Chaff

I don't think I've mentioned this previously; Chaff is the Massey student magazine, and a few weeks ago I walked nervously into the Chaff office to offer the editor my literary services.

We decided that I'll start slow by doing the occasional movie review; so a couple weeks ago, armed with a complimentary double pass, Shaz and I marched off to a screening of Shooter, which I subsequently wrote a review of and rather tentatively sent it in.

Yesterday, I eagerly grabbed my copy of Chaff and looked inside the front page. List of contributors: My name amongst the gloried others. Thumbing through the pages, and there it is: My movie review, with a few shots of the movie, and my name in small bold letters at the end.

It's not pride I feel; Chaff were pretty desperate for new blood, so far as I can tell; and it wasn't a particularly well-written review. But seeing my name in print — it's a good feeling. This is something I've wanted to do for a while, and now I'm doing it. Even if I just start with the occasional movie review — that's fine. Building my way up. Start small. Et cetera.

And on the bus home, seeing four or five students on my bus flipping through their copies of Chaff, I strain my neck to see which page they're on... and earlier, at my tutorial, seeing one guy actually reading the first couple of paragraphs of my review, and then the last paragraph, before flipping on to another page. I don't like that guy, and I think it's pretty rude to openly read a magazine in full view of your tutor... but still.

Today, I sent Chaff another piece: a feature article on Script Frenzy. Big step; I'm quite nervous. And the editor hasn't replied yet, so I don't know what he thinks of it.

I'm hoping it'll get some students interested in Script Frenzy; it'd be nice to have an advance on our current total of eleven NZ members. Writing the article started as me just trying to interest potential participants; but now I'm more excited about my article as an article. As me, Ruth, getting an unpaid feature article in a (frankly) quite retarded student magazine.

But — a feature article! *squeaks* Me!