Salad Dressing and Bike Rides...

I was recently told that journalism is not like riding a bicycle. And I have to say, I quite agree. Journalism is a skill, that if not properly practiced and honed regularly, then constantly edited, and honed again, the writer can lose all together. It takes a lot of time and patients to get it right.

To me creative writing is totally like riding a bicycle. You can put down the pen for years, come back and then write some of your greatest stuff.

The two, journalism and creative writing, are like oil and vinegar: they make a great combination when you can get them to mesh, but it takes a lot of work.

Well that puts me in the middle of a very awkward mixture. I am pretty much a chef trying to create a salad dressing that has to be stirred right up until the moment it is put on the salad. There I stand pouring the oily journalism into the vinegar based creative writing…I mean – I need a hand to stir! I only have two hands! The process requires three. That is when I turn to my editors.

I realize that this blog is possibly my most metaphoric yet, however that is just my point, this is simply how I think. I compare and I pull things apart and put them together in weird and bizarre ways, which makes for one mean salad when I have the proper people to help me stir this crazy dressing. No they’re not sitting on a bike while they stir, that was a few metaphors before, try to keep up!

All I’m saying is that creative writing is easy for me, it makes a lot more sense then the inverted pyramid or AP Style or Chicago Manual Style or whatever it is. Creative writing is how my mind works, I’m not a stellar speller and I think a lot of the time I meander around with my words. But I think journalism is an important thing to understand, so I work at it. I fail a lot and get comments about how differently and terribly I can write two pieces on the same subject at either end of my writing spectrum... if that makes sense. I believe the problem is that I do not quite have my dressing formula worked out. I’m sitting there pouring in all oil and then all vinegar and it just turns into one big overdressed sloppy salad mess!

So, as a student, and that’s no metaphor, I’m learning how to get my mixture right. Taking what I know and what comes easy to me and pulling back on the reins. Then adding in what really takes time for me, the structure and the grammar and the style…let’s not forget the actual information and substance. All the while still trying to maintain my voice and charge against the evils of typical journalism, something I will never succumb to. (Pardon me for not idolizing Barbra Walters, but I don’t even own a pastel suite and my hair can never get that puffy.)

All I’m saying is that I’m working on pedaling two bikes right now, and okay it’s challenging, but in the end…if I don’t crash into something and split my head open, which could likely happen to me…but if I can figure it out, it will be way cooler than just riding one bike.

What, were you still thinking about the salad metaphor? I told you, I structure things strangely and totally meander around with words…