I've Been By-lined!

Now, two months into my internship may seem late in the game to announce this, but: I'm in print!

Because magazines work so far in advance, my first assignments back in May are finally peeking up in this months issue. So, I got my hands on the July issue of Grand Rapids Family and immediately flipped pages looking for familiar words. And there was my first article, all two hundred words of me, in black and white. Actually, in this article, blue and white. My boss had warned me about the intense editing, more appropriately called chopping, that is done to the majority of submitted articles, but mine remained intact. Jamie deGraaf. That looks nice in blue and white.

My next article was more of a suprise. A five hundred word piece I had spent a considerable amount of time on and interviewed two pretty important folks for (we're talking national CEOs-- one of which I even meet with in person--on my day off!), now appeared to count under two hundred. Appears this one wasn't saved from the chopping process. I was warned that this would happen, but I couldn't help being slightly perturbed that I had taken the the time to conduct such extensive interviews when I could just as easily asked for a quote over the phone. Well, it's a learning game.

My other two pieces were calendar events that were slightly narrowed down but still had a Jamie feel to them (unlike article no. 2), so that made me happy; my sister even picked them out when looking through the magazine (they weren't by-lined).

Having seen what I submit in comparison to what the editors spit out as the final product, I now have a better idea of where to start right off the bat. I know I have a problem keeping things brief, but considering the writing going to get cut eventually may keep me from babbling...and feeling like I've wasted my time.

Even though none of these articles were terribly extensive...and there were only four of them...and they were edited down...I feel pretty happy about being in print!