Today has been a bit of a lazy day (I even had to bribe myself with biscuits to get this done).
The thing about Winchester is there are a lot of hills. If I had noticed just how many hills there were when I applied to study here, I might not have accepted their offer. And the journey to university is downhill, which is great! But I have been here long enough to dread coming back up the hill before I even leave the house.
So today I had to speak to the sports editor at Winchester News Online about my story and the reason I didn’t get much done was because I was putting off doing that. But I managed to drag myself down the hill, find out what I need to get done in time for tomorrow’s broadcast, and then trek back up the hill!
Winchester News Online’s beautiful news room
Another British Touring Car driver line up was announced today, so it’s another double report on that. It’s been odd that we’ve had stories come in on Monday and Tuesday this week. Normally, there’s a huge rush on Wednesday when everyone wants to tell you what’s going on. Wednesday’s are my favourite days…
To keep myself sane, I write for a non-motorsports website, NUBI magazine. It’s less news and more features, which is an entirely different thing all together. I like NUBI because it’s a challenge.
When it comes to writing news, I have a formula which I follow. Sometimes you twist it about a bit to give it an interesting angle rather than the same story everyone else who got the press release is writing, but it’s still the same formula. With features, no. Or not that I’ve found yet, anyway.
This week I am writing about rituals. I know, completely unrelated to motorsport. It’s almost as if there are people out there who don’t care about people going around and around in race cars? I started that piece today after discussing with the editor what kind of direction to take it in. That’s to be finished tomorrow, and then begins my favourite task of formatting it for publication.
Today – or late last night, whilst I was fast asleep – the roles for e-racing.net’s coverage of the Mexico ePrix were divided up. Every ePrix is a big job, but it’s definitely my favourite part of the job (I struggle to see how you can work as a motorsports journalist without finding the race the best part). I love the pressure and the excitement a race brings.
So far this season, my favourite race to report on was the Beijing ePrix at the end of last year. I stayed up the night to be ready for the early morning practice sessions. It was an incredibly stupid thing to do, but it gave me a buzz. It’s in times like that when the entire world seems to just consist of the race, the people talking to you on Twitter, and your colleagues in the office (if they’re up!). It’s a wonderful feeling that I’ll hopefully get again this weekend.
I’ll be writing for two different websites again due to clashes, which will mean lots of note taking whilst I tweet!
Alright then, I think that was today. Now for those biscuits I promised myself.
Diary of a Motorsport Journalist 