Same old
Back in the day when I was a reporter, there was a system of doing things. The journalist would write the story, which would pass on to the chief reporter for perusal, then on to the sub-editor for placement in the paper. And I think the editor would also read much of what was written before it was printed. So, there were lots of opportunities for that story to be corrected or altered if the need arose. The reason I say back in the day, is because I am not sure that this same system follows today. I do believe some stories go straight from the journalist to an online platform, without those intermediary sets of eyes. But the reason I am bringing all this up is because the chief reporters had often been there for a number of years and seen the same story repeated numerous times as an activity or an event came up on a yearly basis. They wanted a different angle. Reporters then had to be careful that they still gave the readers the facts they wanted to hear, and not be taken too far off the story, in the quest for that angle. I have become a frustrated reader myself in viewing coverage of the Melbourne Cup, for example. I just want to know which horse won, the second and third placement and how much was paid out but often one is given a fancy description of the hats worn, best-dressed cup-goers, without that basic information that I wanted to hear, included.
I have been writing my blogs now for more than a year. I was out in the vegetable garden this morning, planting my first lot of vegetables for the winter crop. As I was doing this, I was thinking, I can write about this in my blog this morning. Then I thought to myself, hang on, I wrote about that last year. If I write this today, I will just be repeating what I wrote in a previous blog. Same task, different year. I can see where the chief reporters were coming from now.
When I was reporting, I was all for original stories, though some reporters seemed not to care if a story had been covered by someone else. To me if it was already written I would prefer to look for something else. I am not talking about follow-ups, which is a different story, nor am I talking about a yearly event that does need coverage, just a story already covered by a different newspaper. I always believed readers wanted new stories and not ones they had read elsewhere.
So, in saying all of this, I am not going to go into detail about planting my six lettuce and 10 spinach plants. However, I did transfer a succulent from its pot into the open ground, something I haven’t written about before. A few months ago, I watched an interesting clip on Facebook about utilising a broken pot. My pot in question, was one I had bought in an op shop, hand painted in Portugal. I loved it and was devasted when it suffered two big chunks out of its rim. I could not throw it away and it sat empty as I wondered what I would do with it. This video suggested planting succulents in the broken area, hiding the breaks. I followed these instructions but one plant was not as suitable for the pot as I thought it would be, streaming out for half a metre in all directions. This was the one I transplanted this morning, hoping it would continue its rampant ways.
Today was the first time I realised that finding a topic to write about will become more of a challenge as I repeat the actions of former years. I do know I am a creature of habit. Perhaps some times I will repeat what I have written before but I hope, as the chief reporters requested, that I can find a new angle so that those readers who have been with me on my blog journey, will get new material.