Express yourself
If you want to write you should learn the alphabet. You write and write and in the end you hava a beautiful, perfect alphabet. But it isn’t the alphabet that is important. The important thing is what you are writing, what you are expressing. The same thing goes for photography. Photographs can be technically perfect and even beautiful, but they have no expression. – Andre Kertesz, Visions and Images
the band from St. Augustine High, New Orleans
I am committed to improving my writing yet I avoid it to the extreme. I even avoid posting personal writing on this blog. Lack of confidence in my writing has to be the concern.
The reporters at work that I respect seem to go on and on about a subject. They paint a clear picture of the story. When I write, I see my photos in my head and I only think how the words will augment them. This prevents me from writing more? I am after all a visual person.
So the question is “how do I translate my photos to words on a page?”
Eudora Welty said that photography helped her to become a better writer. Ok, Ms. Welty, I would love to channel you for a day so you could transfer some of that wisdom to my keyboard. Never the less, I’m stuck. I have one story ready to write, interviews are done as are the photos. Plus I have another I am working on that should be cool if I can pull it off.
This brings me back to my blog. Practice makes perfect, right? So what should be the easiest thing for me to write about regularly? My work…it is my life and my passion. So dang it!! I really feel like I need to do this. Journalism requires more versatility than ever before. Moreover, I really need practice…badly. Writing can only add to story-telling bag of tricks. 
On a bright note last month, I contributed these two pieces to the LC “American Press” (an advance on the BooZoo Labor day fest and a feature piece on the small town of Basile). I was especially pleased with both of them because I feel like the represent a little personal progress. Both were a struggle. My dread of writing forced me into the deadline for both pieces and they were both finished the night before.
Can a self imposed blog deadline make it easier to face the real deadlines? Let’s hope!
For the piece on Basile, I also put together a slideshow. Click here to see it. I’ve also included a view photos that are personal favorites.
