Ever since my senior year in high school, I would read Odyssey articles on my free time. I was so attracted to all of the relatable listicles and even laughed at the GIFs used to describe one of the points made for the post. Even though I was an undecided major at the time, writing for the Odyssey was something that I always wanted to do. I used to have a YouTube channel and I loved expressing my opinion on certain topics. In real life, I'm not outgoing, but I'm definitely not shy. Using a social media platform allowed me to use my voice.
Even at work, I would read articles in my free time. I finally decided to apply to write for the Odyssey at Towson University, my school. I applied in maybe August 2017 and I didn't hear back until the end of October. During that wait, I honestly thought I was forgotten about, but I still had hope.
When the EIC called me back at the end of October, I was absolutely shook and of course, I took the offer. I was so excited to get my login and see what the formatting was like. I didn't start writing until I sent out my first article on November 7, 2017, titled 10 Towson Student Struggles. I wanted to stick to writing about college life and the struggles that Towson students can relate to. I then branched out and started writing about my home state, dating, relationship advice, awkward relatable struggles, body issues, my work life, and open letters to important people in my life. As I started branching out and opening up more, my articles became more in-depth and meaningful.
Over the course of the year, I did have some struggles and I did have to learn how to navigate my way through editing and sending articles. I didn't know exactly what I was getting into, and the process of writing an article is tough. We have to write an article at least once a week (and if you are a busy person, it's pretty rough). We also had to deal with the old Muse platform deleting all of our hard work because of random glitches. Sometimes, we pick cover photos and write titles that we like and our EIC's will ask us to change them, so we have to scramble and find something else without plagiarizing.
Also, out of all of the struggles that I mentioned, having writer's block was something SERIOUS. For instance, there would be times that I would blank and not know what to write and the deadline was approaching. There were times where I was writing multiple articles a week, and then for the future weeks, I wouldn't know what to do. Despite all of the challenges I faced, I had to learn how to make the best of it and practice new methods that worked for me. Here are some things that I learned over the year:
1. Write your article in Microsoft Word and THEN transfer it onto the Odyssey format.
The older format of "Muse" was the absolute WORST for those who remember. Writing all of your good ideas and getting the perfect GIFs on the original Muse format, then waking up the next day only to find it all gone was PAINFUL. I was always freaking out and panicking to my editor, and she would tell me to go back to the recent article history (which never helped). But after that first incident, I began writing all of my Odyssey articles on Word, which helped me so much. I would then copy and paste my work and then continue adding GIFs on Muse. My work would still delete from time to time, but I wasn't that stressed because I knew I always had work saved on Word. Thank the Lord that Odyssey decided to get a whole new format back in May.
2. Try to write your articles and set them ahead of time.
For my procrastinators and those who get writer's block frequently: try writing at least 1 article a week and set them ahead of time so you won't have to worry about not having an article to submit.
3. If you are running out of ideas...
If it helps, write down different Odyssey ideas on a list and save it somewhere so you'll always know what ideas you can write about. Also, try to think of something funny or something that is going on in your daily life that you think people might enjoy.
4. When looking for a cover photo, make sure that it isn't one that has been used 50,000 times.
I used to get annoyed when I had to look for photos that were labeled for reuse, but then I found sites such as Pixabay and Pexels. However, those are the sites that EVERYONE uses and it may come off as repetitive and unoriginal (which makes people not want to click on your article). What helps is to get a photo off of Instagram or your own personal picture.
5. PUT AS MANY TAGS AS YOU CAN!
I'm telling you, even tags that sort of relate to the article are worth including. PUT THEM DOWN if you want your article to get noticed. You want people to view your content.
6. Make sure that your title is worth clicking on, but don't write something problematic just to get people's attention.
If you are going to write something problematic, please prepare for the backlash. I've seen many articles with misleading headlines that were only used as click-bait, which is dumb. Please don't say anything offensive either. It's annoying seeing articles that come off as arrogant.
With these methods, my articles kept getting stronger and stronger. Writing them became easier for me and it was more enjoyable to share my work with friends and followers. Overall, I am glad that I started writing for the Odyssey because it allowed me to express my opinions on certain issues and topics and make people laugh. It also feels good to relate to other people and have a sort of "blog." This hobby has turned into a regular passion of mine. Even though I am not studying journalism in college, it is a way to release stress and feel happy.
