How do you learn about your new town? Ask

By Dick Thien
Chips Quinn Writing Coach

Starting a new job is tough because it is one of the major changes in life that causes a lot of stress.

Same goes for moving to a different town.

On the new job, at least there are some friendly faces to help you navigate your newsroom surroundings and reduce or eliminate that helpless feeling.

Not so in your new zip code.

To avoid being one of those new staffers who have no initiative, no clue about what’s north, south, east and west -- or no story ideas -- there are more than a few things you can do. To get to know the fabric of your new community, you will have to do these things to avoid having to send this kind of e-mail to one of your Chips Quinn coaches:

"Hello, I am here at my new job. I started two weeks ago, but haven't become familiar with the issues because of the holidays. What should I do?"

The writing coach sat on the e-mail for a day before responding. First thoughts that went through his mind were:

"If I didn’t know this fellow was serious, I’d say this was a joke."

"What kind of journalism education did this kid pay for?"

"Two weeks? Two blasted weeks? Fourteen days and not one step taken to become familiar with where he is? Good grief!"

The whole idea of being a coach is to help Chipsters -- whether by e-mail, telephone or referral to another Chips Quinn scholar for mentoring. So my initial thoughts had to be discarded because they offered no help. In fact, they were confrontational, which achieves nothing. Incredulous as such a plea seemed, this Scholar needed some quick answers -- along with a gentle kick in the rear -- to avoid being a deer in some editor’s headlights.

Here is the answer he got:

Dear Friend,

I hope this is a joke. The holidays can't be an excuse for a failure to learn about where you are.

What do you mean, what should you do?

You should get to know the community you are in -- its history, its traditions, its triumphs, its struggles, its form of government, its strengths and weaknesses, its native sons and daughters who have gone on to great things.

How do you do that? By asking folks who have lived there for a decade or so about the town and its surroundings.

Ask the police chief to describe his town. Ask the fire chief. Ask the local college or junior college president. Ask the director of the symphony or the local museum. Ask a priest. Ask a few school teachers. Ask a bus driver. Ask a couple of veterans from the newspaper's circulation department and production department. Get to a rest home and ask the alert men and women there what the town was like 50 years ago. Find out who the local historian is and have coffee with him/her.

Get your butt to the library -- today -- and check out some books written about the town.

In other words, get curious. Get so curious that your questions border on irritating people.

If you ask your newsroom colleagues about the town, be wary of their judgments. Many editors and reporters are disconnected from the people who buy and read their newspaper, just as they are out of touch with people who fail to buy and read it.

The next time I hear from you, I hope it’s a tale that fits nicely into the fibre of your new home.

Dick :-)

About the column

Write It Right is updated regularly. Have a suggestion for a future column, contact Dick Thien.

Read Dick Thien's biography.

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