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It's also been said that choosing a niche to follow can make finding assignments easier because you know where the good sources are, you are part of a select network, and developing stories becomes easier because of practice and knowledge on the topic. But what do I really want to write about?
I got to thinking (alright Carrie Bradshaw) about this after my recent meeting with my mentor who cemented this idea in my head and I decided that the best place to start was looking into what I read about the most. Whose social media profiles did I follow the most? Which videos did I watch the most? Which news feeds did I keep up to date with?
It didn't take long to realise that the sector that I am most interested in, and that which I miss most about living in New Zealand, is women in board sports. Surfers, snowboarders, skaters. But am I qualified to write about that? I haven't surfed since I've been back in the UK, I go snowboarding about once a year (and that's usually only on the artificial stuff), and the last time I cruised about on a skateboard was an obscene amount of time ago.
But then I thought...Sports Journalists aren't all athletes, Food Critics can't always cook, Political Writers don't all have a seat in the House Of Commons. But what they do have is a passion for the topic and the ability to write a good story and that's enough motivation for me.
So I may not be hanging ten on the daily but I sure as hell can write about it (that being said I do want to be able to hang ten eventually and will be making much of an effort to make the road trips to the mountains and the coast in the next year). I've made some significant steps in the past week or so and have really begun to formulate a plan of what I want to do going forward. It's a great feeling when you finally feel like you have a direction to follow as nothing is more frustrating that having enthusiasm in abundance but nowhere to channel it.
It's all very exciting stuff and I hope to be able to continue writing blog posts full of such positivity in the years to come.