Last Updated: May 26, 1999
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Good writing: Examples and ideas on
writing well
‘Consultive editing’ makes better writers, editors
and stories
Working together can improve the stories and the reporter-editor
relationship
By Kevin McGrath
We all know the old saw: Editors and reporters work in different worlds,
and never the twain should meet.
Reporters are best left to themselves to churn out copy, so the thinking
goes, avoiding editors, who only want to screw up a good story. And editors,
who are wiser, work best in isolation in their valiant effort to save the
poor readers from the writers’ excesses and sloppiness.
The stereotypes are nearly as old as the profession. They’re also pure
bunk. But they still hold sway at many newspapers, dooming them to mediocre
writing and editing.
If your newsroom still resembles that old assembly line, with reporters
bolting for the door as soon as they’re done writing and editors slogging
through copy while consulting nothing more than a dictionary or stylebook,
let me suggest a cure: consultive editing.
This approach assumes reporter and editor can cooperate to produce good
stories readers want to read, that they can work from a position of mutual
trust and respect instead of fear and loathing.
It assumes the writer maintains control of the story, while the editor
sets the standards for style, taste, balance, fairness and accuracy.
It aims to identify a story’s strengths and make them stronger; the
weaknesses rather naturally fall aside.
As a practical matter, this means editors long used to doing so have
to stop ramming rewrites down their writers’ throats, or taking over the
copy and making it their own.
And writers have to be open to editors during the entire writing process.
That can be scary at first, but it’s a ton of fun when it works.
The writer talks to the editor all through the process but especially
at these points: the idea stage, after reporting but before writing, and
after the first draft. The editor becomes a sounding board for the writer,
helping to ensure the story is on track and is using its strongest elements.
After the draft, the editor simply reacts to the story as a reader.
Some amazing insights can come of this.
For example, a couple years back, three days into a week of covering
a commuter plane crash, I told a reporter I’d really like her story to
let me "see" the inside of the National Guard’s temporary morgue. She showed
me the six or seven grafs she had drafted to do just that. End of story
coaching.
After she filed, she joined me for the edit rather than heading out
the door. Good thing — I saw this halfway through: "One wore brown framed
glasses. Another wore a Timex watch on his left wrist. Yet another wore
a mauve class ring."
No question, it was the story’s natural lead. The passengers were all
dead, and here we had the tokens for what remained. We couldn’t pass it
up. Besides, nobody else had it (always a great motivator).
The writer immediately agreed, and we recast the top to flow from that
opening, working our way into the morgue itself. I asked questions: Can
we explain how the "weary" airline spokesman looked? Can we show the lab-coated
people standing at the steel tables inside the morgue, rather than just
saying they were there? Can we strengthen this verb?
And when we struggled for an ending: How about returning to the beginning?
So we did: "Meanwhile, the eyeglasses and watches wait amid the mud and
wreckage to be discovered and paired with the names of the dead."
This was easy to do. It took about 20 minutes on deadline. The story
was still about 18 inches long. It led the next day’s front page. Best
of all, both writer and editor felt we had improved the story together
better than either could do alone.
If you’re not used to such an approach, let me suggest you read the
definitive work "Coaching Writers: Editors and Reporters Working Together"
by Don Fry and Roy Peter Clark.
Then decide you’d rather enjoy your work than fight with writers or
editors, and jump in.
If your newsroom has an atmosphere of animosity, you may need to try
twice as hard to build trust between writers and editors. But your rewards
may be twice as great.
What have you got to lose besides mediocre stories?
McGrath is the writing coach for The Times, Munster, Ind. Call him
at 800/837-3232, ext. 3239 or
e-mail him at mcgrath@howpubs.com
