Yes! That's How I Wanna Write!

       When Cynthia Hill decided to have a baby via in vitro fertilization three years ago, the then 41-year-old principal of a Los Angeles-based boutique marketing firm knew exactly who to invite over for a bottle of wine and an evening spent flipping through binders of sperm-donor profiles. She knew who would administer progesterone shots in her backside and who would tag along to childbirth prep classes at the hospital. It was the same person who would be in the delivery room with her, squeezing her hand tightly as she gave birth to her son, Ronan. For all intents and purposes, Hill was having a baby with Cathy Finley, her best friend of more than a decade. To be clear, they weren't having a baby together, but Finley's presence in Hill's life was so important, so intimate, that at times it certainly seemed that way. "At our birthing class, people were like, 'Oh, the lesbian couple!'" says Hill. "I'd say, 'No, I'm having a baby solo. This is my best friend.'"
    Six sentences and so much expressed. That's how i want to able to write my features too. I love this lead written by Whitney Joiner in an article for Marie Claire. In this article, Joiner explores a very bold, interesting and most importantly, fresh topic. She is articulate and emotive. The article throws in statistics and facts at just the right places, making it a legitimate read. More than anything else, what I liked best was her choice of topic. I would definitely like to explore more on the same and write about this new style of companionship and maybe even delve into a comparison on how this differs in the way of men bonding with each other?

Here where you can read the complete article at : http://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity-lifestyle/articles/girlfriends-new-husbands

The 12-step Program to Good Writing: What's easy and What's Not.

     I'd like to begin by mentioning that the steps were very enlightening and useful. They somehow made the daunting task of writing, seem easy.

  Out of the twelve steps to good writing, I thought "listen" comes easiest to me. I simply enjoy listening to what people have to say. I'm usually in no hurry to speak and wait for them to completely be done with what they might want to add even as a murmur or an afterthought.

  "The good writer must listen for the nuance, the emotion, the detail, the odd fact." Although this sounds like a lot to do, I know it cannot be very hard, to just be curious and catch all the details.

    The real task for me would be to follow the advice of "trust". I find it hard to collaborate and trust my co-workers. I've somehow always believed that the best pieces of writing come around through individual work. However, I do undertand that news organizations typically work with editors going through every story and require a great deal of team work to be put in.
 
    The one way I thought i could overcome this weakness would be by working on a feature story together with some of my classmates. That should surely teach me how to trust the work of a fellow writer and understand the need for this step in good writing. 

Its all about your lifestyle!

I am by nature, a person that loves to talk about about life and all that it encompasses, as an abstract concept. So anything that could hold different meanings for different people is what I would love to write about. Choosing a category, therefore, came very easily to me: Lifestyle.

Some of the article trends in the 'lifestyle' category:

• Marriage as a change of lifestyle
• Relationships and live-ins
• Meditation as a part of your lifestlye
• Self help articles
• DINK couples
• Travel and vacations

Two lifestyle feature story ideas that i may want to pursue:

1. Why are so many couples opting for the DINK (Double income, no kids) lifestyle? The advantages and disadvantages of taking this path.

          Pros:

• Fairly new concept and on the rise.
• I am very interested in finding out more about it and writing about it.
• It correlates directly with the category; its a lifestyle choice.

          Cons:

• Although new, it has been written about quite a lot.
• Lack of availability of information
• It would be hard to be unbiased and not pick a side.

     2.  Spirituality today: What is the trend? How do people connect with themselves and                       

          their higher power (if they believe in one) ?

         

         Pros:

• Favorite topic, which means I'll write this one with more passion.
• Lots of information available as well as many different possibilites and directions to take this in.
• Every body usually has something to say about this (if this is to be an interview)

        Cons:

• Converting the pool of information available into an interesting feature story that people would want to read
• Particularly important to not bring in my own point of view in this because there will already be a lot of different points of view in the story.