Published: September 23rd 2016, 3:21:23 pm
I took a memoir class that was meh but
then I took a class on writing feature articles and was shockingly good
at it. I didn't think it would really be my thing but it's sort of a
writer bread and butter class and was free so I figured I'd give it a
shot.
We spent the class working on brainstorming angles and leads for
those angles. Despite, or maybe because of, it not being a topic I was
hugely attached to, I had a really easy time of it. We were supposed to
come up with 5 angles, I came up with 7. We were supposed to write one
lead, I wrote three. Weirdly, I think all the years of coming up with
Nerdlesque acts gave me good training in finding different takes on the
same subject matter.
I'm not sure if it's something I'm going to pursue
immediately, but it's a skill that I can actually monetize (not for huge
amounts of money, but still) And it's something I could do even if I
was immobile. Dislocating my knee in 2013 was terrifying and depressing
for a lot of reasons but mostly because so much of my livelihood depends
on my body. Losing months of work took a pretty harsh toll on me both financially and emotionally and having something like that happen again is still something I worry about on a regular basis.
Next month I'm taking free photoshop classes from the NYC Public Library. It's easy to forget but NYC has a crazy amount of free stuff it help its citizens.