I filed two 700 word features today. Boo yea. And I got published today too. Double Boo yea.

So, day 6 and 7 recap –
I had three stories to chase over these two days. I ran out of people to leave messages with at about 12, so I was handed an interview to do that afternoon.

So yesterday, off I went with the photographer in their shiny Sunshine Coast Daily car to this womans house to do a profile on her new business.

Watching the photographer move things this way and that way, and prop plates just so (it was a cooking business) was extremely interesting, and also perplexing. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the ins and outs of photography.

BUT, aside from the awesomeness of being away from the desk, I got to go to the beach for one of the photographers jobs. I don’t know how many of you have been to the Sunshine Coast beaches, but they’re amazing.
So spending a balmy Monday afternoon holding a camera flash on the beach was like the perfectly baked icing on the specially selected cake.

The trip up here really isn’t that bad (except for poor Avelima). I like to think of it like a forty minute mini-rollar coaster. My leg muscles are getting a hell of a workout keeping myself on the bus seats.

Coming to work in this climate is amazing. I’m a summer kid, obviously.
I like the trip up here, because you get to appreciate the bushland and the beaches that surrounds this place. The newspaper building is built next to a river, so they pretty much have the greatest lunch room, ever.
Clearly, I’m having the time of my life.

Now, back to the work –
Gill, I’ve been assigned the stories. For all of them, I was given a theme (two of them had short press releases, which we didn’t qoute). I then went out, interviewed local businesses and personalities to give the theme a local edge. E.g, for an exercise story, I interviewed local personal trainers and walking groups. For a studying story, I interviewed experts from the coast university. Once I had a basic idea of what the story should be, that made it fairly easy to find local sources.

Sadly, my self-editing is too poor. When we were going through one of the stories today, I noticed basic style mistakes and grammar mistakes (had to just find them then, didn’t I?). I was dissapointed, since it was something I should have picked up, but lesson learnt I guess.

I also keep repeating words in the one par’s. The ‘jazzing-up’ of intro’s etc is weird to get used to, since I’m used to the standard news style into. I find the hardest part of a story is writing an audience-appropriate jazzy intro.

I now know what it feels like to be one of those annoying, dogged journalists who won’t leave somebody alone (probably with lax morals, too).
Trying to get into contact with the Australian office for a charity program has proved difficult. My phone call count is up to about nine now. The funny thing is that it goes straight to the office I need. The first two times, they were happy to answer. Not the next seven, though. Wait till their voice mail fills up, see what they say then, huh.

So my goal of 10-14 stories is looking closer to ten. I’m up to seven. I have three ideas waiting incase they say they haven’t got anything else for me. I’m so getting those ten features.

Sayonara folks.
Thanks Gill, David and Anthony for your enjoyable posts:)