By Kevin S. Giles
I was a young reporter beginning my first full-time newspaper job when a snarling copy editor informed me one night, “You can’t even write the Queen’s English.”
He wasn’t wrong. Let me explain.
This frank assessment of my writing skills took place overseas at a metro paper in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. I was 21 years old. The newsroom at the Courier-Mail felt foreign to me in many respects as I struggled to learn colloquialisms and the stiff manner of England-influenced news writing.
For the record, it’s the role of copy editors to conform reporters’ stories to a newspaper’s “style,” meaning how words are used. Those days in Brisbane, for example, we named people in print as Mr. or Mrs. or Miss. A reporter who failed to secure this required information during an initial interview learned to confirm marital status before the story would publish.
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Learning to write in Australia
At newspapers, reporters write stories. Copy editors edit them for grammar, repetitions and that all-important “style.” They also write headlines.
I draw on my personal writing experiences to help other writers get started in nonfiction.
So I learned in Brisbane, from the get-go, that I couldn’t write the Queen’s English. What this particular grouchy copy editor really meant, in delivering that comment, was that an American didn’t belong in an Australian newsroom. His body language said as much.
Still, he got me to thinking. Successful writing demands much more than banging out a series of sentences. It needs emotion, accuracy, and attention to detail. The nimble writer adjusts to circumstances, which I tried hard to do in my tenure at the Courier-Mail. I was a visitor in a foreign country. I also was young and inexperienced.
News writing differs from other forms of writing. Reporters find verifiable facts through interviews and research that tell newspaper readers something new they didn’t know a day earlier. Newspaper stories depend on journalism’s three-legged stool: accuracy, fairness and balance. Sometimes writing for a newspaper depends more on what is said than how it’s said. Meaning, the speedy conveyance of news is the priority.
Occasional discouragement helps
Over the years I got better at news writing. I also wrote books and articles unrelated to my newspaper jobs. Eventually, I wrote fiction. In all of these endeavors, I reflected on how far I had come in my writing since those early days in Brisbane. Perhaps the best encouragement for a diligent writer is occasional discouragement.
That unlikable copy editor, hardly a hero in my book, got me started toward a healthy mindset that my writing is never good enough. Subsequent inspirations taught me to think deeper, imagine more creatively, research more extensively, and learn to throw away writing that doesn’t meet my standards.
What does this mean for anyone aspiring to write?
Start humble. Several million words later, you’ll see a difference.
Write because you want to write
Nowadays I defy convention. Unlike some writers, who stick to the same schedule each day, I write as the spirit moves me. Usually I’m at the keyboard by mid-morning. I also write in the evenings. I try to stick consistently to at least 1,000 words a day, and frequently 1,500 or more. I write until I feel satisfied that I’ve composed something of value. Sometimes I write for the fun of it. Other times I have one of those “hip pocket” ideas when I write a story I’ll publish, well, someday. I have written a few book manuscripts that might stay in boxes, stored away.
In the midst of writing two mystery novels I kicked out four short stories and did a whole lot of promotion work on my three published books. By the way, I’ve published my first mystery novel, Mystery of the Purple Roses.
I write at the dining room table on a laptop computer. It’s a bright, airy place, full of distractions. I’ve never had much of a problem with distractions because of my long career working for newspapers.
I don’t get stressed out when I can’t write everyday. I reserve some days for family, other days for friends, some for digging holes, others for cutting boards, others for reading. Just like you, right? Every shared experience deepens my perspective as a writer.
Every encounter makes a story
I can’t imagine sitting in a dark room, shades drawn, hacking out a story with no other stimulation whatsoever. As I write, I watch people pass by on the street with dogs and strollers. Each one of them offers a unique life. Every encounter is a story.
That’s why I keep writing. I just can’t help myself.
Buy! Mystery of the Purple Roses
Western Montana native Kevin S. Giles wrote the popular prison nonfiction work Jerry’s Riot, the coming-of-age novel Summer of the Black Chevy, and a biography of Montana congresswoman Jeannette Rankin, One Woman Against War, which is an expanded version of his earlier work, “Flight of the Dove.” His new novel, Headline: FIRE! is the third in the Red Maguire series. Masks, Mayhem and Murder is the second. The first is “Mystery of the Purple Roses.” More information is available at https://kevinsgiles.com.