Hardly anyone will tell you "that's not a story." But some stories are better than others. Consider having a menu of story ideas you can chat about with your friends and editors. See which ideas people find most interesting and which ideas you think you can do best.
Give out business cards. It makes explaining yourself a lot easier, and people will take you more seriously after you hand them one.
Ask questions. It's one of those rare opportunities where you can ask dumb questions and people will think you're smart for doing so. And if you disagree with someone, speak up.
Travel through the Points South past. Read the stories that previous fellows have written about your beat. "Read them critically, try to imagine how they were reported," Matt Thompson wrote. "Find the places in them. Look for details you admire or choices you might have made differently. Then think about what hasn't been done. "If there have been a ton of stories done about restaurants… go to the alley behind the restaurants, and the houses around them, and see what stories may have been missed."
Harass the Poynter prefect. Matt Thompson has survived the summer fellowship, lived in St. Pete for a year and is a nice guy. So ask him for advice if you need to.
Raid the equiptment pool if you need a minidisc recorder or other electronic goodies.
Use the library. They can help you find anything and have journalism books galore.
Spy on your cohorts. If you're a writer, sit in on a VJ session if you get a chance. If you're a VJ, see what schemes the writers have going.
Prepare your resume and clips several days before the career fair. Show what you have to other fellows to get ideas; look at what others wrote on their resumes.
What failed:
Thinking "it won't rain that much today."
Procrastinating.
Dominating the conversation or seminar. Make sure you give everyone else a chance to talk, too.
Trying to write the best story of your life. Experiment. "The ‘lower your standards' mantra did work, but it's so different from what many of us are used to that we get scared and don't use it," wrote Morgan Josey.
Peeing in the sink. (You think we're joking, but we're not.)
Marble and mahagany are the signature of the Great Hall at the Poynter Institute.
