How do I find inspiration to write articles for the student newspaper

Hi, Anina.

The good news is journalism is a collaborative field and it's not always just on the writer to come up with ideas. In fact, when you start out, you will pitch story ideas to your editors, but they'll also have stories to assign you. Every university campus has plenty of newsworthy events -- games, concerts, demonstrations, crime, research breakthroughs, university policy changes, budget issues, etc.

You'll probably find you have too many ideas to write about, which is a good problem to have. For example, you may write an initial news story and later need to write a follow-up piece. A source may say something interesting in an interview that isn't directly related to what you're writing about but you then decide to investigate and, boom, you have another story. You may get assigned a particular beat (sports, for example, or arts and entertainment) and will have to cover everything going on in that area on your campus or in your college town.

What also happens when your name is in print is that readers or sources will begin contacting you directly to give you story ideas. If you still find you don't have story ideas, read other publications and see if you can write local perspective pieces of national trend stories. You can also profile students or professors doing interesting work on campus.

Hope this helps give you perspective on campus newspaper life. Good luck!

Ana
Staff member at The Daily Texan (The University of Texas at Austin) back in the day

Ana's answer above is full of great ideas, particularly the one about localizing national trend stories. The other thing I can say from my days as an editor and reporter is that generating story ideas is a full-time occupation that you will adapt by necessity as a journalist. Ideas will come from predictable places like meetings and press releases, but they may also strike you while you're in the shower or driving in your car or mowing the lawn. You've got to adjust your mindset from being a consumer of news to being a creator, and that requires that you always think about what your next story will be. Be sure to have your phone or a notepad handy at all times so you can note the idea. You'd be surprised how often you can forget those little wisps of ideas you had when a few hours have passed!