#jake vanwormer

Photo Credit: Jake VanWormer

900 words. It's really not that much, but it feels like it when the process of cranking them out is spread over 8 weeks.

The article is taking its final form. The story is consistent. Quotes in all the right places. Little nit-picked problems have been fixed. At this point, there's not terribly much to do beyond final editing and picking where to submit it.

When writing an article, there are two main events. The actual writing of the article, and the interviews leading up to it.

Every journalist has a part they prefer, but both are equally important and neither can be ignored.

Writing is simple. Take the information you have, and transcribe it into a readable form that someone is going to enjoy reading and maybe even learn something from.

Interviews are a bit trickier. You have to find the person you need information from, contact them, not get ignored or turned away, persisting if need be, set up the interview at some time that is moderately convenient for both of you, and then ask the right questions in the right way to get what you really want out of them.

If any single part of that goes wrong, the whole thing falls apart. It can be frustrating. It can be annoying. It can be downright disheartening. But we have to do it. So we persevere. And we interview our sources. And we get the information. And in the end, we write our articles and they come out pretty alright.

-Know your own ability. How much time do you really need to write that paper?

-Oh, your roommate is leaving for class in an hour? Better capitalize on the time you have to hang out now.

-Join a club. You'll have an obligation and a responsibility to be there. Calculus homework can wait.

-You know, you really have been meaning to read that book. And you did want to finish that game... Maybe just a little break wouldn't hurt.

While it is not strictly related to my journalistic studies, I feel writing about another project of mine here is appropriate enough.

That project is a pulp magazine. Or some spiritual equivalent. In essence, it is a magazine that collects various pieces of creative writing, comics and artwork and periodically publishes them to an audience at an affordable price.

A few friends and I have spent the past few weeks organizing this. We have spent time planning the content and how to receive it, how to edit and organize the layout, and how to actually print and distribute the magazine.

It hasn't been the easiest project I've undertaken, but it is one that I look forward to seeing come to fruition. An outlet for writers and artists to get their work out there without fear of losing the rights to their own creative works. It will be something I can be proud to put my name on, and if we're lucky, it might even expand into a decent business we can continue for a while.

So, I recently wrote up the first 700 words of my article. Hinda says it's well-written, but the focus is a bit too narrow. I need to widen it from solely the business to encompass customer opinions and the like.

President Barack Obama is sworn into office for his second presidential term.

Photo Credit: The Associated Press

Today marks the public inauguration of Barack Obama's second term as President of the United States, and people are excited.

is everyone watching the inauguration? if not, you should be!

— Emma McLaren (@emmakatherine12) January 21, 2013

Watching The #Inauguration.!!! :)

— *01~31~12* (@HeIsMyHeart_11) January 21, 2013

Thank God for livestream! Watching @barackobama's second inauguration at the office.

— SARAH CONCEPCION (@MISS_CONCEPCION) January 21, 2013

After a grinding, miserable election year, he can now work without fear of not being re-elected in four years. He has earned it. And it took a lot more to do that this past year than back in 2008.

Consider the political atmosphere of 2008's United States. We were just coming off of eight years of Bush. People were so sick and tired of war and of economic downturn after economic downturn. They were sick of stuttering, mispronounced speeches. They were sick of numerous countries refusing to talk to the country because they hated our President.

America longed for the days of a charismatic President who wasn't single-handedly destroying the economy.

Then along came this charming young man with promises of change and hope. His emotional speeches inspired the masses.

And his only competition? A tired old man whose policies resembled far too closely the past eight years that everyone wanted to forget. Standing across the stage from corpse-like John McCain, Obama looked so full of life. It was never in question who was going to take the election.

Four years later, it was not so clear. The economic decline has steadily continued despite several attempts to stop it. One war was ended officially, but yet more go on.

Faults can be placed, fingers can be pointed. The lack of ability to fix an economy so far in debt in four years can be pointed out.

But on top of that, it seemed like time had worn on Obama. That formerly charismatic young man seemed older, tired. When he spoke, it felt like he was reflecting how people felt about his campaign.

The spark was gone. When it came time for the presidential debates, Mitt Romney dominated at first. Obama was a shell of his former energetic self who hadn't debated someone in four years. Romney, meanwhile, was just coming off a hot streak of debating everyone and their mother in the Republican party for their slot in the election.

People were jaded on Obama it seemed. While he frequently held a lead over Mitt Romney, it was much closer than his lead over McCain had been. Toward the end of the year, it even started to look like a toss-up.

Writing for journalistic purposes is immensely different from writing for creative purposes.

The two are not entirely separate. Certain writers have managed to mix and match and do so quite well. But for the most part, they exist in vacuums apart from each other.

And that's a pain. News writing style tends to be short, concise, and to the point. Whereas creative writing requires at least a certain degree of detail, vocabulary is not limited by an accessibility factor.

As someone who writes creatively turning to journalism, it can be difficult sometimes to write in an acceptable way that doesn't come out sounding wholly boring.

So I look to writers like Hunter S. Thompson and remind myself that I'll be able to branch out as time progresses. And that I can claim my own style some day.