And finally, the moment I’ve been anticipating for weeks
now—my very own byline in the magazine (two, to be exact)! When the new issue
came out this week, the first thing I did was flip to the pages my two stories
were on to see how they came out.
What I found was a bit surprising.
One of the stories I had written had been severely cut down.
What remained was one measly sentence barely reminiscent of the paragraph I had
sent in to the editors. I had spent a lot of time on it, so needless to say I
was a little disappointed.
On the bright side, my other story was published almost
exactly the way I wrote it! It was really awesome to see what I wrote laid out
on the page with photos and ready for thousands of people to read. Though that
story remained intact, I couldn’t help going back to the shortened story and
wondering what went wrong.
There’s only so much space on a page, so I could see that
maybe words had to be eliminated from my story to make room for other pieces. My
story shared space with a good amount of photos, so this could definitely be
the case.
But then again, what if they just didn’t like what I wrote? When
I look back at the paragraph I had originally sent in, I can’t seem to find a
huge problem with it. This internship should be a learning experience after
all, so I’m wondering if I should ask one of the editors for some advice. I’m
at the Mag to learn from people who’ve been in my position before and to get
better at what I do. I could be making a stylistic error and not know it, so
should I ask for some tips?
I’m trying not to get too discouraged by how that story
turned out, especially since I’m really thrilled with the other one. Seeing all
that hard work pay off is great. Maybe there’s something to be learned when
hard work doesn’t pay off like you thought it would.
Got any tips for staying motivated? Sound off in the comments below!
See ya next Thursday,
Ed's Regional Intern
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