Mediaville Guest Blog by Miranda Lightstone – read more at Driving MsMiranda
The first thing you learn in J-School (or at leas the first thing that really stuck in my brain) is: Write what you know. Those four words rung true to me and I still repeat them often to this day, five years later. Writing what you know is the best and perhaps easiest way to succeed as a journalist/writer in the creative world. But, how do you know what you know?
Deep stuff, eh?
It doesn’t have to be as profound as it sounds. Writing what you know, or finding your niche, is something every writer struggles with at first. It’s a strange discovery of looking at what you think you know (which is perhaps just something you’re mildly interested in), and finally realizing what you’ve known all along (a deep-rooted passion that you’ve had for ages) and going with that.
I’ll use my own personal experience as a lesson to you all in discovering your niche and using it to your advantage as a writer to build your reputation and really grow in the industry.
When I began J-School I was set on working for a newspaper on the crime beat. I loved mystery novels, couldn’t get enough of them, and the bloodier the murder the better (my mother was delighted). I was sure I would be one of those hardened journalists who befriends a cop and gets the inside scoop on every unsolved case before anyone else.
And then I received my first TV class assignment. I panicked. I’d spent the beginning of my semester focused on criminology (I even enrolled in a criminology class as a general education course), but I wasn’t about to go out and put together a video news piece on the latest murder spree in Montreal — I had no connections, I didn’t know the first thing about putting together a proper crime beat story and I didn’t know who to talk to.
That same weekend I was headed to the Montreal SCP (Sport Compact Performance) show at the Big O. A car show for modified vehicles, SCP is a pretty big deal in the car community and I’d been going there for a few years. I knew a few of the owners of the cars on display, and I was planning on watching the newly released Fast & Furious movie before heading to the show. The release of the movie had had a huge impact on the tuner world and had really ramped up the popularity of the show.
As I was walking around SCP scoping out the latest mods and chatting with a few of the owners about their latest suspension upgrades or engine swaps, I realized this was what I knew.
I hadn’t noticed it at first because it was such an odd-ball beat to me (cars) and yet, this was what I was meant to write about. I love cars, I love to drive, I have a passion for all things auto-related and I always have. When I pick up the paper the first thing I do is flip to the car section (then the funnies, of course). At magazine racks I’m always in the “guy” section checking out the latest hot rod magazine or tuner spread.
I already had several contacts in the car industry and regularly attended auto shows. I also drove my own modified car and kept up with professional racing on television. I had all the knowledge I needed to take on the task of building myself up as an auto journalist.
Despite the strange looks I got from family and friends when I said I wanted to write about cars, I stuck to it and have since made a career out of it, test driving cars and writing reviews, covering auto events and even hosting my own video car reviews (which I’ll get to in my next blog!).
Discovering your niche and “what you know” can be quite shocking, but once you do, let it in. Explore your new found niche and see how it plays out for you. Don’t fight it because it seems odd, or against everything you’ve ever wanted to write about. Embrace what your mind knows. Because if you force yourself to be a political writer when you really “know” fashion, you’re not going to succeed.
Your niche will make you great. I’ve succeeded as an auto journalist for the past five years (and continue to grow) because I’m writing what I know and because I love what I know. Your niche should be your passion and something you’ll never get sick of writing about.
I’m rather lucky, I didn’t really have to try hard to be unique in my niche because of my gender. Whether or not I choose to put a spin on my stories or make them “different” to stand out from the crowd it always plays second fiddle to the fact that I’m a woman. Right away, I’m memorable.
However, not everyone has that luxury. Finding your niche and writing what you know is half the battle these days. Making yourself stand out from the crowd in your niche can be a bit more difficult, but by exploring the plethora of media available to writers and journalists today (print, online, blogging, vlogging, pictorials, video reviews, Twitter) there are ways to make yourself the very best in your “know.”
Drive (write) on,
- M.
More at Driving MsMiranda
