Sometimes writing can be slow and difficult. Even bothersome.
At any given moment, a writer is plagued with questions of “how to phrase this,” “what’s that word I’m looking for,” or “is this clever or am I just that done?”
And don’t even get me started on the worst question: “what do I even write about?”
All of the above questions, paired with a good dose of procrastination, have been bothering me in the days leading up to school starting. OK. Fine, I admit it. It’s been bothering me for weeks … months … since I realized I would need to write this particular column.
In the past I could just take from an experience, or find a national or regional topic that I felt comfortable writing about. But this time is different. My objective is not only to produce my obligatory monthly column. It’s to ask you, the reader and Belmont as a whole, to take time out and read the Vision.
Now can you see my dilemma? How do you beg and plead for readers without, you know, begging?
But in reality, I don’t have to beg, plead or even beseech readers. The Vision’s history speaks for itself.
In the past, the Vision has broken major news developments and has held its own against regional and even national newspapers. We’ve won awards for our content and design. And in head-to-head competitions, we’ve even swept larger schools.
Last year we took that experience and gumption from print to a strictly online publication.
And now a year into our new digital initiative, the shift has not slowed. Keeping with our reputation, the Vision will continue to be a student news organization determined to provide coverage of all things Belmont and beyond. Now just with more pictures, video and audio.
Our goal, as always, is to provide great coverage of the campus, but this year the Vision is looking to build from previous success.
We will be rolling out our new push for more video, more relevant content and more campus involvement.
In the past, we at the Vision have written our stories, published them and done little else. Now our hope is to provide more chances for interaction either through social media, Vision-sponsored events or periodic contests. And trust me, the contest prizes will be worth your time.
While reaching out to the campus community is a major aspect of the goals for the Vision this year, so is listening to our readers. That’s where our focus on relevant content stems from.
For the past couple of months, we’ve received comments for more Belmont artist coverage, fairer campus organization coverage and “surprise me” appeals for unique stories. So this is our chance to say we’ve heard, and soon you will see that we were listening too.
Be sure to check us out a belmontvision.com and on Facebook and Twitter to not only keep up with our increasing campus coverage, but for a chance to enter our numerous contests throughout the year.
I think I can speak for the Vision as a whole when I say that we are all looking forward to building a better relationship between our organization and the university.
Vision Editor Autumn Allison is a senior journalism major.
P.S. Please feel free to reach out to me about how we at the Vision can better cover this campus, or better yet, with story ideas.