Last Update

The last few weeks of my internship, I continued writing up advances and events for the calendar. I also was assigned to do a piece for on the opening of Speakman place in November for City Life. Overall, it was a good experience - although it's nice the semester is wrapping up! The internship alongside all of the writing for 308 was invaluable. Happy Holidays!

Pre-Holiday Update

This week we were wrapping up the issue for December, so I edited a ton of proofs - including my DSL article! Unfortunately, it was largely edited to make it shorter. A lot of description was taken out - which I had thoroughly enjoyed writing - but I suppose that's the breaks. I still got to edit it - aha! Maybe some of my edits will stick. Regardless, it was really great to get to cover an actual event and write about it with humor and flair. I love finding the interesting angles of a story. Essentially, I get to take the best parts of a picture and do my best to recreate it. I don't know a lot of jobs who allow you that sort of creativity, but I know that that's why I love writing, whether it's for a magazine, newspaper, or anything else. As for this coming week, I'm not sure what I'm doing yet, but I am looking forward to seeing the December issue.

What a Crazy Week

This week was indeed, crazy. I had to finish updating the Holiday Events and enter in all of the December events online. I also had to finish 4 advances and the "Gigs," which is basically a list of bands, their shows, location of the shows, and dates of the shows for December. I also had my first assignment (that I cover) on Tuesday with the Delaware Sports League at Highlands Elementary and Kid Shelleens (restaurant/bar) after the dodgeball game. It was interesting seeing 20 and 30 and ups throw balls at each other. I got there and wrote what I saw about the game and interviewed people for the most part at the bar afterwards. A lot of people gave me good quotes, so I'm hoping everything goes well. This week I think I'm doing proofs, we'll see...

Updating my blog...

The week 10/14 to 10/19 I continued to work on advances and updating calendar events. The following week I didn't come in because I had some doctor stuff and the magazine was wrapping up for the November issue. After my mini "vacation" I was assigned to update dates and information on the Holiday Events calendar featured annually in December. This past week I was given a handful of advances to complete in addition to an assignment that I'm covering this week. Basically, Out and About is sponsoring the DSL, Delaware Sports League, which revolves primarily around the bar scene while lightly incorporating sports such as kickball and ultimate frisbee. They're going to have a game Tuesday followed by relaxing at Catherine Rooney's (which I've never been to) afterward. I just turned 21, so the timing was impeccable. They're also going to be at Klondike Kate's Monday (tomorrow) so I'm going to see if I can head up there as well. I really wish I had a car so I didn't have to set up a ride (very inconvenient - note to self, get a car if planning on being actual journalist). Other than that, Bob Downing, the head of DSL from what I gather, offered me a job collecting money and "promoting" DSL. By promoting I can only assume that I will dazzle potential DSL members with my snarky wit and startling eloquence. Anyway, this is the first time I'm going "on assignment," so to speak so I'm incredibly nervous as well as excited. Wish me luck!

CARtoonist George Trosley

This week I finished an additional advance for an art exhibit in Philadelphia. I also interviewed George Trosley for a brief profile piece. He was a very good person to interview since he was so quotable and easy-going. I also wrote the profile for him this week. In addition to advances I also updated copy, which I've done before for MetroKids.

So what I've been doing now...

Recently, I've been adding a large number of events into the event database for the November issue. This basically requires me to find the who, what, where, when and why, enter it, and go onto the next event. This week I also received two more advances to do, one on STOMP!, which is playing at the DuPont Theatre, and the other on the remainder of the "Everything Autumn" events featured at Longwood Gardens until November 18. Once again, I had to distinguish between the highlights of the events and the information that could be taken out. I had a little trouble expaning STOMP! to 150 words since the show is basically a percussion performance. I had to delve into the adjective bank quite a bit, but I think it turned out decently.

"The eight-member troupe features percussionists from around the world ready and waiting to blow minds using everything but the conventional to get the sound audiences love to hear. Brooms, hubcaps, wooden poles, matchboxes – even Zippo lighters will ignite the stage with contagious and crazy rhythm sure to thrill all ages. "

Alliteration was in heavy use as well, as you can see. Besides that I got an exciting article assignment (my first 'real' article for Out and About). The story is a profile on George Trosley, a local artist and, from what I understand, auto enthusiast, whose work is making it to the big screen. Generally I like doing profiles better than news features because of the creative liberties you can take with those stories. So, I'm excited for that and, of course, I'll keep you posted.

Kathleen

A life...continued

Now for the rest of my internship. My first assignment was writing "advances," which are basically playfully worded summaries of events featured in the events/calendar section of the magazine. I wrote one for a dog walk fundraiser sponsored by the Delaware Humane Association and another for a new germ exhibit at the Delaware Natural History Museum. This was really fun to do because I was able to be creative and practice my writing. Writing up events are challenging because you have to take out the important information from the press release and internet site, which usually consists of plenty of ultimately superfluous and distracting background, and make it into a humorous, light-hearted 15o word summary. Once you've selected the highlights, wording the advances so that they're not pushy but positive and entertaining was a challenge. My first advances were slightly too on the advertising/urging-people-to-come-to-the-event side. I was able to come up with puns and funny ways of wording things, however, especially with the germ exhibit, since an exhibit featuring germs would make me phobic. Anyway, the advances were educational and fun, and I was able to practice condensing events, which is invaluable when you work for a publication.