Your Longest Inch Count

40 inches on a feature story. Chopped in in half and ran it in 2 parts.

120 inches? One story? Christ, thats 10 prep school gamers.

 

The fascinating thing ....I never thought I'd find any satisfaction in tightening my stories. The 45-incher I originally wrote was damn near 90. But I went back, and began gutting it (I trust my editing more than some of my own editors') and after a couple of nights (and some damn good scotch) I click the inch-count icon....45. And I was very pleased.

 

yeah we've "glamorized" a couple of kids on their road to straightening out their lives only to have them arrested, get a DWI or something stupid a few weeks later. that's why I hate those stories. the coaches and the kids all tell you how they've straightened their life out and they thank the Lord for their second chance while in the back of my mind I'm thinking 'this kid is a thug' and of course, the kid proves me right.

Stuff like that jades you over time toward athletes.

 

Hell yes.... now see, I try to keep my eyes peeled instead for the unusual. I've come across different features that included such things as links to the Russian mob, kidnappings, prostitution rings and athletes abusing the handicapped, and coaches covering it up. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to pursue any of them....

 

I said I wasn't sure because I'm at a tabloid, not a broadsheet. That and I haven't used inch counts since my community college days back in '95.

 

Wrote a 125-inch story on a 17-year-old who was back in high school after being a drug addict. It ran on Christmas Day several years ago because it was going to be his first Christmas back with his family after a stint in an out-of-state rehab facility.

I also wrote a 90-inch story on a former Olympic boxer who won a gold medal years before and was still trying to box despite his wife's pleas to stop. I won an award for it.

 

I once write 100-plus inches on a collection of fun anecdotes from old football players about training camp. Lots of fun and silly and fascinating inside stuff from the old days (and a few recent stories). I told the SE the length and he said to cut it down to 65. I worked like crazy and did it, putting the cuts in notes mode. Then the SE read it and loved it so much he put the cuts back in and found the space to run it at 100-plus. One of the proudest moments of my career.


I also wrote 70-something on a local HS football legend and major college star who is now a homeless, schizophrenic drug addict who has been in and out of jail a dozen times in the past 15-20 years. The problem was I had too much great material -- I actually thought about writing a book on the guy -- and botched the story. It came out OK, but nowhere near what it should have been. That story might be my biggest professional disappointment.

 

I would have to check, but somewhere around 45.

 

I flat-out smack-dab refuse to do these stories. They've learned better now than to ask.

They still have other people write them, so I always make sure, a month or three later when "Reformed Troubled Jock" turns up on the police blotter again, to call out in a foghorn voice, "Hey!! Wasn't that the guy we wrote the gushy nut-slurping story about how he had turned over a new leaf, working hard, straightened his life out, found Jebus, yadda yadda, all that bullshit, three months ago??? Well I do believe it most certainly IS....."

Why, here's another one right now!!! (I don't work at the Snooz, but obviously they're still doing these knob-polishing jobs.)

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070605/SPORTS07/706050334/1136

Now I don't refuse to ever do any stories on former troubled athletes playing well. But I do refuse to write the "happy happy joy joy, he's turned his life around, in great shape, turned over a new leaf, found the Lord, defeated his demons, ready to lead troubled youth by his sterling example," bullshit like that.

If he (or she) is playing football, basketball, baseball or whatever better, fine. I write about that. But when they want a story about how he's now just a marvelous admirable human being, forget it. Had that shit blow up in my face too many times -- never again.

 

60 inches. But the commercial on TV said I should call the doctor after four hours.

Sorry, had to make that obligatory joke.

But seriously, 60 inches on a local kid turned college star before the NFL draft.

 

44 inches, a feature on a pair of softball pitchers. I always remember the saying, "True perfection comes not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

 

I once assigned a guy to write a piece that ended up 10,000 words.
Won him an award for writing and me one for editorial direction (hee hee)