The Calm

Today, my story The Miracle Man was published in the Banner-Press and all is...calm. I guess this story, those 77 inches of words, can really be considered my first narrative piece published to a large readership.

I'm sitting here at my desk in the newsroom not sure what to think. The calm, the silence is almost deafening; at any moment I feel as if the phones are going to explode and all hell will be unleashed in this tiny town. Somewhere, hidden in my words is a false fact that will change the whole meaning of my story – and by god everyone in this town is going to let me hear it.

I don't want to make it sound like I don't trust my work; I do. I wouldn't have turned anything in that I felt was fabricated – I have more respect for my work and journalism as a whole to do that. But I can't help but wonder if there was a mistake I overlooked or a name spelled wrong or whatever the hell else it could be.

The phone will ring and from the other side I'll hear –

"That Matt Keyser is a fucking liar!"

"Matt Keyser should be shot and hanged for his story in today's Banner-Press. What a disgrace to journalism!"

Or the worst call ever.

"I'm a relative to Chris Langley and this entire story is a croc of shit. Get that writer out of town and never let him write another word again!"

Call me crazy, but readers out there are brutal and not afraid to say what they think. And if they don't like your story, they're gonna unleash a hell so vast that you'll want to curl into a ball and never see the light of day again.



Some of you might say that you have to detach yourself from the readers and not care what they think, and with an everyday news story or feature, I agree. But when you pour everything you have into a story, spending weeks worth of interviews and research and writing, it's hard not to become attached to what you're writing.

So, until that phone rings, I'll try to sit here and enjoy the calm silence, hoping it lasts just a second longer...