Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Art and Writing

Real required reading.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I've made a few mentions of my experiences as a newspaper reporter for a small newspaper, and I've written about it a couple of times in terms of what journalist students coming out of the universities might want to consider.

While going through my files in search of receipts and other papers for my taxes, the clean-up bug bit me as I surveyed the woefully large collection of stuff in my filing cabinet. I read somewhere that most people never look at 75 percent of the papers they file away, and I believe it.

Apparently, I saved everything. In particular, I saved an astonishing amount of material from my reporter days.

In my pile of papers and research are files stapled and clipped and covered in sticky notes with scribbles and dates and names of people to contact. In the pile I have:

lists of election candidates to interview
UFO/Crop circle research and contact information because of crop circles in local fields
An eight page report from the sanitation department of the city the newspaper is located in, which detailed everything from the number of batteries disposed to the tons of cardboard taken for recycling.
Maps of townships and farms relating to water storage and culvert issues as well as wildlife-designated land.
Updates on new school policies and issues at the schools.
Grainy copies of reports from the nearby dam reconstruction with endless figures and technical jargon.
Information and cost estimates on street projects

...the list (and pile) is endless, it seems.

This is the real required reading. We can't all be Stephen Glass and make up our stories; sometimes you have to read the most excruciatingly boring report from the sanitation department just to pull out one figure you need for your story. Sometimes you have to learn engineering terms just to read the reports needed to finish a story on a construction project.

Don't even get me started on my notes, which are filled with scribbles, messy longhand, doodles, crazy arrows and darkened stars next to pertinent points.

So here's my deal. If you want to see the real thing, whether you're just curious or want a taste of small-town reporting, I'll send some to you. I'll send you some pages from notebooks, pages where I caricatured the State's Attorney when he got long-winded, pages of info on meth labs and county commission agendas. You'll get yourself a little packet of the real deal and see what it's like to show up at the newspaper and get handed a stack of stuff to figure out for the week's story. It's all yours (plus some other freebies) for only a buck, plus shipping. Basically, it'll cost you $5 total.

Price: $1

Go for it. It'll come as is, even with the crazy post-it notes.