I’ve been talking for several years now about writing a book. I should stop talking and start writing.
It’s going to be about country newspapers. I’ll create a fictional town and a fictional masthead.
I haven’t figured out the plot or theme yet, but the book will be humorous.
I’m going to start writing down the interesting anecdotes I come across nearly every day.
There will almost certainly be vegetables in the book. Visiting Mongolian detectives will also get a mention.
One of my deputy editors at Kalgoorlie wants to vet the book. She’s a lawyer, so I’m not sure that’s a good idea.
I’ve been reading a great blog called Stuff Journalists Like.
It’s full of funny stories about everyday truths including messy desks, press releases, year enders, low pay, working on holidays and drinking habits.
The Australia Day holiday is tomorrow, so I can relate to this:
A typical holiday inside a newsroom consists of the sole journalist on duty strolling in two to five hours later than usual and in attire even less professional than the journalist’s Monday through Friday wardrobe. Then it’s on to checking the police scanner and rummaging through the office refrigerator seeing what people left behind during the long weekend. The editor on call then proceeds to give the journalist anywhere from two to 12 story assignments to fill the next day’s paper. And the editor will do this from the comfort of home or a girlfriend’s apartment.
Another interesting site is Overheard in the Newsroom.
The newspaper is a fascinating beast.
Update: I should have read this item on Stuff Journalists Like before publishing this post. An extract:
The goal to write a book is a promise journalists make to themselves as a way not to get stuck writing the same perennial stories for their daily rags. Unfortunately, a good percentage of these ideas for books will stay just that as journalists are usually burnt out on writing after a full day day of writing for their newspaper, blog, Tumblr and Twitter.
Still, every day in newsrooms across the country, the following line can often be heard: “You know, that gives me an idea for a book . . .”
I’m sure your book will be a best seller Michael. I once had an insane idea about doing a book, kind of self-help book for individuals who have survived incestuous and traumatic relationships in the journey of life.
Thank goodness I got over that insane moment. I think writing a tell- all book would involve too much personal investment.
Humour has to be the only way to write because people need to laugh…we all need to lighten up.
Good luck Michael.
Yes, I’m back in the blogsaddle and reading the backlog of interesting yarns I’ve missed. That’s a great old classic about journalists having a much-mauled manuscript in the desk-drawer. I’ve often thought that modern technology might permit a return to the kind of episodic writing that writers like Dickens did. The novel is written as a serial and published in a journal over months/years. When it’s complete it can be published whole. Some people are doing this with blogs already. You could do that as a subset of your blog. If you’re crafty you could do it so as to leave plenty of flexibility for plot development.