Salt Institute for Documentary Studies

Located in Portland, Maine, the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies offers a 15-week immersion program for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in documentary writing, photography, or radio.
This blog is an update of current Salt students insights and musings.

4/20/2009

Emphasis on "rough"

So, Katie and I emailed the rough drafts of our long stories to our classmates and Colin today at 12:20 EST. Amen, Amen! Yea, we forsook sleep and triumphed, triumphed indeed!* We were in the Salt's Red Room last night until around 2 in the morning, powering through 3,000 words that I'm pretty sure won't make it into the final version at the end of the day.

"Two writers in the Red Room, oh yeah, oh yeah," Katie said at one point.

Our friends kept coming into the Red Room, drawn by the sounds of Lady Gaga, the Righteous Brothers, M. Ward, giggling, complaining, and typing.

"What the hell is going on in here," said one of the radio students. They've been pretty cracked out lately with their story due tomorrow, but I think the sight of Katie's postcards littering both of the long tables in the Red Room were a sight. "You guys have totally lost it."

Later that night, I wondered if I should get contacts?

"You're unforgettable with those glasses," Katie said.

Katie's pretty gregarious, and she kept me laughing last night. I probably would have drowned in the misery of my knowledge that I haven't done enough interviews, access may be slipping (or not there), one of my subjects may not sign Salt's release form, and that my story ended up being much more complex than I could have guessed at the beginning of the semester. That we drew the ace and two of hearts ended up a pretty sweet deal.**

And now, onward to the next draft!

By: Amanda, writing.


*My story involves heavy doses of Catholicism.
** To determine when students would have their stories workshopped, Colin had us choose from five cards. I got the deuce.

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