A few posts ago, I mentioned how, as a journalist, it's good practice to be constantly looking at your world from different perspectives. To ask questions like:
That's interesting, I wonder why / who / what / where / when / how?
Often known as the 5WH method of interrogating an issue, if you ask these questions you will probably end up with plenty of new material to write about.
I'll give you an example.
Several years ago I was visiting the Tate gallery in the Albert Dock complex in Liverpool, when I looked down into one of the dock complexes basins. Just under the surface I saw an anemone, which then led to a few questions, all starting off with:
That's interesting, I wonder:
How that got there?
What else is under the surface?
Where you can dive this basin from?
When this first started to happen? (I remember when it was just a pile of sludge)
Why this water is clearer than the water outside of the basin?
Who is managing all of this?
And so, I went away and researched these and several other questions which led to this article in DIVER magazine.
I'm always alive to the potential for what I call, 
"good quotage," and the two police officers who approached me as I was kitting up provided just that.
As well as quotes to make the article interesting, I also tracked down the academics and the organisation behind the project for some facts and history. To top it all off, a few quotes from some divers provided the icing on the cake.
I remember writing this article and the difficulty I had in platting together the different strands, the diving experience, the history, the reasons why it all came together and the quotes.
Eventually I decided to split them up, the first part of the article dealt with the diving (and I can't remember why, but I wrote that part in the present tense, not my preferred style). The second dealt with the history behind the redevelopment and who was was involved together with some quotes and interesting anecdotes. To end the article, I looped the last few paragraphs back to the beginning with a return to the diving and more quotes from divers.
The very first sentence was a stumbling block - when this happens I save it until something inspires me. On this occasion, it was one of those out take programmes on the TV where Fred the Weatherman had a naked man run across the TV set which floated on the surface of the water in one of the docks.
I had to talk this through with the editor as we weren't sure whether enough people would associate with Fred the Weatherman (the first sentence). In the end we decided he was a sufficiently well known person (well, he was in 1999) for him to be included.
So you see, the opportunities really are out there - you just have to ask the right questions.
In some future post I'll tell you about how a night in a hospital inspired an article for a diving magazine. You can't afford to switch off - even when you think you are going to die!
Keep writing...
Brendan
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