We all have our processes. Putting together a story is like fitting a puzzle in place, piece by piece. Once I have the top, I’m fine.I type up scribbled notes from a pad into something readable, I read through shorthand typed at talking speed from phone interviews. Then comes the print out.
The blank page on screen is like a challenge, less mocking most days than when it opens up possibility.
Will this lede be witty, semi-sarcastic, newsy, eight words? Time to decide what struck me most and start with that. Time to step outside myself and into the eyes of the reader. What would draw me in if I were them?
It’s instinctive, almost, once the lede is down. The landscape of the story is unusually clear even at the first go-round without having to draw a plan. The notes are the map.
The nut graph. The quotes. The flow. The hidden puns and dry wit. The ending. The re-read. The filing. The relief. (The evening calls from the night desk.)
The sheer love of solving my literary Rubix Cube.
Every day and every story and writers’ willingness are different. It has to be the words that keep me going even on days when it doesn’t seem to matter.
Photo courtesy www.floridacountiesmap.com
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