I cannot believe how cold it was today! As an added bonus, it was absolutely piddling it down as I set off for the first day of my work placement. Consequently I arrived soaked through and freezing and dying for a cup of tea.

In the reception of the St Helens Star, I was met by Steve Leary and taken up to the news room - I don't think I can go up on my own as there are security measures that prevent the door from being opened from the outside. I have to wait for someone on the other side to let me through. I suppose this means I'll have to wait for Steve every morning, unless the receptionist gets to know my face and starts to let me through. We'll see. Either way, not a problem.

My first day was enlightening, let me tell you. Newspaper work is nothing like the normal writing that I do. When I work on my novel, or indeed when I write on this blog, it's very loose and all over the place. My blogs often border on the stream-of-consciousness kind of thing, and my novel... well, I don't even know. Stuff happens. I like it to have a natural, unpredictable flow, like life, but with some sense of direction.

Writing for a newspaper, however, is totally different. There are no 120,000 word behemoths here. You have to keep it simple. Most of the things I wrote today were between 100 and 300 words. I had to trim them extensively to remove redundant words. I had to try to be witty - and my wit is generally accidental. I say something smart, then realise afterwards. I had to keep to a strict structure.

All in all, I wrote ten pieces. I didn't do too bad, except for the odd hiccup. Any errors were quickly corrected by Andrew, who explained in a constructive way how it could be amended.

In fact, the only mistakes he pulled me up over were the following. You know when you write a date? Normally I'll do it March the 3rd, 2011. At the St Helens Star, they write it March 3. No year, because generally it's pretty obvious what year the event will be held. Only if this event in March was in 2012 would a year be included. The second error I made was regarding the place name 'St Helens'. Normally I'd write it with a full stop after the 'St'; the same for similar names. St. Helens, St. Aelred's. Note-to-self: kill that particular habit. And, if in doubt, just ask!

I was given a notepad today in which to keep notes for any pieces I might write. The first five pages or so are full of scribblings regarding upcoming articles on The Prince's Trust, Self-Injury Awareness Day (which Anna suggested I do a story on) and a piece I've already drafted about the deplorable condition of Earlestown Station - I'll post this article a bit later. At the back, I've scribbled a list of the stuff I've learned today...

• Keep it simple - not everyone who reads the Star knows what existentialism is! (Yes, I had such a faff today...)
• If in doubt, ASK!
• The system for categorising articles... (so far; I don't think Steve covered them all - what about Sports, Heritage, Culture and the College Corner, for instance? No doubt I'll come across those later)
  • FIL - Filler
  • NW - News story
  • LD - Lead
  • CHU - Church
  • ENTS - Entertainment
  • LET - Letter
• The aforementioned date and place things - how to correctly write them.
• That Bloody Paperclip is still as hateful now as it was ten years ago.

So, my jobs today involved researching for articles, verifying sketchy details, writing articles, submitting articles to the editor, listening to their editorial advice and learning from it. It was pretty fun; a lot more involved than I'd expected! I'd sort of expected to be treated a bit like the typical office junior - a glorified maid, doing fetch and carry work. That's only because I was told I'd most likely get this kind of work when I was attending the Job Centre. I'm happy that my placement's like it is, though. I don't think I could have tolerated being a gopher. I'm definitely glad that I took the risk of putting 'journalism/publishing' down as my field of choice when we'd just started to think about placements.

I'll be posting every article I write onto my journal, friends-locked until A) they're published or B) my placement's over so it doesn't matter anyway. Bear in mind that I'm working way out of my comfort zone, so the articles mightn't be of the best quality.