As time goes on, Facebook feeds see more and more ridiculous Odyssey titles written by some random from somewhere.
And what's great about Odyssey is, they'll publish what's important to you. They give a voice to many people who otherwise wouldn't have one. And that is awesome and allows for a bunch of op-eds from around the world. Many different points of views give way to a flow of information that was previously unavailable to us. It's cool, it's a cool idea.
The only problem, we're not all the brightest bulbs. Sure we can slap down a few lines of ill-prepared satirical writing and call it a day, but how do we really make a decent article?
So advice from probably one of the dimmer of the bulbs to all the other writers at Odyssey and all aspiring writers.
1. (I admit, I'm already breaking this rule) Do not give advice.
You are no one, no one wants advice from you. I'm not saying this to be mean, but when you are just starting out in your writing career, you can't be all high-and-mighty thinking you have the best advice in the business. Write about what interests you, what you think would interest others, write about what you know. Don't assume your non-expert advice will be readily accepted. We are taught that we are all special flowers, the Internet is where that thinking comes to die. There are millions of other people who have advice to offer just like you. So while you can offer your advice, just know that you are in a crowd of millions, offering the same advice.
(I say this knowing that I am breaking this rule currently and knowing that I have broken it in the past.)
2. In this day and age, don't use emojis in your writing.
It's dumb and its pandering to a youth audience that isn't interested. (This especially goes to older writers, not just the teenage population writing for Odyssey.)
3. I know you want to write a listicle. Resist. Resist. Resist.
An article is not an article if it is a list with one-to-five words per number. It's lazy. And while you may not want to write an article this week, or you have no ideas, try to put as much effort in as if you were being graded. If you truly want to be a writer, future employers are watching. And consistently good articles, or at least consistent articles will look better on a resume than any listicle ever will.
4. Don't write articles about where you are from.
It was fine in the beginning, now it's been done. Every state has at least three Odyssey pieces detailing what it's like to live there, how you know you're from there, and all the crazy whacky things that are unique (not really) to that place.
5. Do your research.
It, surprisingly enough, will not kill you to do some "homework" during the summer months. Using common thought, like what is popular in memes or pops up the most on your Facebook or Twitter newsfeed, about the political debate, about terrorism, about gun violence, or abortion, any popular debate topic of the time, is not good writing. The common thought is what you want to avoid, it's what we all know. We know Bernie was an activist way before his time running for office, but can you tell us in more depth about any of his positions? Or gun violence – we are outraged at the racism that is fueling gun violence, but tell us something about how we can change that. If your article could be summed up by a meme, it's not good writing.
6. Be passionate.
You took this role for a reason, not to write about "The Top 5 Date Locations in Boston." That's boring writing. Why are you passionate about writing? This isn't just to all the people my age writing for Odyssey, but any writer who is writing puff pieces because they've given up on good writing. We all lose our spark sometimes, but please for the love of all things good, write something interesting. Write something awesome. You have this cool opportunity to put your voice out there – prove to people that you have something to say that is worth hearing.
