I Could Drink a Case of You Darling, Still I'd Be On My Feet

Last Monday I started my latest work experience placement with The Spirits Business Magazine in London. As ever, first day nerves were rife but I swallowed my worries and tried to walk into their offices as confidently as I could.

This was my first bit of experience writing for a publication with a very specific target audience. The magazine focuses on all things spirits; vodka, whisky, gin, new releases, competitions, the works. What surprised me even more was that deputy editor Becky was pretty much running a one woman ship. I was told the editor contributes various pieces but overall, she was the editorial team wrapped up in one.

Teamed with the knowledge that I was their first student in for work experience the pressure was really piled on for me. I knew I had to step up to the mark and make sure that I got to grips with the publication's style and (to an extent) the spirits industry as quickly as I could. One of the first things Becky asked me on my arrival was what did I want to get out of this week? I knew the answer right away - as many bylines as possible to add to my portfolio, and that is certainly what was provided.

My first task was to compile the monthly round up of the 'top 10 spirits' featured in the previous month's publication. Now, I like a drink as much as the next person but I would by no means consider myself to know anything about spirits. Cue frantic Googling and searching their archives for any scrap of information I could lay my hands on. However, I managed to meet the deadline which I am hastily learning is crucial in this industry.

In the days to follow I was sent an abundance of press releases to write into worthy news stories, I searched the web to find new stories that had not been sent through to us and learnt the basics of photoshop. (I don't mean to brag but I'm now a dab hand at cropping photos.)

Friday was supposed to be my final day however, due to a cancelled work placement I was able to stay on for another week at the Spirits Business with the added bonus of working from home (allowing me to save some much needed pennies.) Friday afternoon certainly came with its perks including a trip to a local pub, being gifted with a bottle of vodka for my contributions to the website and a cheeky cosmopolitan in the office.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Spirits Business Magazine and would definitely recommend it to anybody looking to build their experience and portfolio. It was certainly challenging at times but help is provided on tap and what I have learnt over a short amount of time will undoubtedly prove useful in the long run.

Live To Tell The Tale

The last few weeks have absolutely flown by. It is strange to think that in less than four weeks time I will have completed my course and Christmas will almost be upon us. Before I can even begin to dream about that glorious Christmas break there is a lot of work that stands in my way and I am so determined to make the most of it and achieve the results I so desperately covet.

Throwing myself into a world of fast paced learning has been such a change of life style compared to the laid back methods us university graduates have become so accustomed to. My days are jam packed with media law, public affairs, endless hours of shorthand and sub-editing. Then on top of that there's the small task of going out into the world to find real stories to be published. Every break time is filled with revision, emails and occasionally, a  truly fascinating and insightful talk.

As a result the time to browse ASOS, to pick out my weekly favourites, to write about new products I have found and would love to review and to have a good ol' rant about one topic or another have become few and far between.

And truth be told, I've missed keeping up this bog. It took a lot of courage for me to publish my blog to the world and despite those who mock because they don't get it, every post I've written on here has been a pleasure to produce. Some make me question what I was thinking when I pressed 'publish' and others make me proud of how I've grown as a writer.

Everyday without fail there is a blogger who starts their post with 'sorry I haven't posted for a while.' So rather than be an apology to the 281 subscribers who have so very kindly chosen to acknowledge Hyper Heart, this post is more of a promise to put more into this blog because, actually, it may still be small in comparison to how others have grown, but I think it has done all right.

Here's a little snippet of how I've been putting my journalist skills to good use with my fellow students, enjoy!

   

Fleet Street Fox

Four weeks into my journalism course and it has been pretty fantastic boombastic. From shorthand to media law and court reporting to getting my first feature published in the Argus newspaper and today a talk that I had been looking forward to for quite some time from the anonymous,Fleet Street Fox. Hard hitting and brutally honest, it was a talk that inspired me to no end while at the same time scared the bejesus out of me. 

To be told that you will be called a liar several times a day, have countless doors slammed in your face, be the victim of the odd punch or strangulation, witness suicide, see corpses and become very accustomed to phrases involving the word 'fuck' and 'aunts' (as autocorect loves to put it) is a lot of information to absorb in 60 minutes. Oh, and did you know that when you're hit by a train at 70mph you're pretty much vaporised and all that's left are little fat droplets the size of skittles? Yeah, you might witness that too. It was at this point I realised she was not joking when she said some people's human-inhuman ratio tips over into mental illness. I think it's clear to see why. 

But I also heard how writing can take you all over the world. How a 3pm phone call could see you on the next train to Edinburgh, or grabbing your passport and heading for the airport, or being on the front line of ground breaking stories, watching and telling history in the making. 

How you can bring down a government, have the press office for the House of Commons or the spokesperson for the Queen on the phone in a flash. 

How you will know information that you may never be able to publish due to ethical and legal reasons but you will know and more often than not you will have the power to tell. And let's not forget experimenting with jaegermeister which seems to be a fundamental journalistic skill. 

People will read your stories, your words, take in the facts that you sourced. And that's why I'm more excited than ever about the career path laid out before me. 

Now I think I'll go get some fresh air like Foxy told me.