"H" Is For Hard

[cbertsch]

The piece I'm writing is making me enormously anxious. Even though I know it's likely that my subject will find fault with much of it, I still want him to like it. At the same time, though, it won't be worth anything unless I put my own stamp on it. I guess that's what makes this kind of journalism so hard. I keep thinking about how happy Dennis Cooper was to be writing a profile for Spin on Bob Mould, only to end up pissing him off despite the best of intentions. Being a fan isn't enough. In the end, I have to stand up for my own perspective regardless of the consequences. I just wish that I could once and for all renounce the dream of pleasing everyone. That's a shortcut to madness.

Comments

[xmoonbunnyx.livejournal.com]

Right now I'm facing deadline for an article, too, and it's making me anxious because I just don't know how to start. I always feel like the beginning of any piece is the most difficult -- and I can't just skip it and go back. Usually intros in journalism are easy because you're just using ledes, but I'm working on a feature piece... so it has to be different.

Writing to please others is crap... but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. In poetry class I felt like I was writing everything a certain just so my TA would like it and give me an A. Poetry's too subjective for grading.

Naturally we all want people to like our writing, though... but there will always be someone who won't like it. *Shrugs* Who cares?

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

I'm not worried about people not liking it. But the subject not liking it, that bothers me. As for as intros go, I have the same struggles. I end up writing several most of the time and then usually go for what gets to the point fastest. It takes so much work, though. Whom are you writing for?

[xmoonbunnyx.livejournal.com]

RedBlue magazine ;)