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This summer as I was flying back from Boston to my hometown Los Angeles, I wondered what my internship at Entity Magazine had in store for me. Writing for an online publication would be a completely different field that I had not yet delved into, but I didn’t think I would be challenged too hard. I’ve loved writing my whole life: I sort of kept a journal, presided over my high school newspaper for two years and I had even selected English and Creative Writing for my majors. How difficult could it really be?
But I was surprised. Writing for a magazine is much more different than writing a research essay or a newspaper article like I was used to. I was challenged and surprised, but grateful that I was able to receive all of this new experience that would help me to tackle various styles of writing in the future. I wanted to be a writer, and this turned out to be a great place to start. So if you think writing for Entity is a piece of cake, think again. Here’s how Entity challenged me and made me into a more capable writer.
Maybe you’re used to writing college essays and perhaps even articles for you school paper. That was my experience, but writing for a magazine presented itself as a challenge far greater than I had anticipated. You’re constantly engaging your reader to coax them into reading the rest of your article, no matter what the topic is. Asking them questions, surprising them and referencing things they know takes some serious skill!
Everyone always talks about the 9-to-5 job as an established career lifestyle, but just because it’s common for jobs to have those hours doesn’t mean it’s an easy task to follow through. Working these hours taught me discipline and work ethic, skills of mine that I didn’t realize needed refining until they were put to the test. Working long and arduously for several hours isn’t easy, but it’s a vital component to surviving life after college that I’m glad I got a head start on.
I’ve always been a pretty shy person, especially to people I’ve never met. You can imagine my fear when I was assigned to interview people for articles who I had never met and held incredibly prestigious positions. It was really intimidating to face these fears head-on and to pull through, but with the help of my boss, Jennifer Schwab, I was able to secure the confidence to ask interesting questions, engage my guest and produce a thoughtful article from the conversation. Once Jennifer showed me that I could, I did.
