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I would say that in the last two months I’ve said “what should I write about?” perhaps 200 times. The majority of these times have been sat in Butt’s Wynd computer room. I’d like to say that these questions have been in relation to my forthcoming dissertation or some late Philosophy essay, but in actuality I’ve been wondering what articles would really interest the student population of St Andrews.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m no novice when it comes to writing. I have written copiously for various school publications and sporadically for The Saint – but most publications tell you what to write – and some will literally spoon feed you a story. In contrast, my Tribe submissions have in almost all cases been conjured from my own subconscious. So how did I get the idea for these stories? Inspiration comes in many different colours, but mine is usually the headache inducing white glare of a computer screen. Sit me in front of a Word document and I can usually churn out a story an hour – helped by Google, Wikipedia and a plethora of small independent websites, if I see a product or story or band that I can imagine my St Andrews friends being interested in, I  put it as a potential article idea. It’s then just a case of trying to find a way of writing about it that makes it interesting to read about – I usually imagine I’m actually having a conversation with someone about my topic, and then trying to persuade them to go check it out for themselves. Sometimes it’s a total bellyflop – apparently, no one is interested in the Dart’s Championship being shown on tv – but quite often, a minor news piece on the BBC website can lead to an interesting and witty features article. Wanna-be journalists generally keep abreast of what’s going on – both in and out of the bubble, and the littlest thing can be the basis for one of my submissions - when it comes to stories, we should all have something to write about.