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How Long Does It Take You To Write?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by schiezainc, Mar 13, 2008.

  1. the_lorax

    the_lorax Member

    Totally depends. If I'm churning out a dime-a-dozen profile to make the East Boondock High softball coach stop calling me about his shortstop, I'll pump it out in an hour, including interviews (assuming I can get a hold of everyone). But if I'm writing the centerpiece 25' feature to run on the day of the state championship, you better believe I'm gonna take some more time. And I'm lucky enough to have editors who will give me a day or two to do nothing but research/do interviews for that story before I even sit down to write. If I didn't, I'd make do, but the story wouldn't be as good.
    But on deadline? Just get the damn thing done.
     
  2. dragonfly

    dragonfly Member

    It's funny you posted this. I was having a similar thought today. I had a page 1 takeout running, but hadn't transcribed the quotes I got last week, and still needed to do an interview or two.

    Anyway, the last two days had been hellish, so I was already kind of burnt out. But the story was due, and they needed it by 2 or 3 p.m. so there was no time to dawdle.

    I finished all the transcription by noon, did the extra interview, researched for an hour and started writing about 1 p.m.

    Not ideal!

    But knowing I needed to have this in in an hour or two, I decided it was best to keep it simple. So I went with a straightforward lede and then just let the story tell itself. It felt rushed, and I knew I'd slapped it together, but it actually came out OK. I think the time pressure actually made me write better. This was the kind of story where if I'd spent a long time writing it, i could've overthought things and gone too far with it. But because I needed to bang it out, I just tried to bite off what I had time to chew.

    Anyway, it checked in around 40 inches. I had it in by 3 and then took the rest of the afternoon putting together a graphic.

    doesn't always work out this way. and i'm always scared of mistakes when I write this quickly.
     
  3. STLIrish

    STLIrish Active Member

    How long does it take me to write?
    However long I have.
     
  4. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    I work for a weekly. Depending on how important the story is, I'll write on a tighter deadline so I can get it on our Web site even if it's not a day when my paper goes to press. When I covered the murder trial last month, I'd race back to the office to file my copy and then post it on the Web.

    That way, I give myself the equivalent of a daily's deadlines even though I'm at a weekly. That's why I feel confident that I could bang out a gamer pretty quickly and that I could bang it out on a daily's deadline.

    Having said that, there are challenges to writing for a weekly that don't exist for a daily. I have to figure out how to make my copy compelling when it's likely that the story will be old news by the time people read it and people will already know the final score by that time.
     
  5. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member


    ESPECIALLY stuff which requires TONS of research, assignment tends to fill all available time . . . especially since you can't crosscheck/check yourself too much.

    Of course, this leads directly to alcoholism for many, but that's another story for another day.
     
  6. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    A. 25 minutes - an extra ten if I'm not on deadline and I can make it longer.

    B. 2-3 hours- I research a lot whenever I write columns. And I get very meticulous about wording. It's a bitch sometimes but I love the finished product.

    C. Around an hour. Unless its an exceptionally long feature, or halfway through I realize I need more info or better quotes. On my longest feature, I've spent maybe five hours editing and writing, and rewriting, but that was like a two-parter.
     
  7. m2spts

    m2spts Member

    Face it, no matter how fast you get the story in, the desk is always going to have the final say.
    Having done both -- and I agree with what Dwain Esper always said, "(any assignment) beats the desk" -- it's a good idea to keep it simple and get it done.
    Play around with some ideas during the game. I always wonder how some of the legends of our business would have done with cut and paste.
    Don't be afraid to use running matter, but save INSERT SPACE for any quotes or commentary you may want to insert.
    Be 10-15 minutes ahead of deadline.
    Have an idea 3/4 through the game what you're going to write about. And start writing. Get that lead down, with a couple of graphs to follow, then INSERT for late-game stuff, quotes, and then go back to your game matter. There's no reason why you can't have 15 or so inches by the end of the game. Adding five to ten inches is no big deal.
    If you have an idea, put it on your computer. I've done game stories that had 10-15 different ideas or "clever" lines -- often, none of them was used, but it kept me in the game.
    Now, how long?
    Deadline game story -- a 20 incher should take no more than 15 minutes, at best. Write a first-edition story at deadline, then spend 10-15 minutes in the dressing room, and improve on that first story.
    Deadline column -- a 20-25 inch column could be done in the same amount of time, with some of it written during the game. This is time spent writing after the event is complete, of course. Give yourself 10-15 minutes in the dressing room.
    Deadline feature -- a 25-30 inch feature may take 20 minutes or so, once your interview is done.
    For more leisurely features, don't spend more than an hour. I always told myself, if I couldn't get the first draft done in an hour, I should be doing something else.
    For columns, about the same.
    Thoughts???
     
  8. This is a tough one to answer for me as well. I'm sure like everyone else, if you're in a press box/row with a laptop in front you, you're writing as you go along. For a college bb game for example, I'll have 10-15 inches of notes/thoughts/analysis by halftime. At halftime, I'll edit it down to 8-10 inches and voila, half my story is already written. During the second half, I'll take more notes, run through possible leads in my head (which I do the moment I get to the arena), etc. During that 10-minute window before the locker room opens, I'm getting the basics in the story like W-L, high scorer, next game box. I like to have 10-15 inches of a story written before I hit the locker room. Most of that is some first half running, key moments in first half, etc. I think from the moment that final buzzer sounds, I want to get my stuff to the desk within 45 minutes. Sometimes it takes longer, but I've never missed a deadline, even the impossible ones. I'm too paranoid about missing one as I'm sure everyone else is.
     
  9. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I'm at the point now where I can write a running gamer in my sleep, and I'm sure some of them read that way... But, if you have to file 16 inches of running without quotes at the second a game is over, all the desk cares about is if it's clean and if it's to length...

    My write-thru takes me 30 minutes to finish, give or take... You do this long enough you better be fast...
     
  10. shockey

    shockey Active Member

    one of my fave stories:

    when i worked at the ny daily news, i once asked legendary sports cartoonist bill gallo how long it took him to do one of his drawings:

    "about 45 minutes," he said, "and 35 years."

    loved it. 8) 8) 8)
     
  11. Angola!

    Angola! Guest

    I find the running story concept interesting, just because I don't seem to be able to do it.
    It totally throws me off when I go to write my gamer.
    I typically write game stories in about 10-15 minutes (on deadline) and in about 15-20 minutes otherwise. I just have always been really fast at writing.
    No answer is right or wrong, though. It doesn't matter how you do it, so long as it gets done and is clean.
    Columns are what I tend to spend the most time actually writing just because I don't want to come off as an idiot and I have to check myself and make sure I'm not being too harsh.
     
  12. Italian_Stallion

    Italian_Stallion Active Member

    I wrote seven stories from the state swimming meet in two hours last fall. I was a mumbling idiot by the time I finished, and I completely screwed one of the stories because I was putting prelims results into my story. I'll never try that again.
     
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