Choosing and Connecting with the Stories We Cover

“Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life,” the saying goes, and that’s pretty much what my dad told me when I was very young. At the time, I didn’t quite understand what he was trying to say to me. That happened only many years later. Then, when I wasn’t so young anymore yet, still, not quite an adult yet, my mom, without even realizing it, introduced me to a subject matter I’m most passionate about today, and that I get to cover today through my writing and photography. I guess, in a way, my parents were the first ones to guide me toward my passions in work, in life…in general.

But even when we do what we love, we sometimes end up working on assignments that we don’t or cannot feel too strongly about. That’s a fact. Same goes for some of the stories that need and have to be told. It is our job, as storytellers (writers, photographers), to tell the story in the most powerful way possible. And that’s possible only if we find a way to connect with the story, to understand the subject and what they’re going through, and so on. Sometimes that’s easier said than done.

The idea is to try to find something interesting in any project or assignment we’re about to take on, or story you’re about to cover. If we cannot do that, we might end up realizing, too late, that that’s not the story for us to cover in the first place. I believe that it is vital for us to find that connection, that common ground, in order to create or tell the story from the heart, as if it were our story, because, in a way, it is.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Alina Oswald