I’m a freelancer.

In a given week, I write for at least three publications, both in print and online (plus this much-neglected blog). Because I’m pretty much at the bottom of each respective totem poll, I tend to get assignments that are, well, befitting that altitude.

I did this at my last newspaper, too, those unglamorous bits and pieces, but since I had a regular beat there, it wasn’t all I did. I had stories that developed over time, that had new angles, and that weren’t just things we covered every year.

So let’s make some lemonade here. What can I learn doing stories that won’t win awards, that have no real controversy, that an editor would trust to a guy she sees at best once a week?

Multimedia. Every time.

I used to complain about having to grind out stories, but damn, it made my writing better. And faster. It meant I didn’t wait to make phone calls or chit chat with sources that weren’t telling me stuff I needed to know. And I’m a better reporter because of it.

When my new editor tells me to cover a parade, I don’t even ask if I can maybe do something multimedia. I just build the slide show.

In my bag–same one I’ve lugged for five years, through four countries–is my laptop (MacBook), audio recorder (Zoom H2), point ‘n shoot (Canon A530), plus the notepad, pens, batteries, cords and a portable 80 GB hard drive.

I’m getting better at this, and it’s getting easier. Building a Soundslides piece takes about an hour. I’ve used photos from staff photographers, subjects and my own camera.

This week I’m going for video, which I haven’t done much of since leaving China. When I can put a two-minute story together in under two hours, I’ll start fine tuning.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 4:27 pm and is filed under News, multimedia, projects, self-indulgence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.