agh

[dragonlady7]

OK, now it's morning. I was a bit confused when I awoke, remembering my error of last night.
I have to do all the regular weekend things (mostly, laundry), but I also have to figure out precisely what else I have to do for this article. Please do remember I've never done this before. So I'm a bit stuck now that I've exhausted my first line of querying. I have all the information I could ever need about energy conservation. But I entirely lack any of the interviews I need for this.
I guess I can write up the middle bit of the article. The structure was meant to be somewhat like this: "[personal anecdote of interviewee trying to get by], [perhaps another personal anecdote of some hardcore solar/alternative energy proponent being evangelical], [overview of elaborate and thorough energy-conservation techniques], [overview of the simple things we can all do to save energy], [hopeful conclusion revisiting original interviewee]". Voila, an easy 2000 words. Except the alt energy proponent is out of town until next week, and I haven't found a worried drafty-house-liver. The editor promised me she'd try to get one of her neighbors to talk to me, so maybe that'll happen.
Except that I work 11-7 every day from Thursday until next Tuesday, so, ah, it's not like I can interview people in my spare time, because i don't have any except before 10 am or after about 9 pm. And, what's worse, they've closed the employee parking lot at work, so I'm going to have to leave an extra 15 minutes to half an hour before work to park in the lot 2 miles away and hopefully catch the unreliable shuttle.

I guess I can hope that I can get an interview off one of my customers at work, if all else fails?

Well, I'll write up what I have and email the editor and see what she says. It's not beyond possibility I'll find much of the rest of what I need today. I just had better get the laundry done early.

Yesterday while I was lost driving around trying to find UB Green, the art director (whose desk is right next to Z's) and the paper's editor were chatting while reading one of their competitors. "Hm," the art director said, "I've always thought we should have a gadget column." "Oh, yes," the editor said. She looked over at Z. "If only we had a computer fellow who could write," the art director said. Z innocently looked busy and pretended not to hear. "Or his girlfriend," the editor said.
It would be fun to be a columnist. But it would also be work. If only I could work just 4 days a week, I would love to take on another job, even an unpaid one. But as of now? This writing an article thing is fun but I am going to be exhausted all week. I am not an efficient person.

Comments

[forodwaith.livejournal.com]

Columnist can be a lot easier gig than reporter, though -- fewer interviews, you can "write ahead" to stock up on columns for times when you're crazy busy, etc. Plus, for a gadgets column, you could very likely scam some neat freebies if you promised to write about the.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I said I could never afford to buy gadgets to write about, and Z said the editor had told him that places will usually gladly loan you stuff, even expensive stuff, if you're going to write about it.

You're right that it'd be much easier than reporting, though. The reporting is turning out not impossible, but still is taking up a lot of time.