Newspapers are so boring. How can you read a newspaper that starts with a 51-word lead sentence?
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Headline writing is tough because often times you are given a predetermined number of spaces and words depending on the layout and the type of the story.
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.
Every day I tell myself that reading newspapers is a waste of time, but then... I cannot do without them. They are like a drug.
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.
News, news, news - that is what we want. You cannot beat news in a newspaper.
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.
It is grievous to read the papers in most respects, I agree. More and more I skim the headlines only, for one can be sure what is carried beneath them quite automatically, if one has long been a reader of the press journalism.
Journalism is literature in a hurry.
A newspaper consists of just the same number of words, whether there be any news in 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.