It's been said that bad things don't happen to writers; it's all just used as material. Whoever said that had obviously never spent a day in the life of a journalist. One of the first things we learn when we hoist ourselves into the newsroom is to swallow our feelings. Every word you throw out there is judged: first by the editor, and then everyone else in the world. That's one pretty big stage. There's the things you were never taught in university: like the torture of breaking news coming in the moment you're about to go for coffee, or public meetings running the same length of time as a day on Mercury. Working set "hours" is now a fictional concept, and your wages stretch just enough to survive on ramen noodles and wine. Being a journo is wonderful though, there's no doubt about that. We can mask our innate nosiness under a veil of professionalism whilst getting enough free stuff to appear on Channel 4's "Hoarder Next Door" and meet some of the most weird and wonderful creatures to walk this Earth along the way. Indeed, many of them appear to have stepped straight out the Star Wars cantina, but that's all part of the beauty. The journalist comes in many forms. Behind every newspaper headline, every magazine feature and the sea of articles you browse online everyday there's a tide of daily struggles faced by the common wordsmith. Here's just a few of them...
23. When Someone Tries To Talk To You While You're On A Deadline
It's hard to keep your sanity intact when the clock is ticking and your colleagues persistently approach you; oblivious to the fact your face has transformed into a corned beef pie, your heart-rate is high enough to power a small engine and your fingers are typing so frantically they are no longer visible to human eye.
22. The Moment You Actually Get Paid For Your Writing
Robert Benchley once said: "The freelance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps". Right he was. There's a reason we went into the journalism business, and one thing's for sure - it wasn't for the money. Summers of unpaid internships throughout university suddenly become summers of full-time unpaid internships the moment you graduate. Then one day, you strike gold. Someone actually wants to give you something of worth for your words. It's not enough to splash out on the champers, but a £3 bottle of sparkling anything will do the job.
