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.

The life of an editorial intern

Hello,

This is my first post, so I'm going to give the run-down of what I've been doing in September. My first day, Mike Pollock, the managing editor of Out and About, showed me the different parts of the magazine and got me set-up with my computer. I have my own intern desk and even my own password, which is geekily exciting. I'm not sure how casual these blogs have to be, so if they need to be more formal just let me know. Anyway, the first day was really an orientation. I learned how the magazine was broken down into different sections, and I saw some articles, advances and other small writing bits that other interns had done before me. I was also told that eventually I can write a few articles myself, which is much more exciting than my own password. I'm going to post a few times today, in an effort to catch up. This basically sums up my first few days at my internship.

Kathleen