Becoming a Times Writer was actually one of the goals I wanted to accomplish in my "Whyville Career." I did, and still do, want to be a journalist when I grow up, so when I started writing for the Times; I thought it'd be good practice. It would be a way to express my feelings and points of view in a way that everyone would be able to see it.
I had read the Times for years before I actually started writing for it. I remember reading some of the oldest editions and that I would sit down for an hour and read every single article the day it came out. I remember reading about Bigfoot's retirement and reading almost all of the BBS topics that followed. An afternoon that I was bored out of my mind would be spent punching in random numbers in the Article ID search and reading whatever came up.
And then I got an idea.
Since I wanted to be a journalist, why not try writing for the Times? I had read nearly every Times Writer's articles and had picked them apart, piece by piece to see why they had been named Times Writer. It was because they had stunning ideas for articles, they used powerful metaphors and the way they wrote was moving. The pieces weren't written like a parent talking to a child, but it wasn't professional like a huge newspaper like The Atlanta Journal Constitution would be written. Their work was truly stunning.
The first article I had ever written was a response to an article by Asilaself, titled "Hacking Secrets Revealed!" I had read the article and decided that it wasn't hacking that Asilaself was writing about, it was scamming. I decided to clear things up and write an article (although I seriously doubt that it could be classified as an article) explaining the differences.
Explaining isn't exactly what I did. The "article" was only 150 words and was less than half a page in Microsoft Word. Therefore, it wasn't an article and I wasn't surprised to see that my "article" hadn't been accepted, but that dancer153 had written "People Are People, Passwords Too" in response to "Hacking Secrets Revealed!" In comparison to mine, hers had 348 words and took up almost an entire page on Word.
However, being the person I am, I wrote yet another article, this time about the Trading Post and how ridiculous the prices were. It was called "Popularity and High Demand." This time the article was a page and 364 words, but it didn't make it either.
At this point, I was crushed. I couldn't understand why my articles weren't getting published. I thought that I was pretty good. I had my parents and friends read my articles and tell me what was wrong. They all told me they were wonderful and if Whyville wouldn't accept me yet they would have to, just have to, accept me the next time.
While I was in Pennsylvania visiting my grandparents over the summer, I got an e-mail from my friend, Rachel, about a ring tone that adults couldn't hear. I remember thinking, "This is brilliant," and immediately opening up a new e-mail so I could write an article about it.
I'm still not going to call it an article, being the 296 words that it was, but I remember logging on at my house a few days later and having my inbox on Whyville literally flooded. People I never knew existed had sent me y-mail asking me how to write for the Times, how amazing my article was and how I should write more. I remember thinking that I hadn't been published, but maybe the Editor had decided to publish me!
I got into the Times and noticed my article, "Now You Hear It..." published right between "The Classifieds" and "Fashion for Beginners" by Twigsy. My heart was racing; I ran to my parents and told them I finally had been published. I called Rachel, thanking her for the e-mail she sent me, since because of it, I was finally in the Times. I recommended the article to be read by my friends Sammy and Jason. They both read it and told me they loved it. People whispered to me in chat rooms, telling me they read my article and couldn't believe how teenagers found a way around texting in school.
I just couldn't believe it.
After that, I wrote another "article" that didn't get published about the difference between a Newbie and a Noob. It wasn't that great (I'm not even going to copy and paste it into Word to find out the word count) and I was actually happy it wasn't published.
After a weekend of camping with my family, I was reading pasts editions of the Times and came across an article about copyrighting face parts. I was so curious about Whyvillian's opinions about this, so I wrote an article called "Copyright It" and submitted it. This time, it was published.
I remember getting tons of response from tons of people, some disagreeing with copyrighting and some all for it. Then I remember the next edition and how Firch wrote an article called "Copyrighted Face Parts? I Think Not!" I read it, and to be honest, I was a little ticked off. In my article, I was neither yay nor nay for copyrighting, but Firch has made it seem like I had. I have nothing against Firch; in fact, I looked up to her as a role model, since she was a Times Writer, and I was not, and she was running for Senator, and I didn't have the popularity or the ideas to.
After those two articles were published, I wrote five more. One was a rewrite of "Popularity and High Demand", since it wasn't accepted the first time. None of those articles made it. After I wrote an article about starting high school and that didn't get accepted, I stopped writing for a while. Two months after, "I wrote A Walk In The Park...?" in my computer applications class while I was at school.
In my opinion, I think the article was one of my best. It explained how to write for the Times. I received my fifteen minutes of fame that time. I had people y-mailing me telling me that the article inspired them to write themselves. Most of all, I had messages asking how to submit articles, since I didn't write about that at all. So, "I wrote A Walk In The Park...? Part II" about submitting. Unfortunately, that one didn't get accepted.
After that article was published, I wrote "From Bad to Worse", which was about some of the Whyville citizens and how sometimes they were extremely rude and "What Is Fashion", which was about how people define fashion. Neither of those got accepted.
In December of 2006, I wrote about the yellow Wiggle, and how he was leaving The Wiggles in my article "Farewell Yellow". That one got accepted, but after that so much in my life had changed I just didn't have time to write anymore. I promised that I would write again soon, but there was just so much to do that I just didn't have time to actually sit down and write an article. I looked to it as a phase that would eventually, hopefully, pass, and thankfully, it did.
I wrote "Let's Relax, My Friends" in April, and I can officially say that I regret submitting it. I got immediate response in the BBS's and I actually got in a huge fight with another girl over a matter of opinion. Anyone and everyone can say that this "Let's Relax" is my worst. Go ahead; say it. You know you want to . . .
After that, I had so much more to do, I stopped writing again. I survived freshmen year at high school and was moving on to be a sophomore. I aced finals and exams, enjoyed my summer, got a job, and realized in order to be accepted into UGA, I needed to be in clubs. I was accepted into Beta Club. I started after school mentoring, which is amazing, by the way, and I worked hard at keeping up my grades.
Then, the day of Homecoming, while I was letting my nails dry, I remembered about Whyville and how I used to write for the Times. I thought about writing another article. I thought and thought and thought for ideas, and then I had one: getting a job. Thus, "So How Do You Get A Job?" was born.
After that, I wrote "What's Happened to Fred?" Cobd wrote a hysterical fiction version about what happened, and I LOVED it. Cobd is officially on my list of hilarious people I (hardly) know and love.
After that, I vowed to be in every single edition of the Times until I graduated sophomore year, and then I would decide if journalism is still what I'd like to do with my life. If so, I'd keep occasionally writing and if not, I would slow down and decide what to do with my life.
This brings me to the last edition of the Times, where "The Spirit of Giving" was published.
Now I'm writing this at 9:40 at night, and I can't help but think, "Wow, I've come a long way." But it doesn't end there. Just a few hours before I started writing this, I was looking at my article and realized that under my name the tag "Guest Writer" was no longer there. I was officially a Times Writer.
At that point, I couldn't have been happier. I got this huge smile on my face (to those on the hangout, it looked like the one that I used to describe "someone"). I just could not believe it. I didn't have to beg for it. Not once did I mention how bad I wanted it in an article.
I just tried and set goals for myself.
And I got just what I wanted.
I'm continuing to write, so this isn't a "Farewell Bluebag" sort of article, nor is this an "I'm taking a break from Whyville and going to Facebook" sort of article. It's an article that let's you know how much time it takes to get from Guest Writer to Times Writer. It's an article of motivation. It's an article of inspiration and encouragement.
It's an article that hopefully someone who wants to be a journalist will read and they'll start writing for the Times. Hopefully that person will start their writing career on a better foot than I did (150 words is quite literally pathetic) and they'll continue to write far past than what I will.
This is bluebag, soaking up all the words I've just written.
(So take a chance and make it big cause it's the last you'll ever get . . .)
