A not so high (week) five...

Week Five...
As I walked in the door at 8.30am I was handed the keys to a work car and told I was to head to the Motor Boat Club to do a quick interview with a woman who was turning 90 for our (monthly? I think.) aged persons lift-out.
The story was to be short and fluffy so I was more worried about crashing the work car or getting lost than the interview and story. All ran smoothly and I was back in the office by 9.20. I wrote the story but it wasn’t a very inspiring piece... when Linda edited it she changed the order of the pars I had written and it flowed much better.
I was then given a piece on two Townsville companies who had just won Queensland Heritage Awards. I did phone interviews with the co-ordinator of Life Long learning at CityLibraries who won an award for a ten-month lecture series they did, and also a woman who has volunteered more than 30 years of her life to the Townsville Heritage Centre, who won an award for their volunteers and care of historical artefacts.
It was a difficult story because Linda had outlined that she wanted it to begin as a news piece and expand into a feature... she had outlined what information she wanted to be stated in the first four or five pars, but when I wrote it as she had asked it didn’t flow the way it should have...so I was torn.
I made a few changes from what she had asked and it worked a bit better but it still wasn’t great. When she came to edit it she had the same thoughts and made even more changes to the areas that I had clearly seen needed changing... I felt good about it because even though I had felt ‘stuck’ with where to take the story, Linda ended up making the changes that I had thought about making anyway....So next time I’m going to trust my instinct.
After that I was given more Catholic news stories from the infamous list. As this year is the centenary of Mary MacKillop’s death the next Catholic News lift-out will feature many stories on her. The first story I was given a little piece on a sister who is coming up from Brisbane in October to give some lectures on Mary MacKillop, the Sisters of Saint Joseph and their history within Townsville.
I found it a challenging piece because I couldn’t figure out what was really newsworthy about it... the Catholic News lift-out is met with a little bit of distain within the office I think, because it really is trying to make news out of not much at all.
(I think I forgot to mention that last week I also wrote another story on Baptism preparation workshops in Townsville... another story where I was trying to make something interesting out of very little.)
I was to write another story on a family who live in Townsville who are descendents of Mary MacKillop. Even though that in itself is interesting...I found this story difficult because it was to just be about the family...who really are just an average Australian family... AND because when I rang the father of the family around lunch time he said he wouldn’t be able to talk until 4.30. So I was twiddling my thumbs for a while until it ticked 4.31. I did a quick phone interview and then had to rush home to open my house for my new housemate to move in. Which meant I had to write the story from home over the weekend... I think it turned out ok. I really like my lead... but I still feel like the story lacks a point. It will be interesting on Friday to see what my Catholic News colleague has to say.
Hopefully next week will be a little more exciting... and newsworthy!