Writing Style

Readers don't want to putt. They want to read.

 

I don't like a ____ said. ending either, but it's more of a personal preference than anything.

 

i was doing some brainstorming on this and i think i had an epiphany.

a big number of the youngest writers have to tackle so many duties when they graduate from college. crafting a story is far from your only duty. if you're not an f-ing stud, a lot of times, you start out at a small paper, doing layout, editing wire, etc.

and i know from my experience paginating and editing, when i get a wire story and i have to shorten it — CHOP goes the ending, especially on gamers, previews, spot news and things of that nature.

now, most of the time, you try to only cut the most cuttable stuff. but i'm a realist. there're deadlines, late-breaking things. sometimes, there just isn't the time to edit a story the same way you would if you had all day — even moreso if you're at a small paper, understaffed, doing layout, handling calls and writing your own stories.

long point short, maybe we're fostering a certain demographic of writers who — for obvious reasons — value the tops more than the bottoms.

i'm sure we all benefit from the pointers handed out by vets in the biz, but it's hard to justify cherishing the last half of a story when, on the previous shift, the industry forces you — in two minutes or less — to hack off half the wire story from the late-night dodgers game you need to lede the roundup.

 

Never did I envision that question would spur this. ...

Even with a deadline, though, you've got to learn to put your best game on for any article. The few readers out there deserve your best. It's not that hard to give it to them. Sure, 35 minutes is a bitch, but in time, it's possible to be proud of everything you write. I think we've all had to do it with high school football to extra-inning baseball games. It just takes time.

 

You really like beginning a sentence with "Said"? That always looks wrong for some reason, though I can't pinpoint a particular reason why.

 

Mssrs Down, Wingman, macg,

If you elevate this conversation any higher, FIFA won't allow us to play a World Cup qualifier here.

Appreciated.

"YHS," he explained

 

Personally, I hate them with a passion. I think I can count on one hand the times I've ever used a split quote without some editor shoving it down my throat on a story I wrote.

Once in a rare while when you really want to showcase a powerful part of a quote, I'll tolerate it. But a steady diet gets a serious edit if I'm the one with the red pen or at the keyboard.

 

I don't like that one, either. I know it's correct, but it's just ugly to me.

 

How about when the sentence is about Boris Said?

As for split quotes: They're dishonest -- poetic license gone amok. I've never won any Ohio writing awards, but I can say split quotes are never a good idea. The way they're written makes them sound as if the speaker paused where the "he said" is inserted, which, I've learned from first-hand experience, is virtually never the case.

Besides, it's more effective this way:

"These are the kind of games that make me want to retire," Torre said.

Than this way:

"These are the kind of games," Torre said, "that make me want to retire."

 

Ike, no need to take a shot. I hate split quotes, too.

 

There may be times that you're most proud of how you're able to get the point across in a story that has such a tight deadline. I don't have a recent gamer to use as an example, but one story I'm proud of is a piece I wrote the day after Virginia Tech. It was about the shooting's effects on my county, even though my county is 300 miles away and not in Virginia.

Localizing a national story for a community weekly on deadline while I'm trying to paginate and edit everything else that day? That made that piece one of my favorites this year. I'm not saying it was award-worthy or even particularly great. But the simple act of stepping up to the plate in itself can be its own reward.

 

Understand that way of thinking, but I'm firmly in the "don't end it on an attribution" camp, whether you end on a strong quote or a lesser one.