My most recent music piece was one on a Northern Soul documentary, which was published 30th March (http://www.squareeyed.tv/2015/03/30/northern-soul-uplifting-yet-alienating-account-of-a-hardcore-subculture/). Again I tried my best to be balanced, and was both critical and complimentary of the piece. One way in which i perhaps fell back was in the word count, it reached just over 700 words which was perhaps a bit unprofessional of me, but I felt there was a lot to discuss. One of my previous university assignments was on the Northern Soul/Mod movement, so I took a personal interest in it and this as a result perhaps made me more critical than I might have been with something I wasn’t so passionate about. There was also one grammatical error (when I said “in the northern England”), and there have been several minor grammatical and spelling errors throughout my pieces, but it has taught me a lesson to review my pieces more carefully before submitting them. Trial and error has been a great lesson throughout all this, and I have learnt as much through my errors as I have my successes.
My two most recent pieces have been on a documentary on the Strangeways prison riot, and one today on a Rik Mayall tribute show. I feel invigorated by the fascinating programmes I keep being assigned to write about, and am also pleased that I am so prioritised in writing the music pieces. Having frequent deadlines also inspires me to keep working, and makes me a much more prolific writer. There was a period of a few years when I wrote barely any reviews or columns, and this is because I didn’t have deadlines to work to or much reason to publish anything. Working with Square Eyed TV has given me a much better work ethic and made me realise how passionate I am about writing and how naturally driven I feel to do it. Writing previously felt like a chore, but I now feel really drawn to it and am always excited to hear what Matt will assign me next. It is also good that he gives me a bit of licence, the Mayall show and Northern Soul documentary were both my suggestions, and I chose them out of my own initiative feeling that I could go some distance with them. In this way a very good relationship has been made with this employer, and I hope to keep writing for them and maintain this healthy relationship for the foreseeable future.
seankalworkblog 