For five and a half years, I worked for the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal as a rim editor in sports. I always call what I did a desk shift, and people want to know what that involves.
Usually, the sports desk has a slot guy who parcels out local and wire stories to various pages. A layout person (called a paginator in newspaper parlance) lays out the paper, and rim guys call up stories, edit and cut them, and write headlines and cutlines (called captions in the real world).
I've been working the desk on a freelance basis lately. The first night, they had to show me how to do a lot of things; I hadn't logged into the computer in about three years.
The first night back, I think it was June 8, we had a paginator, a night editor and two rim editors, including me. I was busy most of the night, but it wasn't hard.
On Thursday, we had a paginator, a slot guy (called the night editor at this newspaper) and a rim guy (me). The night editor was handling baseball and agate, and, fortunately, about five major-league games were played early. I handled most of the files that night, since the night editor was doing so much other stuff.
The NBA draft was being held on Thursday, which means we did a lot of other stuff earlier, and we couldn't get the draft in the paper until late. We're in the middle of North Carolina, so the Atlantic Coast Conference teams, especially Wake Forest University, are big here. We had to do something special on the Duke University player drafted by the "hometown" Charlotte Hornets.
We also had a story on all of the North Carolina Tar Heels being drafted, so Thursday night was a big night for us.
I was able to take my time and give each story special attention early in the night, but that changed. We were in a lull as we watched the first round of the NBA draft on ESPN. Something hit the fan between 10:30 and 11. Our deadline to be off the floor was 12:30 a.m., and we were a little late.
I worked again on Saturday, and we had a paginator, night editor, two rim editors (again, including me) and a person handling calls and agate. I took my time and worked my way through local and national auto-racing stories, a soccer advance, two major-league baseball stories, and much more. I was reading, editing and cutting stories; writing headlines and cutlines (called captions in the real world), and cutting stories to fit.
Once, I had a good headline, but it didn't fit. So I went to the paginator, and she fiddled with it a bit to make it world. No big deal.
I was busy most of the night, but we never went crazy. We finished about 10 minutes before deadline, and everyone but me went home early. My wife was laying out the A and B sections, and news was later than us. I didn't mind; I relaxed and waited to go home.
Easy night.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
High-flying basketball
I've seen some rough fouls on a basketball, but the worst may have been in 1986 or '87 in Wilmington, N.C. And it included the greatest toughness I've seen on a court.
A guy sailed to the basket for a layup when, suddenly, an opponent grabbed him around the waist and body-slammed him. But as the guy was rotating, he managed to get the ball up toward the basket. It trickled over the rim, hit the backboard and went in.
The fouler was ejected; the foulee got two shots for a flagrant foul (he hit both), and his team got the ball back. They made a jump shot on the ensuing possession to conclude a six-point trip down the court. That pretty much decided the game there.
The same year, I was watching a game between Whiteville and South Brunswick. A little guard named Quentin McCrackin went inside and left his feet as the taller Whiteville players swarmed around. McCrackin had the ball low around his hip. He swung it from behind and over his shoulder; it rainbowed over the defense, hit the rim and kissed into the basket.
McCrackin later became a starting defensive back for Duke University and a major-league baseball player for the Seattle Mariners. Obviously he was a multi-talented, if not tall, athlete.
Speaking of rough fouls, Seneca High School was playing someone, and Clarence Kay was just returning from a football all-star game. He was dribbling downcourt and went in for a layup. A defender grabbed both of Kay's arms and tried to keep him from shooting. It'd just be a hard foul. Kay didn't score, but he lifted his arms enough to hit the rim with the ball. The other team seemed stunned at his strength. He hit two foul shots, and the Bobcats went on to win.
Kay, too, was a good athlete. He played the next year on Georgia's 1980 NCAA championship football team, then later played a dozen years at tight end for the Denver Broncos.
The most spectacular play I've seen? One of two. Keith Pryor was the best Class 1-A player in North Carolina for Edneyville High School. Someone told me to watch out for him, and I thought, yeah, sure, big deal. I've seen great athletes.
In the first quarter of my first Edneyville game, Pryor stole the ball and headed downcourt. I was ready. He stopped just inside the foul line and offered the ball to the basket for an underhanded layup. Again, I was ready. He windmilled the ball and smashed it through the basket as I stood flatfooted and missed the shot.
And that wasn't even the most impressive shot I ever saw him make.
They were playing Tryon. Pryor skirted the baseline, and a Tryon player stuck out his hip to force Pryor out of bounds. I was sitting on the floor, with the camera in one hand and writing on my notepad with the other. I didn't have time to look, so I shot the picture from the hip.
The foul was called as Pryor sailed upwards and just off the court. Here's what I got in the photo: There was the Tryon player with his hip out, the referee calling the foul and Pryor reaching back and floating the ball toward the basket. It wasn't in the photo, but Pryor hit the shot and got the foul shot.
Spectacular. And probably the best photo I ever got.
A guy sailed to the basket for a layup when, suddenly, an opponent grabbed him around the waist and body-slammed him. But as the guy was rotating, he managed to get the ball up toward the basket. It trickled over the rim, hit the backboard and went in.
The fouler was ejected; the foulee got two shots for a flagrant foul (he hit both), and his team got the ball back. They made a jump shot on the ensuing possession to conclude a six-point trip down the court. That pretty much decided the game there.
The same year, I was watching a game between Whiteville and South Brunswick. A little guard named Quentin McCrackin went inside and left his feet as the taller Whiteville players swarmed around. McCrackin had the ball low around his hip. He swung it from behind and over his shoulder; it rainbowed over the defense, hit the rim and kissed into the basket.
McCrackin later became a starting defensive back for Duke University and a major-league baseball player for the Seattle Mariners. Obviously he was a multi-talented, if not tall, athlete.
Speaking of rough fouls, Seneca High School was playing someone, and Clarence Kay was just returning from a football all-star game. He was dribbling downcourt and went in for a layup. A defender grabbed both of Kay's arms and tried to keep him from shooting. It'd just be a hard foul. Kay didn't score, but he lifted his arms enough to hit the rim with the ball. The other team seemed stunned at his strength. He hit two foul shots, and the Bobcats went on to win.
Kay, too, was a good athlete. He played the next year on Georgia's 1980 NCAA championship football team, then later played a dozen years at tight end for the Denver Broncos.
The most spectacular play I've seen? One of two. Keith Pryor was the best Class 1-A player in North Carolina for Edneyville High School. Someone told me to watch out for him, and I thought, yeah, sure, big deal. I've seen great athletes.
In the first quarter of my first Edneyville game, Pryor stole the ball and headed downcourt. I was ready. He stopped just inside the foul line and offered the ball to the basket for an underhanded layup. Again, I was ready. He windmilled the ball and smashed it through the basket as I stood flatfooted and missed the shot.
And that wasn't even the most impressive shot I ever saw him make.
They were playing Tryon. Pryor skirted the baseline, and a Tryon player stuck out his hip to force Pryor out of bounds. I was sitting on the floor, with the camera in one hand and writing on my notepad with the other. I didn't have time to look, so I shot the picture from the hip.
The foul was called as Pryor sailed upwards and just off the court. Here's what I got in the photo: There was the Tryon player with his hip out, the referee calling the foul and Pryor reaching back and floating the ball toward the basket. It wasn't in the photo, but Pryor hit the shot and got the foul shot.
Spectacular. And probably the best photo I ever got.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
What I do
I'm a writer, but I'm also an editor and proofreader. People ask me what I do when I'm not writing, so this seems to be a good place to tell them.
I do the obvious: I look for typos, misspellings and factual errors. But it goes far beyond that.
While editing and vetting a novel last year, I quickly realized that the author had an Army general using a rifle to kill snipers. I told her that it was her business, but a general would never be put in that situation. A colonel? Maybe, but not likely. A major? Possibly.
She laughed. It turns out that she knew that a general would never be caught with a rifle shooting snipers. She hoped that no one would catch it. If I caught it, she said, someone else would; so she turned the general into a major. The storyline immediately became more believable.
One of her characters was a double agent, and she'd use one name part of the time and the other name at other times. I found it confusing, and I told her so. I also reminded her to occasionally add that Joe is a colleague and Jim is a relative; in fact, it wouldn't hurt to give the full name, Joe Martin and Jim Bronson, or whatever the names are. In a 300-page novel, the reader needs help in remembering characters.
In another book, this one about ancient Egypt, she had a character whose name didn't seem to fit the time and place. She changed it.
Most of my work is grunt work, whether it's in fiction or non-fiction books, letters, web sites, term papers or whatever. I look for parallel construction, changes of tense, tangled sentences. If I find a 50-word sentence, I'll look for ways to convert it to a least two and preferably three or more sentences.
I look for the quickest and simplest way to say something.
I ask questions: Does the writer need "utilize" when "use" will do? Can we say this in 50 or 100 fewer words? Is this sentence clear? Can we make it crystal clear?
Is this comma necessary? Should it be a semicolon or a dash? On further review, would this sentence be better with a comma? Is the writer using too many exclamation and question marks?
The author mentioned above had trouble with punctuation. She'd have a quote with a question or exclamation mark AND a comma -- "We never eat out anymore. Why is that?," Martha asked. She didn't need the comma.
I've been pleased with her improvement. I find fewer typos and outright mistakes. Her copy's cleaner and easier to read.
Recently, I've been "Americanizing" British non-fiction books for sale in the Americas. I change "favour" to "favor," "maximise" to "maximize," and "behaviour" to "behavior." "Loo" becomes "toilet"; "solicitor" turns into "lawyer", and "lift" becomes "elevator." With the help of Google, British slang is translated, and when I can, I change soccer analogies to baseball, basketball and American football. It works better for U.S. audiences.
I do more than that, of course, but you get a flavour, no, flavor of what I do.
I remind the writer to proofread and edit his/her work a few minutes and a few days later, time permitting. I tell writers to always get a second or third pair of eyes on your work, and don't trust Aunt Jane or Uncle Bernie. A professional editor can make your writing sparkle and make you look good.
To be honest, I think my job is simply to help the writer and the reader. Like an offensive lineman in football, if I do my job correctly, you won't even notice that I've been there.
I do the obvious: I look for typos, misspellings and factual errors. But it goes far beyond that.
While editing and vetting a novel last year, I quickly realized that the author had an Army general using a rifle to kill snipers. I told her that it was her business, but a general would never be put in that situation. A colonel? Maybe, but not likely. A major? Possibly.
She laughed. It turns out that she knew that a general would never be caught with a rifle shooting snipers. She hoped that no one would catch it. If I caught it, she said, someone else would; so she turned the general into a major. The storyline immediately became more believable.
One of her characters was a double agent, and she'd use one name part of the time and the other name at other times. I found it confusing, and I told her so. I also reminded her to occasionally add that Joe is a colleague and Jim is a relative; in fact, it wouldn't hurt to give the full name, Joe Martin and Jim Bronson, or whatever the names are. In a 300-page novel, the reader needs help in remembering characters.
In another book, this one about ancient Egypt, she had a character whose name didn't seem to fit the time and place. She changed it.
Most of my work is grunt work, whether it's in fiction or non-fiction books, letters, web sites, term papers or whatever. I look for parallel construction, changes of tense, tangled sentences. If I find a 50-word sentence, I'll look for ways to convert it to a least two and preferably three or more sentences.
I look for the quickest and simplest way to say something.
I ask questions: Does the writer need "utilize" when "use" will do? Can we say this in 50 or 100 fewer words? Is this sentence clear? Can we make it crystal clear?
Is this comma necessary? Should it be a semicolon or a dash? On further review, would this sentence be better with a comma? Is the writer using too many exclamation and question marks?
The author mentioned above had trouble with punctuation. She'd have a quote with a question or exclamation mark AND a comma -- "We never eat out anymore. Why is that?," Martha asked. She didn't need the comma.
I've been pleased with her improvement. I find fewer typos and outright mistakes. Her copy's cleaner and easier to read.
Recently, I've been "Americanizing" British non-fiction books for sale in the Americas. I change "favour" to "favor," "maximise" to "maximize," and "behaviour" to "behavior." "Loo" becomes "toilet"; "solicitor" turns into "lawyer", and "lift" becomes "elevator." With the help of Google, British slang is translated, and when I can, I change soccer analogies to baseball, basketball and American football. It works better for U.S. audiences.
I do more than that, of course, but you get a flavour, no, flavor of what I do.
I remind the writer to proofread and edit his/her work a few minutes and a few days later, time permitting. I tell writers to always get a second or third pair of eyes on your work, and don't trust Aunt Jane or Uncle Bernie. A professional editor can make your writing sparkle and make you look good.
To be honest, I think my job is simply to help the writer and the reader. Like an offensive lineman in football, if I do my job correctly, you won't even notice that I've been there.
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