Jude Magnotti ‘26
EE Editor-In-Chief
Hello Eagles Eye!! And welcome back to another great year of stories and sentences wrapped into your favorite school publication! Now that we have officially entered the 2025-2026 school year, new writers will, without a doubt, be looking to get a jump on their articles for the year. However, as the problem normally is, it can be hard to know what you want to write about. I can’t tell you about the countless hours I’ve spent brainstorming in my head on what my next article can be. Sometimes things just aren’t happening, and other times there are too many topics to choose from! Still, writer’s block, contrary to popular belief, is a good thing. It forces you to expand OUTSIDE your comfort zone in order to find new ideas and new events to write about. As a 4 year staff member here at Eagle’s Eye now entering my Senior year as an editor-in-chief, I have plenty of experience finding ways to dig up new plans. While intended mostly for new writers to the paper, I encourage you to use these tips even if you don’t write with us, and hope that they will help convince you to join in the future! Now without further ado, these are some of the biggest things I’ve learned about writing articles here at the EE.
1: What you write ABOUT isn’t as important as what you actually WRITE
One of the first things you should know is that it is the writer who makes the story great. Not the other way around. While a good topic might make an article intriguing or easier to write, it is the writer him or herself that makes the work special. I can’t tell you how many times I found a topic I thought wouldn’t work, only to turn it into a constructive and full fledged article just by trusting myself. A good writer can make even the most boring of topics entertaining. While we encourage you to find the most interesting stories you can in Trumbull High, Connecticut, and the world as a whole, always remember that you decide your own articles’ fate. NOT the topic.
2: Carve out time for writing
As we teens know, time management can be one of the biggest challenges we face in high school. Between school work, extracurriculars, and personal affairs, making time to write a full article can seem like a daunting task. This is why planning ahead of time is one of the most important things you can do. Even if it’s to set aside just 15, 20, or 30 minutes for an article, that gets you one step closer to crafting a compelling piece of writing then you would have been had you not. You also want to get into a routine of writing to make things easier. Whether it’s writing one article every marking period, one every month, or even one every week, having that routine will make the task second-nature rather than a time-consuming bore. Speaking of time consuming, that leads me to my next point…
3: Writing an article does not take that long!!
While certain articles can be longer, most articles are really only a half a page to a page. If you are covering a story locally, obviously it will take more time for things to happen and collect information. However, if you are writing about a topic you know a great deal about, researching takes little to no time. Even if you have to do some, the most I have ever done to research is 15 minutes. When you get into a groove and start writing, it feels almost natural and the words roll out of your brain like a well oiled machine. Just writing one article a month can be a huge contribution. So don’t count out that article due to fear of not having enough time.
4: Collaborate with other writers
Here at Eagle’s Eye, we encourage a fun collaborative environment. If you have a friend in the club, or even someone who is not but still likes to write, try researching a story and writing an article together! Some of our best articles have come from collaborations, so don’t be afraid to reach out to one of your fellow writers to get something started.
5: This is a very low pressure commitment!!
I can’t emphasize this point enough. This is not your English class, we are not expecting five page well thought out essays with perfect grammar. This is a space for you to express your ideas, improve your skills, and put your work on display while not having too much pressure on you. With that being said, we do expect a certain level of commitment (that commitment being that you write at least one article a year.) While it is definitely recommended that you attend some of the meetings, as long as you are making valuable contributions to the paper that’s all that matters. When we become adults, we often have to deal with high-stress worlds consisting of long hours and strict deadlines. But here at Eagle’s Eye? You can write and go as you please and no one will judge you for it.
I hope you guys learned a little from the knowledge I have shared. If you are a first year writer here, welcome and we hope to see you write soon! If you aren’t, you know how awesome this club is already and you can spread it to as many people as you can. Eagle’s Eye only gets better and better year after year, and with enough luck, we can train an amazing generation of future writers not just in profession, but in life. Go out and find some stories!!