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• Land a job with a company or agency you believe in. It’s refreshing to be an advocate and defender for good products or causes. There’s nothing wrong, either, with taking a PR job of any kind to learn the ropes and keep the financial ship afloat until a job more lucrative to you opens.
• Be yourself and provide accurate information. Reporters have super sensitive phoniness detectors whether in person, by phone or in digital communications. You’ll have points for the cause that you want noted in a story, but honesty and sincerity are the most effective way to sell those points.
• Be courteous. Reporters encounter rudeness regularly from the public and fellow staffers. Your courtesy encourages them to listen and use what you’re saying.
• Keep the information simple. I’ve had the bad habit of being asked a question, on-air or by somebody with a notepad, and I’ve proceeded to utter a lead, lengthy details and a conclusion in a long statement that greatly resembles a finished newspaper story. Not good. Give basics, let them ask for details.
• Be organized and keep appointment calendars. Reporters can survive by reacting and digging because their specialty is gathering a story quickly and moving on to the next one. A media relations staffer has more complex task list. I’ve written letters and speeches for other staffers, connected radio show hosts with biologists far afield, run down photos, located facts and attended mandatory meetings, all in a day’s time.
• Be patient with a new office culture. Newsrooms and the people who inhabit them are quite similar in routines and the personalities. Often, it’s the opposite in the business and government agency sectors. Be prepared to check your swashbuckling ways at the door. Don’t be too quick to judge potential friends and enemies among your fellow workers. Evaluations change as you become more familiar.

Crossing over to what I call the enlightenment-provider side can pose challenges such as boggy bureaucracies and unfamiliar pressures as a public or corporate servant.
I’m an agency spokesman, and I felt so strange the first few times I was interviewed by reporters or appeared live on radio and television. I was no longer in control of the story’s
final tone and details. And I have already been burned by bad reporting or editing. There are good reasons why media reps are cautious.
Still, I’ve survived those challenges and I love my job. There are golden days where I’m writing nature stories, taking photos and sending them to media outlets as a journalism product much like my newspaper creations. My audiences for some stories are often far larger than before. And there are also days when I’m able to plug other journalists into stories where my presence is never known to the media consumer, but I know I’ve helped conservation.
I’m grateful for the chance to work on the other side of the fence. In this turbulent journalism era, I encourage reporters and editors not to fear crossing over.
—Bill Graham is media specialist for the Missouri Department of Conservation, he is also a freelance writer and photographer covering outdoor sports and natural
science, bluegrass music and acoustic instruments. A member since 1985, Graham can be reached at plattefalls@centurylink.net.
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RULE NO. 1: DETERMINATION

Determination is the quality of being determined to do or achieve something; resoluteness. You must first make a decision to write. This sounds simple enough. Most writers have made that decision. But, there is more to it than just deciding to write. What to write, and how, are next. The decision of what to write is based partially on your knowledge. Most writers who are knowledgeable about fishing will be unwilling to tackle an article about the development of cancer tumors. Determination must be tempered by knowledge. The often repeated writer’s adage, “write what you know,” is applicable here.
Resoluteness, however, is a useful word when discussing determination. To make your resolve tangible, set goals. These points will assist you in your goal-setting exercise:

• Be specific about what you want to achieve. Instead of saying “I want to finish an article by fall,” state “My article, ‘Fishing in the Arctic,’ will be completed by Oct. 1, including all editing and photography.”
• Break this goal into smaller chunks — baby steps of about 500 words per day. Be sure to schedule work with photographs concurrently.
  Not taking this step leaves you wide open to missing your deadline. Giving yourself an achievable goal means you are more likely to reach it. The results must be measurable, otherwise how do you know you’ve achieved what you set out to do?
• Is the goal attainable? Don’t set your sights too high. Always work within your own abilities, otherwise you will become disheartened. Keeping ahead of your goal allows for all those “life situations” you may, and probably will, encounter.
• Always give yourself an end date. This gives you a specific timeframe in which to work.

If you are resolved to write a quality piece, which most writers are, you have observed the first rule for writing. Your written goals will provide you with a roadmap for the next rule.

RULE NO. 2: DISCIPLINE

The second rule is harder than you think. Writing requires discipline. Most writers’ advisors say “write something everyday.” It doesn’t have to be submission quality. Writing a letter to your son or daughter away at college, writing in a blog or writing ideas for future stories all count for this task. The main idea here is to cultivate a regimen for daily work. Make time to write. This can be difficult if you have a full-time job that is not writing related. If evenings and weekends are the only available time, other family commitments must be taken into account. Look to writers’ blogs to exchange ideas as to how other writers have accomplished this seemingly insurmountable feat.
Writer’s block is a well known malady for writers. If you just can’t get to the next paragraph or sentence, take a break. If that doesn’t help, listen to your favorite music or change writing venues. Try a coffee shop or a library. Having resources close at hand might help, too.

RULE NO. 3: FOCUS

A writer must focus. If you jump from one topic of interest to another several times when writing a story, the outcome will appear jumbled and without direction. The same is true if you attempt to write while personal issues are distracting you. No writer can do her piece justice when struggling with unrelated issues.
Here are three questions to answer to help you focus:

• Who is the intended audience of my piece?
• What is the single most important point of my piece?
• If the reader thought about my piece one week after reading it, what would their dominant recollection be?

After deciding to write, you must decide what to write and then set a writing schedule for yourself. Make sure your goals are attainable. Writing takes discipline. You should write something every day. If you have a chosen topic and a deadline goal, work toward that goal. If there are days when you can’t work on your piece, write something anyway. When setting out to write, be sure you can focus on the job. Don’t let yourself be distracted by outside events or demands. Scheduling and adhering to that schedule will help you to produce a piece within the designated timeframe. Determination, discipline and focus will give you tools to produce a quality piece.
—A member since 2000, Mary J. Nickum is from Fountain Hills, Ariz. She is edior of World Aquaculture. Nickum writes for Northern Aquaculture, Hatchery International magazine, Fish Farming News, and Aquaculture North America. She also writes stories for children and is author of “Mom’s Story: A Child Learns about MS.” Contact her at mjnickum@hotmail.com, www.marynickum.com.
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