I am participating in 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes 2018 (all of my submissions can be found here).
Today’s prompt is: SEARCH
One of my duties as a freelancer at SmartBrief was searching for stories to be included in our newsletters. Searching was one of my favorite things to do, for a variety of reasons. For the six months or so before I transitioned to being a full-time employee, my searching duties came after a few hours of intense concentration while editing. The searching gave me a chance to switch my brain to a different mode, relax a little bit, and discover what was going on in the world.
Besides my daily searching (which had to do with legal content), I also searched every weekend for agriculture-related stories. As with any industry, I discovered what a vast array of writing exists about extremely niche things. (I also discovered lots of very good writing about these niche things (and plenty of not-so-skillful writing)).
I had a list of sites I visited routinely. One site I visited stayed on the list, not because it had anything I could use for the newsletter and its narrowly-targeted topic, but because I just liked it!
The site is The Farmer’s Daughter USA. Amanda, the author, grew up farming, has definite opinions about many things policy-related, including agriculture legislation and GMO foods. But she is also a practicing attorney and has managed something I haven’t: creating a catchy design for the blog itself! (She also has a fun Twitter stream at @farmdaughterusa.)
I don’t do the in-depth searches anymore, but I get the opportunity to support other people as they learn to do them. I hope they enjoy it as much as I did, and discover the principle that applies as much to searching for news stories as it does to life in general: take a look at the things that don’t initially seem to be a fit, because you may find something even more personally satisfying!
Wife of one, Mom of two, Friend of many. My pronouns are she/her/hers.
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