| ‘Ms. B’s’
advice for writers: Just do it!
By JEFF VANDERFORD
Apr 05 2006
The day Barbara Moran reported for her new job as reporter for the Atlanta
Constitution, her editor said two things:
“You the new kid?”
There was a pause.
“We got a triple murder out in Flippen. Get on it!”
At the crime scene, Moran broke her only pencil and, upon viewing the
bloody and violent aftermath that included three dead bodies, promptly
threw up.
Helped by a sympathetic detective, Moran soon realized
there was a subtext to the story: The victim’s small cabin was
surrounded by expensive homes but the family had a reputation for trusting
their mattress over any bank. That led police to focus their hunt for
the killer on a disgruntled nephew.
Moran’s story ran on the Atlanta Constitution’s
front page the next day and she joined a very small fraternity —
she was only the seventh reporter in the paper’s long history
to have their rookie story on Page One.
“The thrill lasted just a day or so,” Moran
recalled. “My editor demanded quality work on everything I turned
in; a good way to learn one’s craft.”
Moran shares that anecdote to instill a sense of wonder
in students taking her new class, Journalism 102, which began last week
at Skagit Valley College’s facility at Ken’s Korner.
It’s all about clips.
“In my classes, students write to get published,”
Moran explained. “I tell them to leave their excuses at the door.
‘You have a dream and you can do it.’ Eventually they’ll
build a file of clips and that’s the way to get into the business.
When you look for a job, you need a gallery of clips.”
Moran sold her first article to a national youth magazine
for $15, a story about two teens befriending a crabby, lonely old man
in a random act of kindness. “It was a start,” she said,
pointing to hundreds of clips stored in her Clinton garage.
She wrote a humor column for the high school paper before
enrolling at Kent State University.
“I was there the day (May 4, 1970) the National
Guard shot those four students,” she remembered. “The official
word was at odds with what I witnessed; even my parents believed the
governor’s version. It was that more than anything else that made
me study journalism so I could tell the truth.”
Back in the early 1970s, being a reporter was still mostly
man’s work, especially in editorial newsrooms.
After graduation she became a court reporter for an Atlanta
weekly — “I begged them for the job and bombarded the editor
with clips,” Moran said.
That eventually led to the big time on a respected Southern
daily paper, where Moran followed in the footsteps of legendary author
and reporter Margaret Mitchell, who penned “Gone With the Wind”
in the 1930s.
Her new editor admitted her persistence had driven him
nuts. “I’m going to hire you just to get you out of my hair,”
he told her.
Over the next three years she traveled the world, covered
presidential news conferences and, with her colleagues, laughed at the
ambitions of a peanut farmer in plaid pants from Plains who wanted to
be president.
“Very few folks had faith in Jimmy Carter, but
he had plenty of faith in himself,” Moran said.
Following a ski trip to Colorado Moran decided to move
west, settling in California and a new job with the San Diego Union-Tribune.
She started specializing in kid’s stories, then animals —
“You may have heard they have a nice zoo there” —
and finally environmental topics, always a hot item in the Golden State.
Along the way she met and married Dr. Bob Baker (“He
kept his married name”), a pioneer in assessing and treating Vietnam-era
veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Her dream and eventual brainchild coalesced in the “Special
Species by California Kids,” a book about native plants and animals
as seen through the eyes of children.
She knew she still wanted to teach and write when she
moved to Whidbey Island in 2003 after her husband retired.
One of Moran’s passions is journalism, in any form.
“We’re always going to have newspapers, but
the Web is the future and writers must understand how it functions to
use it properly,” she said.
To that end, she’s written a textbook, “Crafting
Multimedia Text,” that addresses the reality of written information
on the Web and the layers of interactive involvement needed to be successful.
“What people don’t realize is the Web is all about words;
it really is a writer’s medium and provides lots of opportunities
to create electronic clips.”
“I don’t want to scare anybody; there will
always be newspapers,” she said. “But those who think the
Web has put writers out of business are clueless about the realities
of both print and the Internet.”
Her mission is simple: “I want people to believe
in themselves — it breaks my heart when they say they can’t
do it. There is so much talent in the bushes on this island but I need
to get them through the door.”
Though class members fondly refer to Moran as “Ms.
B,” they aren’t fooled by her pleasant demeanor and outgoing
attitude — she’s expects them to study, learn and produce.
Her class focuses on journalism but is useful for anyone
who regularly writes press releases or deals with the media. She noted
two of her students have already published articles in the Viewpoint
section of the Record.
Even though classes have begun (Tuesday and Thursday
at 5 p.m.), Moran encourages aspiring writers to “Just show up.”
For more information, contact Skagit Valley College at
341-2324.
© Copyright 2006 South Whidbey Record
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