{"id":2816,"date":"2019-09-18T19:53:42","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T23:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/?p=2816"},"modified":"2020-04-22T14:13:58","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T18:13:58","slug":"feature-writing-profs-eclectic-journey-to-find-his-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/2019\/09\/18\/feature-writing-profs-eclectic-journey-to-find-his-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature Writing Prof’s Eclectic Journey to Find His Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Feature<\/a>
Feature writing instructor Douglas Alden<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Professor Douglas Alden<\/a>, who is teaching feature writing in the Hunter Journalism Program this fall, may have had an extensive career in the media industry. But his eclectic journey started as an aimless college student. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have never known what I\u2019ve wanted to do,\u201d acknowledges Alden. \u201cI think in the back of my head, I wanted to be a writer but didn\u2019t think that I had the talent or perseverance to become one.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Alden dropped out of school after experiencing writer\u2019s block so intense that, he jokes, \u201cI couldn\u2019t leave you a note that said \u2018Call me back in five minutes.\u2019 \u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Seek out really talented people’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

After dropping out, Alden started working at ABC News, where he soon became a producer, first covering national politics and then sports. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was his subsequent immersion in writing and his work with great writers and journalists like famed sportswriter Dick Schaap<\/a>, with whom he ultimately partnered as producer for two decades, that gave him the motivation to go back to college at the age of 26, and to find his voice and confidence as a writer a few years later. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe most important thing you can do professionally is to seek out really talented people to work with and learn from,\u201d said Alden. \u201cThere may be some individuals who can do things very young on their own, but in general, it\u2019s all about connecting with people who just are flat-out better than you, and who will be honest with you about your work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From sports producer to entrepreneur to educator<\/strong>
<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

After graduating college, Alden worked for NBC Olympics from 1990 through 1993, where he directed, wrote and produced over 30 short features<\/a> for the 1992 Barcelona Games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, from 1994 to 2000, Alden was a founding member and senior vice president for programming and production at Classic Sports Network (now ESPN Classic).
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alden has worked in a variety of fields as a digital consultant for companies such as HBO, Showtime and ESPN.com. He also co-founded Motionbox.com, a personal video-sharing service and community website in the forefront of the user-generated video revolution. It was later on sold to Hewlett-Packard. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had spectacular failures, but it\u2019s never bothered me.\u201d <\/p>\u2014 Douglas Alden<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alden believes his success is rooted in being an honest artist who isn\u2019t paralyzed by fear and failure. \u201cI\u2019ve had spectacular failures, but it\u2019s never bothered me,\u201d Alden said. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to get consumed by the low grade you got and not by the reasons you got it.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alden says that learning from his mentors and peers, as well as running and starting companies, has fueled his long-time ambition of teaching inside the classroom.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For his upcoming feature writing class, Alden aims to teach it as you would an upper-level literature class. \u201cThe essential way to develop your writing is through writing,\u201d he explained. \u201cBut you can\u2019t become a great writer until you dedicate yourself to studying great writing.\u201d 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the help of talented and award-winning journalists, novelists, photographers, and filmmakers who will be visiting the class throughout the year, Alden hopes to teach his students to \u201cunderstand that they should be aiming for greatness, and how to achieve it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Feature Writing Professor Douglas Alden, a successful journalist, producer and entrepreneur, started as an aimless college student. Find out what got him on track, in this “Professor Profile.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1,18,253],"tags":[118],"class_list":["post-2816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-news","category-homepage_news","category-journalism-program-news","category-prof-profiles","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2816"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2951,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816\/revisions\/2951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}