(A)s the saying goes, even Ernest Hemingway had an editor. Papa once said, "One should write drunk and edit sober." Edit being the key ingredient, and the one that's being left out all too often.I'm no drinker but I can absolutely be a little punch drunk by the end of a long day of football and writing, which is why an editor would be a pretty good idea. But trust me, by the time I'm finally able to hit the "post" button I really can't bear to go back and read my own drivel one more time. Occasionally that shows. Fortunately, there are some pretty good editors out there who drop me an email when I cut and paste a paragraph that makes absolutely no sense or simply write something that's flat-out dumb.
I appreciate the help and usually get it cleaned up. That's a huge advantage of the Internet over the newspaper business.
I still remember when I was sports editor of a Pennsylvania daily and I wrote a headline about Fernando Venezuela. I'm sure people were snickering over their Fruit Loops about that one. Sure wish I could have called up the story, switched it to Valenzuela before anyone saw it, and breathed a sigh of relief but no such luck.
No comments:
Post a Comment