An online news story; a digital billboard ad; a photo caption; the first draft of a novel or screenplay -- is every project worth one's best effort?
A couple of years ago I followed along on Facebook as a friend applied for, and was hired to be a nurse at Disneyland. Her little girl says when she grows up she wants to be a nurse like her mom so she can work with princesses all day.
I met her when she was in nursing school and applied to work in a PR/Marketing office where I was director. Last year I noticed a gallery of photos she had posted on Facebook; when I saw the detailed legends she had written I messaged her. "You have the most perfect photo captions on Facebook, and it's because you worked on newsletters when you were in school."
She wrote back, saying that she'd been told that her experience in PR while she was a nursing student was the reason she had been chosen over all of the other applicants.
Those days were grueling -- publishing a monthly newsletter, working with the media and editing an alumni magazine. As we interacted with faculty, administration and the media she experienced the multiple steps required for each project and the strategy behind each step (the "why"). The student workers often made follow-up calls after news releases had been sent to the various media outlets asking each reporter how he or she wanted to receive them. They were frustrated when reporters would request that information be resent several times, but two of our stories made the front page of the national section of the local papers, and were also featured on TV news broadcasts in the LA area. Publication deadline days were exhausting as we identified people in photos, wrote dozens of joyless but detailed captions and waited for final sign-offs.
It's easy to claim expertise but I'm confident that no matter what question the Disney interviewer asked my friend about her PR work experience, she would've been able to answer in detail. Small tasks such as writing the perfect photo caption helped her be chosen against fierce competition to secure her dream job.
Why take the extra time to create content that is so generic that it's given the byline "Contributed report?"
The analytics for Feb. for an online newsletter I've been working on arrived last week.
Some of the stories were created from flyers, news releases or lists. These stories competed for attention during employees' work time.
We are trying to increase readership. While the online news site we will soon be using may change our process, for now means respecting the limited time employees have to glance through email. Headlines and leads are carefully chosen for each piece that is published. Photos and artwork are chosen and legends crafted with care, and included in the top 10 most-read features for Feb. were several stories with the byline: "Contributed report."
The importance of creating excellent work, no matter the importance of the project was so important to one professor in the School of Cinematic Arts that she lectured about it during the final class session.
The course was Television Script Analysis, and the professor spoke about the reality of the industry -- new writers rarely find positions with top network or cable shows. The professor said that even as a beginning writer working on obscure shows she had always given her best. She said that some of the early shows she had worked on won their only awards for episodes she had written.
She finished her lecture by telling a story about a writer she had once worked with. He let everyone know that he was just putting in the time. He said that he was saving his best writing -- excellence --for a major show. "He died very young," she said, "before he had the chance to show his best."
NOTE: As I studied screenwriting, playwrighting and fiction writing, one of the great mysteries I tried to solve was how to create content that will make it possible for people to suspend reality and live in the story, losing track of time. I continued taking courses until professors began to tell me I was ready to "go for it." It will be fun to write about what I've discovered.
No comments:
Post a Comment