One thing I love about all the writing experience I’m forcing myself to have during college (kind of—I enjoy it!) is that it works. I love looking back on past articles I’ve written for any of the various publications I write for, and identifying the ways I’ve improved.

The book critic I was recently corresponding with told me that, if I’m not already, I should write for the school newspaper because he knows that he gained invaluable experience by doing so. I still remember the Turf Dinner freshmen year, when I raced around the tables, only searching out the stand for The Student Life. I hadn’t written for a newspaper before, and was anxious to start gaining experience.

One place at which I have really noticed this is in my internship at the Public Relations Office this semester. I had been used to writing longer pieces, about 700-900 words, composed of longer paragraphs and less quotes (since most of my articles for the newspaper and the magazine have been reviews or summaries of events, not interviews). The first rough draft of an article I wrote for Public Relations followed this pattern—I simply couldn’t figure out how to make it shorter.

Before long though, by looking at the edited copies I was given back and studying the current feature articles on the website written by others, I learned how to adopt a similar style. It’s fun to look at the information the interviewees give me, draw out the suitable quotes that move the story forward, and also highlight or tie back to an aspect of Scripps College that we want to present. Of course, I have lots of work ahead of me but it sounds like I will be able to continue the internship next semester, too, also concentrating on producing articles for the Scripps website.

For my personal blog, I try to write my posts more like stories; for this blog I usually have the same idea in mind but tend to be even more casual since the topic is always more personal. For the newspaper, it depends on the article itself.

Over the summer, I tried my hand at more creative writing, working on short stories that I’ve always had in the back of my mind. This month is National Novel-Writing Month, and I hope to challenge myself in order to gain even more creative writing experience. (And also hope to blog about it, so that the few people following me can help keep me on track!) I love the idea of being a versatile writer, and for anyone who hopes to have a career focused on writing, I suppose this is necessary since it’s not the easiest path on which to have a narrow focus.

I had mentioned in a previous post that often people with aspirations like mine tend to get the same advice over and over (which, of course, just shows how important it is to take this advice): read a lot. However, we also get another piece of advice just as often: write a lot.

Sometimes, all this writing seems to get tedious, but then I look back over the improvement I’ve made, or have an especially enjoyable day writing a piece I find particularly interesting, fun, or challenging, and it is all worthwhile. Today was one of those days, and I feel excited for the future writing experience and related jobs I will have, for the words I will one day create, and the experiences that will go along with them.