What do you do if you're not comfortable with your clips?

There's a HUGE difference between hypersensitivity and standing up for your work. I was guilty of the former at my community college rag and I needed a severe wake up call to get out of that.

Telling someone, "look, you inserted something wrong into the story" is vastly different from having a conniption because an editor tightened up your work. Expressing concerns because someone hacked out the main point of your story is vastly different from getting pissy because someone lopped off one word.

I'd also echo the advice to go to a different paper that isn't this student newspaper to get the preparation you want. Clips with errors in them reflect badly on you. Granted, some of the mistakes may be because the desk put them in, but it's still your name on the byline.

 

Forgive me for the double post, but I just saw this post after writing my last one. I can't speak to what the papers in your area have or do, but have you tried calling or e-mailing an editor for a local paper? It doesn't have to be the big local daily. It can be a weekly paper. Small papers are often crying out for help. If all you're looking for is clips and an opportunity to write, local papers can give you that opportunity.

When I first got to my current gig, most undergrad students went to the Big Student Daily to get clips. Some of them went to the niche pubs on campus. My shop would usually get grad students. Since then, my paper has gotten a lot of undergrad students as well. In fact, the editor of the Big Student Daily (obviously not its real name) even joked that my paper was stealing writers from them.

There usually are other options besides just the student newspaper for getting clips and experience. Try to explore those options. If you do, you can have a well-rounded batch of clips that will look good for when you do present them to a prospective employer.

 

One of the reasons I went to the desk was because the copy editors kept screwing up my stories. This was at a large Metro paper.

So maybe you should be a copy editor.

 

Just make a call to local SE's. The worst they can say is they can't use you right now. That doesn't mean they won't need help in the future.

 

Long story short, I got a gig this weekend. One question though; the editor wants 10-12 inches. I'm only familiar with word counts. How many words is that?

 

Depending on the system they use, one inch usually equals 35-40 words. Just ask them how many words one column inch translates to at their paper.

 

Asking isn't a bad idea. Cuz here 45 words is about 2 inches.
I usually go about 300 words for 10-12 inches.

Just don't go extremely long or extremely short. Err on the side of a little too much and be prepared for them to chop it some.

 

I asked and he said the way papers are shrinking he's not even sure of the translation. He told me 10-12 paragraphs, basically enough to highlight key moments, quotes, etc. So I'm thinking 400 range.

 

Go between 350-400 words. That should be about 12 inches.

 

And congrats on the freelance gig. Welcome to getting paid $Gas Money per story...

 

I don't care how many mistakes are added into your story. I'd still feel more comfortable hiring a writer who was involved -- and could prove it with clips -- than someone who tells me, "Well, I quit because the paper was awful."

There's always something you can learn from working at a college paper -- no matter how big or bad it is. It sounds like your copy-editing is improving by working at yours.

 

Here's an example of why you need to have before and after examples of your work.....

When I was at my college paper two years ago, I was the head-honcho. That meant that I didn't really have time to do more than a lookover of what my copy editor's were submitting as the final version of the paper.

So, one day, sensitive writer gets all pissed off at what goes to print and comes complaining to me about it. I tell her that unless she can show me what was changed in her story, there's not much that I can really do to the copy editor. I mean, this copy editor was (so i thought) really good and caught a lot of mistakes.

Turns out, she was basically fucking with a lot of people's stories. That sensative writer brought me hard example of what was changed and we had a talk with the CE (both myself and the writer). It helped clear up a lot of the confusion and we never had that problem again.

For those of you that want the worst example of what was changed.......the CE inserted: "according to wikipedia.com" as the source. I figured it was the writer and the editor that let it go, was on a tight deadline and let it slip. Needless to say, the writer wasn't pleased. I told the writer to be clearer with where she got her info.