Losing it

These two descriptions are me to a T right now.

I pitched a series to the Sports Ed. and Managing Ed. and it was met with luke-warm response (although every other reporter and photog in the newsroom though it was a great idea and some were willing to help).

Then, I see my fellow sports reporter volunteer to take a breaking news photo the other night, only to stay late, do more work and NOT have the photo run - without an apology or thank you from ANY member of management.

My attitude, for now at least? Same as the rest of the employees: Check, please!

If they just want to get paid, that's all I want.

However, I'm sure after a couple weeks of my personal "protest" I'll be back working my balls off.

 

Personally, I liked suck yak rectum.

And Platy, it's hard not to have your writing suffer, at least in your eyes, if you so much else to do. There are so many hours in the day.

Just fight through the slump and I'm sure you'll be fine.

I mean, you did come up with sucked yak rectum. Terrific.

 

There have been some depressing threads on here recently, and sadly, I can identify with many of them. I haven't been writing very well recently either, and no one calls me on it. I don't care much ... just want to get it done and go home.

I think I go through slumps, an I'm hoping I'm in one now (it beats just sucking, I guess.) I'll go through a few weeks or a month or two where everything is just sort of bla ... not bad, acceptable, but nothing I put my heart and soul into. Then boom, it'll click again and I'll go for a few months writing stuff I generally always like.

I know I sound a little stupid talking about all this because I'm only two years out of school. I know I have not yet begun to feel depressed about my job or the industry, but on some smaller level, I still feel the same way, I think.

 

See Platy, you still got it. Just insert more yak rectum and feces pieces into your column and gamers.

Christopher Walken: "I gotta have more yak rectum."

 

Shoot, kid, imagine how you'll feel in 10 years with 2,000 more bylines under the belt. With a wife -- and maybe an ex, and maybe Wife No. 2 -- and a kid. And a mortgage. And with the new crop of 20somethings dreaming in html and direct-to-web cameras glued to their foreheads.

It has got to be about the love of words, the love of the process, or both. Awards? Pish posh. Recognition? Ha! I am still waiting for them to put up the statue of me out front. But what keeps me plugging away is the process of the daily miracle, and knowing that my next great story (or maybe my first, depensing ...) will only come if I keep banging away at the keyboard.

Chin up.

RB

 

Of all the bad shit that happens, there still is no feeling like thumbing through a paper just off the press or with a cuppa joe in the morning and knowing you played a role.

Then you get to do it again.

You'll get through it, Platy.

 

If your features rock, start pitching your stuff to magazines. Maybe the writing gods are trying to steer you to you calling.

 

if you are losing it, have the next parent that complains come in for a meeting. then beat the shit out of them. that should make you feel better.

 

Bad enough to hit a wall as an athlete or writer. But when Ron Jeremy hits the wall -- Ooof! That's gotta hurt!

 

Thanks for the advice. I think Sixtoe nailed when he pointed out my sentence regarding having more crap piled on me now than five years ago.
And I'll Never Tell, that suggestion has also surfaced in my mind.

It's mostly, though, perhaps, the fact that I'm at a small paper and can't focus my efforts on one specific task. I have a hand in so many different things and can't give each my best effort, unless of course I want to be at the office 25 hours each day. My writing is suffering because it is being diluted by all the other crap I'm doing. Features are different, though, for some reason.

 

Take MacQuarrie's advice, grab a couple of rods and some beers, and find a good creek somewhere.

 

You're hired!

...as my personal assistant.

I loved your post. It's one of the best I've read around here in recent months. After posting here and wondering if I should change careers or drink heavily and walk out into traffic, something magical happened.

I realized that I have a great career. Lots of people would trade a limb (Ron Jeremy?) to do this. Rewards and recognition are great, but they don't come from editors; they come from knowing that your family appreciates your hard work, that your Cousin Joe admires you, that the neighbors are envious when Mom tells them her boy covers Major League Baseball.

Sure. We want the satisfaction of picking up the morning paper and seeing our byline on the front of the sports section. But we shouldn't let it tear us apart when our story is buried on page 5. That should motivate us. That's truly what separates the winners from the losers. The winners know how to use that anger or frustration to their advantage. Also, we should remember that lots of folks admire the guy who bangs out copy day in and day out for a number of years without ever complaining. We admire them because we know it's damn hard to do that for so many years without suddenly deciding that you should be a senior editor at SI.

And so I wrote a very basic gamer last night in 20 minutes. I poured my thoughts right onto the page. I asked all the right questions. Sometimes we just need a little reaffirmation. Thanks for the shove.