Being assigned to read Telling True Stories this semester was a fun escape, at least for me.

I would read it or skim through it when I wanted to distract myself from editing or working on other projects. The book was easy to read and quick to follow. Even though it focuses on writers, a lot of the great advice and tips could be of use for videographers, photographers and video editors.

I was assigned to read the last chapter of the book, Building a Career in Magazines and Books. This chapter seemed to focus even more on writers than other types of media, but I still found some gems and I’ll mention three of them.

Clips should prove your ability to think through a story, to make smooth transitions and to elevate a story to include meaning. Clips are solid evidence that you’re a professional. Bad or irrelevant clips are worse than none at all. – Jim Collins.

The first part of Building a career spoke about freelancing.

I’ve never done freelancing before and sometime I feel very insecure about doing it. Probably because I don’t know what to expect? Reading this part was my favorite throughout this specific chapter. I learned a bit about it, not enough to go in the world – just yet, but enough to get a general idea of what freelancing is. Jim Collins did a great job throwing a lot of good examples in this part along with wonderful tips, especially for beginners.

Sometimes we all have those days of insecurity, or maybe it’s just me, but when I feel insecure about my abilities as a multimedia journalist, a lot of questions pop in my head and a specific one is why on earth am I doing this? Susan Orlean, A Passion for Writing, recommended us to ask ourselves a few questions as we “embark on this journey,” one of them is “why did you want to be a writer?” Why did you choose to be a photographer, a video maker or a reporter? Why did you want to be part of the media industry?  She says, sometimes we’re going to wish we had a desk job, a 9-5 job, but nothing is as exciting as being out in the world and watching stories begin to unfold in front of us.

So, as we reach the end of our term, I’m really curious, probably for the hundred time, how did all of you fall in love with this career and if you’re not in love or passionate about it, then why on earth are you doing it?

The last thing that I would like to mention, is another great tip given by Samantha Power, Crossing Over: From Advocacy is to Narrative. “Put your stories away and come back to it, later.” This is very important, because when you step away from your work for a while and then come back to it, you’ll approach it with a different insight. So, when you feel like you’re becoming frustrated with your work, for instance our winter project, then just step away from it for a couple of hours and relax a bit.

Those are just a few of the tips I got from reading the last chapter. BUT, there are more throughout this book that I enjoyed and that are great for us, journalists.