You had more to say about writing?
Plenty.. First, let me point out some of the tools of the trade, so to speak.
Okay.
Coming out of the Army, and coming to Maryland, I still used the same old manual Smith-Corona typewriter I had used in college.
Later I bought an electric version.
I eventually took to a dedicated word processor; a Panasonic.
That was the kind with interchangeable daisy-wheels.
I had one wheel for normal type and, for example, a separate wheel for Italics.
Of course, all it could do was print on 8 1/2 by 11 paper. So my son talked me into getting a full-blown computer.
And that opened up a whole new world for me, as you can imagine.
I’ll bet.
Now, what did I write about? Well, at first it was a simple press release about my community association.
Who was elected president, or whatever. But then — do you remember what I said happened? — an editor from the Annapolis Evening Capital talked me into becoming a stringer reporter covering local events.
They call it just The Capital now, but it was the Evening Capital back then.
I covered various local events. I played both reporter
and photographer.
If I could sit in a chair I’d take notes in a notebook.
But, if I had to circulate around — talking to different people, for instance, — I’d take notes on a small pad.
Now I want to show you a photo of how I might set it up to write the story.
Okay.
See, my lead might be on, say, the third page of my notes. The lead is the first sentence or two of the final typed story. So I had to view all pages of my notes to figure the sequence of the points I wanted to make. And here is a photo of me writing my story one night.
I hung all my notebook pages up where I could view all of them and figure out what I wanted to say in my first sentence and the second sentence and so forth.
Looks like a clothesline.
It worked for me.
And here’s a related incident. I took a journalism course at a nearby college. I was in class with some younger kids who hadn’t yet experienced the real world. The instructor asked us to write a newspaper story taken from a collection of facts and interviews. And this info was in a random order. The job of the journalist is to dig out the important facts and ignore the irrelevant ones. To find the lead and then follow it with the supporting information.
And?
And it was all very familiar to me. It was the way a reporter’s notebook would look. First a somewhat important fact. Next someone’s comment that doesn’t seem useful. Then a major quotation. Then something off the subject. Like that.
But the young kids were upset by the randomness of the info. They hadn’t yet learned the way a journalist has to work. But I figured they would eventually catch on if they kept at it.
So that’s why you hung your notes in front of you as you typed.
Right.
Say, I’d like to end this session recalling several incidents that impressed me most during my years of reporting for the newspapers.
Okay.
First — I think I mentioned this before, but it’s worth repeating here — when I was a stringer for the Annapolis Evening Capital, the management gave me a key to the newsroom.
As far as I know, I was the only non-employee to have one. And I could go to Annapolis in the evening, after the staff had gone home, and still have access to their facilities.,
They trusted me that much. That impressed me.
I guess so.
And here’s the other incident that I’ll never forget. It was perhaps the best compliment I ever received about my writing for the newspaper. I can’t remember the specifics — and I don’t have my notes anymore — but I swear it’s true.
Okay.
An official of the Anne Arundel County Department of Education was traveling the county, speaking to groups of concerned citizens.
He was trying to explain a change in the system. Two changes, actually. Two simultaneous reorganizations, in personnel and curriculum, and that’s what made it complicated.
I understood what he was saying, but it could be confusing. So I thought of an analogy and explained the two changes that way.
Fast-forward several months. I attended another schools-related meeting. That same official was also there. He recognized me and came up to me. He said he had read my article, liked my explanation better, and was now using my description instead of his.
Nice.
Yeah. I’ll take that kind of compliment any day.
Well, I moved from Anne Arundel to Baltimore County. And pretty soon I got the itch to write again. So I approached Jim S., the editor of the Arbutus Times with a sample of my writing. And he hired me as a stringer.
Later it so happened I moved to Catonsville and Jimbecame editor of the Catonsville Times, so our relationship continued.
And my writing experiences continued. And I learned something. In both counties, the readers were most interested in two specific subjects. Want to guess what they are?
What?
Land use and education. Both counties.
Interesting.
One year the Catonsville Times wanted to do a little extra for National Newspaper Week. So the assistant editor interviewed me for a story about a stringer reporter. I kept the first page of the story. Don’t have the rest of it. And it’s kind of yellow and crumbling now, after all these years. But here’s the first page.
You enjoyed that kind of writing?
Oh, yeah. A lot. Got paid by the column-inch, but I probably would have done it for nothing. Just to know that I was doing something good for the community.
You got along with the editor?
Very well. What I did supplemented what he did. We even worked together on some stories. In fact, we won an award together. From the regional press association.
Nice.
You bet.
And I’ll end with that. Next session I’ll find something else to talk about.
Okay. See you then.