continued to be difficult for me, try though I might to make it a good day. Funny how what’s supposed to be “the day of rest” is a day that I often equate with pain and suffering.

An essay about father-daughter bonds. In my dad’s mind, I can do no wrong. Maybe it’s because I’m an only child and he can spoil me like that. More so, though, it’s because we have been through so much together. My dad has always believed in me, even when others were doubtful. He’s always encouraging, instilling in me a sense that no goals are too lofty and that failure is not something to be feared. We live more than 1,000 miles apart now, but we remain close, even despite the fact that he’s “not a good phone talker,” as he says. It frustrates me that he’s not a man of many words on the phone — unless, of course, he’s talking about cars or guitars. Sometimes, though, his silence is enough.

An essay about people not understanding what “a little bit” means. This is one of my pet peeves. I’ve stopped asking for whipped cream on my drinks at Starbucks because whenever I ask for “just a little bit,” I get a huge scoop of it. I’ve tried “just a teeny bit,” “just a smidgen” and “just a dollop,” but the mounds of whip cream seem to get bigger every time! I used to experience this in college, too. I’d ask for “one slice of cheese, please” on my veggie wrap, and inevitably the woman making the sandwiches would say, “Oh, I’ll give you two!” Sometimes I just want a dollop, a slice, and nothing more.

An essay about bugs. Lord knows I’ve had my share of bug problems since moving down to Florida. But who hasn’t? Fleas (twice), swarming termites that forced me to move out of my old apartment, black ants in my car. And lizards, too! Talking about the bugs I’ve encountered, and my reaction to them, would make for a funny essay, especially given my phobia of creepy crawlers.

What tips do you have for motivating yourself to write personal essays?

Meeting Three Journalism Pioneers: Koppel, Schieffer and Brokaw

This week, I met Ted Koppel when he came to The Poynter Institute Monday night to talk about the state of the media. I live blogged Koppel’s talk for Poynter Online and then wrote a recap of what he had to say. One of the topics he talked about at length was social media and the extent to which anyone can use social networking sites to be a “reporter.”

“It is desperately important that everyone have the right to be a reporter, but I think we need to adapt to the new reality of the technology,” Koppel said. “The people who drafted the First Amendment … never imagined a time when every idiot who says, ‘Just bought some cauliflower at the Safeway’ and then tweets that considers that to be a form of journalism.”

I’m a big Twitter advocate, and I think that it can serve a journalistic purpose, but I nonetheless agree with Koppel’s notion that just because you can produce news on Twitter doesn’t mean that what you’re producing is quality journalism. But who says it needs to be?

Koppel, in talking about social media, acknowledged the importance and growth of online journalism and shared his thoughts on the future of print media: “Is there any way that newspapers are going to be able to afford to keep doing it the old fashioned way?” he asked. “I would be astonished if 20 years from now we still have a single paper newspaper. I think it’s all going to be electronic by then.”

In addition to meeting Koppel and hearing him talk about such issues, I’ve been lucky enough to meet a few other major nightly news hosts, namely Bob Schieffer last year in Dallas and Tom Brokaw at my alma mater four years ago.

(I covered Schieffer’s talk at a bookstore for The Dallas Morning News, and I wrote about Brokaw’s graduation speech for my college newspaper during my sophomore year.)

Now I have to meet some of the female nightly news broadcasters — Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer.

Recent Poynter Online Stories about Orange County Register, Kansas City Star Columnists

My last two stories for Poynter Online have been about two columnists who made headlines after making decisions that readers and journalists found fault with.

The most recent story, published Thursday on Poynter Online, talks about the backstory behind a sports column that the Orange County Register‘s Mark Whicker wrote earlier this week. In the column, Whicker uses sporting events to measure what Jaycee Dugard missed out on during her 18-year-long kidnapping.

After a friend (thanks @andymboyle) sent me a link to the column Wednesday afternoon, I wanted to find out more about Whicker’s intent in writing the story and what the editing process was like. When I interviewed Whicker later that night, he told me he wrote a similar piece about journalist Terry Anderson back in 1991. Deadspin picked up on that aspect of the story Thursday afternoon. Romenesko also linked to the story, which you can read here in its entirety:

“Orange Country Register columnist Mark Whicker asked readers Wednesday to forgive his ‘lapse of professionalism’ in writing a column that noted all the sports milestones that Jaycee Dugard missed after being kidnapped and held in captivity for 18 years.

“But in a phone interview, he defended the premise of his column and suggested that the fast-moving, quick-to-judge culture of the Web was behind the wave of criticism.

” ‘I vehemently believe I wasn’t insensitive about the fact that she was kidnapped,” he said Wednesday evening while at his son’s soccer practice. “I never made light about the fact that this woman was abducted. I don’t think anyone can cite anything in the column that says I did.’ ”

[READ MORE …]

The other story I wrote a few weeks ago centered on a job query that Kansas City Star columnist Mike Hendricks sent to a public relations firm. Hendricks’ query, in which he suggested he was over-qualified for the PR position, backfired on him when it landed on the “Bad Pitch Blog.” The story I wrote generated some interesting discussion — on Romenesko and in the blogosphere.

Here’s the intro to the story, which you can read here in its entirety:

“Kansas City Star columnist Mike Hendricks recently learned the hard way what not to do when looking for a job.

“Earlier this month, Hendricks wrote a job query to Topeka-based Ogden Publications, expressing his interest in a public relations opening and declaring that he was overqualified for the position.

“His approach backfired after his e-mail exchange with the company was made public last week on the Bad Pitch Blog.

“The chain of events no doubt serves as a cautionary tale for journalists who are searching for jobs outside the news business. It’s a reminder that not everything that’s intended to be confidential remains so.”

[READ MORE …]

What’s your reaction to the news in these stories?

New Amazon Wish List a Reminder to Find More Time for Books

I’ve spent the past two hours listening to the rain and creating my Amazon wish list. I usually e-mail myself titles of books that I want to read, so instead of having them build up in my e-mail box, I created a wish list to keep them organized and to remind myself that I need to find more time to turn off the computer at night and read all the books I’ve been saying I want to read.

In looking at my wish list, I realize that the books are almost all nonfiction and that they reflect similar topics: mothers and daughters, food, and diversity. I often write about these topics and want to read more about them to help develop my understanding of how they play out in my life and the lives of others.

I like reading books about other people’s lives, perhaps because I’m a journalist. By nature of my profession, I look at the world as an ever-evolving story. Oddball characters, random roadside spottings and all things novel make me wonder what stories are lurking in the background.

I’ve found that seeing these types of stories played out in memoirs, and reading about real-life people, can make you realize that as far out as your own struggles might seem, you’re not as abnormal or as alone as you might think.

The memoir I’m reading right now, “Mother of My Mother” by Hope Edelman, has been having that effect on me. It’s about the bond between generations of women — grandmothers, mothers and daughters — and how that bond helps shape women’s identities. I’ve been able to relate to a lot of what the book says about loss and, in particular, the ways in which grandmas help fill the void that stems from maternal loss. The next memoir I’m planning to read is Mark Matousek’s “The Boy He Let Behind.”

If you have recommedations of books that I should add to my list, let me know. Though I love nonfiction, I like a good novel every now and then, too.

Highlights from My Trip to Costa Rica

After two weeks of traveling through Costa Rica and having family in town, I’m now back to a regular routine — which means I’ll resume my regular blog schedule. My trip to Costa Rica, which I took with five of my close college friends, was one of the best trips I’ve taken. We went to Monteverde, Tamarindo, San Jose and Miravalles, among other places. Here are a few photos from the trip …

Went on a mini hike to a beautiful waterfall near Miravalles Volcano.

Us getting ready to swim near the waterfall.

Just before doing a canopy tour and zip-lining in Monteverde. Seeing as I'm afraid of heights, I was a little worried about the canopy tours, which include a Tarzan Swing, a 50-foot rappel and a "Superman" zip-line. Ended up loving it. Soared 263 feet above a forest canopy and said goodbye to fear.

My friend Colleen and I did our fair share of cartwheeling, running and skipping along the beach.

Friends. We were at a restaurant in downtown Tamarindo called FT's. Served delicious Casados here. Casados come with rice, beans, fried plantains and your choice of meat or veggies. Yum.

Three-quarters of our college crew, FBW. Fun before work (FBW) was our college motto. Always served as a reminder that we had to find time for fun amidst all the papers, exams, etc. ... Photo taken on our last night just before sunset on la playa Tamarindo. Did I mention how much I love my friends?

Taking a Brief Blogging Break While in Costa Rica

For those of you who read this blog regularly, I figured I would let you all know that I’ll be in Costa Rica for the next nine days. I’m heading on a trip there with six of my closest college friends. We’ll be in San Jose, Tamarindo and Monteverde, among other places, and plan to go hiking, running and surfing! I’m pretty pumped.

I’m going to attempt to make it an Internet-free week, so I won’t be posting to my blog. You can be sure to see some photos and stories, though, when I return.

Until then!

Learning the Craft of Journalism from Providence College’s Roy Peter Clark ’70 & John Quinn ’45

While in college I regularly sought guidance and support from journalists whose work I admired. My alma mater, Providence College, didn’t have a journalism school, so internships, editing my college newspaper and having mentors helped teach me the skills I needed to pursue a career as a journalist and have any chance of succeeding.

In particular, I sought inspiration from the few journalists who have graduated from Providence College. Roy Peter Clark ’70, USA Today co-founder John Quinn ’45 and Theresa Freeman ’96 were by far the biggest help to me because they gave me the confidence I needed, helped teach me the values of the craft and gave me a better understanding of how newsrooms have adapted to change throughout the years.

I recently wrote a story about Clark and Quinn for Providence College’s alumni magazine, which you can read here. (See pages 27 and 28 and be patient with the PDF because it takes a little while to load.) The first story is about Clark’s speech at a recent Board of Directors meeting in Jupiter, Fla., in which he proposed that Providence College become a “College of Writers.” The second story is about the ways in which Quinn and Clark have mentored me throughout the years.

Happy reading!

Videos, Photographs, Sites That Are Worth a Look

It’s one of those nights where I’m by myself, listening to music and relaxing. My cat just hopped on my bed and nestled herself across my arms, not seeming to mind that her body’s moving up and down to the clickety-clackety rhythm of my wrists as I type this.

I told myself earlier in the day that I was going to read tonight and leave the computer turned off when I got home from work. Oh laptop, how you tempt me. At least I spent my time looking at interesting videos, photos and sites that I can share with you. … Enjoy!

“How Different Groups Spend Their Day”: A New York Times interactive graphic that illustrates a snapshot of the way Americans live. I was surprised to see that the average time spent sleeping per day is eight hours and 36 minutes. That seems like a lot. I’m lucky if I get six hours.

“This Is Where We Live”: This animated video features lots of books and cut-out paper figurines. It makes me want to curl up with a good book.

“We’re All Gonna Die: 100 Meters of Existence”: Use the arrow keys to scroll through 100 meters of photos taken along the Warschauer Strasse in Berlin.

“Fifty People, One Question”: This site features video interviews with 50 people. All of the 50 people are asked the same question. See how they respond — how their demeanor changes, how their emotions take over, how they choose to share themselves.

Scrabble (and origami!) pillows. Oh my. I’d really like some of these.

“Her Morning Elegance” by Oren Lavie. I like the music video to this song a lot. Interesting how so much happens at once in one spot — a bed.

(Note: I found a lot of these links on the “Gentle Pure Space” blog. Check it out.)

Looking for Suggestions of Where to Go in Costa Rica

In less than two weeks I’m heading to Costa Rica with five of my 10 close college friends. Eight of us took a trip to Fort Lauderdale two years ago after graduating and have wanted to explore another place together. The trip means a lot to me especially because I live so far away from my college friends, most of whom live in the Boston area.

We’re flying into San Jose and then taking a bus to Tamarindo, where one of our friends is teaching for the summer. Seeing as I’ve never been to Costa Rica before, I’m looking for recommendations of places to go, sights to see, things to do. We hope to travel outside of Tamarindo to the extent that we can and explore some less toursity areas. Any suggestions?