Bill Carey’s Words of Wisdom

On Monday, Bill Carey came to Hofstra and spoke to my digital storytelling class. Bill Carey spoke to my class about his personal experiences. Carey gave us a lot of advice and tips to use now and in the future. The first thing that he stressed is writing. Carey said that “Writing is very important. Always work on your writing.” He also told us that “Good writing comes from strong verbs. Do not just throw out adverbs and adjectives for the sake of it.” He even showed us an example of good vs. bad writing in the show, “The West Wing.” In the example that we saw, Scott Take wrote very unique and used the word live twice. Sam comes in and tells a much better story. After watching that clip, Carey emphasized being a storyteller. Later on, he talked about our interests and future professions. Carey suggests that you “ always think about what you are going to study whether it’s music, tv, or sports, even when you are home.”                                               1)Know your material. 2) Emotion/ connect. 3) Storytelling fundamentals (color, geometric shape, and motion design) All of this is so helpful to me as a freshman college student and an aspiring journalist. I will definitely start using these tips in the future. I have always enjoyed writing and am willing to do whatever it takes to get better. Being able to talk to someone who has had a successful career inspired me. With a lot of hard work and dedication, anyone can make it in this field. I appreciate Bill Carey for taking time out of his day to speak to my class. This was a great experience and one that I will never forget!