Can you write in segments?

[imjustagirl2]

I can't. I have to have a lede before I can write. And then I just go top to bottom. Writing running stories for deadline is hard as hell for me.

So right now, I've sent e-mails to my deputy SE to help me figure out which lede he likes best of the three I've written. He's in the middle of something else, so who knows when I'll find out. So now my choices are to try to write some background that I'll just end up rewriting anyway, or sit around and wait.

Did/does anyone else struggle with this? And if you did and are now cured, how did you do it? I'm stuck.

 

[Angola!]

I can't either IJAG. I always see people in press boxes writing stuff at halftime and I just can't do it. It makes it so my story seems disjointed in the end because I wrote it at two different times.

I do put down notes and other key facts so I won't forget them, but I can't write parts of my story without my lead.

 

[I love puppies!]

Is this a gamer?

I actually start with the nut graf and write the whole story out. Somewhere in that non-lede story is your lede. I promise. 99 percent of the time, I pull a good turn of phrase or an interesting stat/quote/observation and turn that into my lede.

If it's a feature, I do it the same way. Start off with some simple lede just to get me started. Again, somewhere in the story is your lede.

 

[imjustagirl2]

It's a feature. A really in-depth feature that I think can be really good if I don't shoot myself in the foot. It's why I'm going through our deputy sted just writing it and letting him have suggestions afterward.

Each lead kind of takes it a different direction, but still with the same central topic. It's why I can't just start writing and then make whatever lede we decide on work.

 

[Barsuk]

I can't either IJAG. I always see people in press boxes writing stuff at halftime and I just can't do it. It makes it so my story seems disjointed in the end because I wrote it at two different times.

I do put down notes and other key facts so I won't forget them, but I can't write parts of my story without my lead.

For me, that's a completely different issue.

I prefer to write the lede first and often do, but sometimes the lede just isn't coming to me. Rather than sit and twiddle my thumbs, I start writing other parts of the story (usually things I know won't be in the lede) and it often jars loose an anecdote or turn of phrase that eventually becomes the lede.

But as far as writing during halftime or before the game is decided, that's completely worthless for me because I'll end up scrapping most of it or rewriting it almost every time. What seems important at halftime usually ends up being quite unimportant by the end of the game.

 

[Idaho]

Sometimes I break my

 

[Idaho]

sentences into segments.

 

[Joe Williams]

I'm at other extreme. If I had to go back to a typewriter and paper, writing from top to bottom, I'd be a goner. I can only write now by going up and down, moving blocks of copy around, sometimes writing my lead last (after having a rough idea of it in my head, for angle's sake).

If I was working in an old Hollywood version of a newsroom where you had to hand them a page at a time for editing and typesetting, I'd be hiding under my desk, hanging onto to every page until they all were done.

 

[BNWriter]

I find I have a couple of assignments where it is almost necessary to do the story in segments:

The biggest of the two is a Special Olympics Summer state games piece I do every year in which *every* team in the coverage area gets mentioned. Since there are 5-7 teams, depending on if they qualify, I prefer to write that story in segments.

I've written it in one sitting before and it about killed me.

 

[expendable]

I can write a gamer in segments if I have to, but like most I imagine, I choose to write from top to bottom. I second what Barsuk says. Anything I write at halftime will most likely be one or two lines of filler by the end of the game anyway, unless it's already a blowout.

 

[93Devil]

Different topic, but the same slant...

Have you ever tried to write a research paper for graduate school after writing newspaper stories for over a decade?

 

[Ace]

I prefer top to bottom, but have written many a story then figured out what the lede was. Sometimes you can figure out where to start only after you've started writing.

 

[In Cold Blood]

Not for grad school, 93Devil, but I feel your pain. There's a world of difference between writing tight, concise newspaper stories and the long-winded, overanalyzed stuff they expect in academic writing.


and on the segment question, in a perfect world, I like to sit down and write top to bottom. Almost always, I have a decent idea of what angle I want to take before I start writing, so on occasion I'll write the meat of the story and then go back and figure out exactly how I want to word the lede.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

I've done stories in all sorts of different manners. Because running stories are usually drier than month-old toast, I tend to write my little bricks and pour the mortar at the end or around deadline. At a previous stop, I had no choice ... deadlines didn't allow for much of anything else.

The six months before I got in the biz full time were so critical. I learned not to let not having a lede stop me. Write from the middle. Write from the bottom. Unless it's a short capsule, the thoughts will appear somewhere in the story, so better to type them down and worry about something else. When I do stuff in this format, the lede will eventually emerge.

In summary, there's no definitive answer. Different stories and different games tend to lean to different styles.

 

[sportshack06]

Have you ever tried to write a research paper for graduate school after writing newspaper stories for over a decade?

Hard as ****ing hell...

 

[Platyrhynchos]

The lede is always the last thing I write.

 

[The Last Boy Scout]

Thank God for Copy and Paste. I'll write blocks of the story, then organize it in a way that makes sense and write some transitional sentence or paragraph. If that doesn't work, in-story subheads! Then maybe I'll figure out a fetching lede to draw readers in.

 

[amraeder]

Like a lot of people, apparently, I like to write top down. Usually I have a lead in mind before the game's over and it's just a matter of getting the wording right. If I'm not on a tight deadline, this happens in the car back to the office.
I only write as the game goes if it's a really tight deadline and I have to. I've found this works fine for baseball and hockey, OK for basketball, not well at all for football.
In those cases, if it's a close game, I'll have two or three different leads written out based on how the game might end (best example was a late state basketball game that went like 6 OTs), then I have most of the body written, just need stats and a few tweaks based on which of the leads I use.
I rarely feel as good about those stories as I do the ones that I write top-down when I turn them in, but if I give them a few days and go back an reread them, I'm surprised to find that they actually turned out well.

 

[Cristiano_Ronaldo]

Use the story's nut graf as the central theme and build around it. The lede will become one of the easiest parts of the story to write, as it flows right to the nut graf.

 

[PaperDoll]

Absolutely. I'd never get anything done if I waited

Different topic, but the same slant...
Have you ever tried to write a research paper for graduate school after writing newspaper stories for over a decade?

Not yet, but I write my newspaper stories in the same way I used to write papers. I start with facts or good quotes -- usually highlighted on pages of transcripts or game notes -- and build around 'em.

I've had this same debate with a good friend of mine for years, because she needs the lede to write anything else. I love cut-and-paste. Sure, I sometimes completely rewrite when I get inspired, but I also don't have to wait for that inspiration to strike to get the story done.