Monday, May 6, 2013

Profile Process

I struggled immensely in putting this profile together. I conducted many many interviews (there are 5 other interviews with people who sleep at the Gospel Mission that are not included), and spent a lot of time at both the Gospel Mission and Ministry with Community. I gathered a ton of observations and quotes, and really don't know how to weave it all it into a cohesive piece under 2,000 words (right now I'm almost 500 words over).

Unfortunately, I did not have a ton of time to observe the daily processes of the Mission. The Mission itself was not easy to work with, and did not provide me with the kind of access I was hoping for. Also, other than attending classes and meals, the clients who stay permanently in men and women's shelters are not really around during the day, which also made things difficult. Therefore, I'm wondering if my piece is "narrative" enough. Also, while I was writing my piece, I thought about the New Yorker presentation we read for last week's class. MacFarquhar talked about how introducing oneself into the piece as a writer was jolting and somewhat problematic. Therefore, I decided to distance myself in writing this piece and did not use "I." I'm wondering if that makes the piece interesting, or if I should maybe put myself more in the piece.. Thoughts?

The piece as-is is very problematic. I'm struggling with how I present the Mission. While my narrative piece is biased based on how I feel the organization handles religion, I also do not want to take away from the good work the Mission does, and all of the people they help. I'm wondering if it comes off as completely anti-Mission.. I would also like to include a little more about Ministry with Community as a kind of alternative look at how other organizations that help the homeless and abused handle the concept of religion. Ministry with Community is really an excellent organization, but given that my main focus is a profile on the Mission I'm not sure if there's a place for it in my article.

Overall, I'm pretty clueless as far as what to do with this piece, so I look forward to hearing all of your suggestions!


No comments:

Post a Comment