On the 'Star,' you were forced to learn to write a simple declarative sentence. This is useful to anyone. Newspaper work will not harm a young writer and could help him if he gets out of it in time.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
In a newspaper, you only have so much room. It teaches you the value of getting to the point, of not pampering yourself with your glorious writing. I've always been much more interested in one powerful sentence that stays with you. That's my style.
Another thing that's quite different in writing a book as a practicing newspaperman is that if you look at what you've written the next morning and you think you didn't get it quite right, you can fix it.
I am glad I worked on a newspaper because it made me know I had to write whether I felt like it or not.
If I had been asked to write 1,200 words for a newspaper tomorrow, on any subject, I would just do it rather than leave a white hole in the page. And I think it's a very healthy attitude to take to writing anything.
When you're writing for newspapers you have all these parameters. You can't swear, you have to use short paragraphs, all that. If you stay within those parameters, you have lots of freedom because you're writing for the next day.
You are being hit with tabloid-journalism bi-lines of what you are doing because you have suddenly become a star.
Newspapers are so boring. How can you read a newspaper that starts with a 51-word lead sentence?
Writing headlines is a specialty - there are outstanding writers who will tell you they couldn't write a headline to save their lives.
I did not read newspapers until I became a reporter.
The newspaper is, in fact, very bad for one's prose style. That's why I gravitated towards feature stories where you get a little more leeway in the writing style.