Today I started a new job.
Well, let me correct that — today I finally started doing a job that I had been doing for a long time, but can now get paid for. After almost six years of writing for DCist.com, I’ve been brought on to be the site’s Associate Editor. I’ll also have the chance to fine-tune my craft by freelancing a little on the side; I’ve got a view opportunities lined up, and I’ll certainly share those when they come to fruition.
So why the long delay? Primarily, immigration-related concerns made it impossible for me to take the job any earlier than now, but with paperwork in the pipeline and a patient wife willing to stand behind me as I try something totally new, I decided that this was as good a time as any to start down the path of journalism. And yes, I’m fully aware that I’m jumping into an industry that’s otherwise tanking, but this was an exciting opportunity I couldn’t well pass up.
I’ve been writing in some form or another since college, when in my sophomore year I was selected to be a columnist for Penn State’s largest student newspaper, The Daily Collegian. After graduating, I landed an internship in New York with The Nation, and even through graduate school I found myself drawn to how the written word can do everything from describe a faraway place to make us better understand our local government. Whether by chance or by construct, though, writing has always been a hobby, and I feel like I’ve only ever gotten as good as anyone can get at something that only occupies half their time and half their attention. This is the first time in my life that writing will be the job, not the distraction; I’ll actually wake up and have nothing else to do but actually put words on paper (or on the computer) and hope someone else wants to read them.
My view on writing is that the process itself can be as important as the final product — in many ways, more so. That’s what I’ve always loved about DCist and the many blogs that have blossomed on the Internet over the last five to six years; stories and opinions constantly evolve and change as facts and preferences warrant, and readers are not only witness to that evolution, but can actively help shape it. I don’t consider myself a classically trained journalist, nor do I much aspire to be one. Journalists are often taught to be above the story, to report it much as a fly on a wall would recount an argument it witnessed. While that brand of journalism is certainly important, I also think that writers should develop a voice and a personality through their craft, and at times that voice involves being open — but not uncompromising — about opinions or perspectives. Behind each writer is a human being, after all.
{ 0 comments }