The Art of Writing

..and burning bridges

In early 2022 an Al Jazeera English editor got in contact with me about writing for them. I was excited to have another platform to publish on. They come few and far between for a freelancer, or for me at least.

I had some ideas percolating, so sent them over. I was surprised when they replied that I had a decision to make. I had to either do comment writing OR reporting. I couldn't do both. I had done the former for nearly a decade and the latter since 2022. So it was a dilemma.

In the end I did neither as I got distracted into doing other things as I am wont to do. I think there's some bad luck with me and Aljazeera, as I directed my first ever documentary for them in 2009, The Super Ladies, about women rally drivers in Uganda, but have not directed another since.

Nonetheless, I don't think I could ever make the decision to do just reporting or just comment writing or indeed just directing documentaries. There's too much to comment on, too much to report upon and too many stories to tell. And who knows how much time to do it in.

It's a bold title right, The Art of Writing? Well I don't presume I have anything to teach anybody reading this newsletter on how to write, but I am going to draw upon the words of my elders and my own experience.

"I have come to realize that, in cases of social or political injustice, only two things are effective: political action and straight journalistic reportage of the facts.”

I've been ruminating on this excerpt from an interview of W.H Auden by Paris Review in The Art of Poetry No. 17 for a couple of months.

Read in context it seemed perfectly plausible and sounded about right. However, what does that mean for my other writing?