Writing Tips

One of you emailed asking for writing tips. No prob! When I wrote this, I was thinking about the 800 VOs and VOSOTs you put in your show. Pkgs are a whole nother ballgame. That said...

First off.. stay informed. Read everything you can get your hands on. Listen to the radio. Watch tv newscasts. Why do I say this? It's a lot easier to write if you're not coming to a story cold. For example, cranking out a :30 second VO on the situation in Georgia is a lot easier if you're not also learning about the conflict in the short time you have to write. AND, consuming as much news as you can will help you catch mistakes. So if the desk says 4 people died in the accident, but you just heard 5 on the radio, you know this is something worth an extra phone call. Are we wrong? Or maybe we just don't have the updated numbers.

Second. Don't get stuck in how you "should" be writing. Write what comes naturally. For example, if you were to pick up the phone and call a friend to tell them about an accident on the freeway, you might say something like "Hey Bob, did you hear about that bad accident on I-75? It had the freeway shut down for hours. A tanker blew a tire and just flipped over and exploded. Then four other cars smashed into it. Can you believe nobody was hurt?"

Obviously, you'd make changes to the above to make it into a script. The point is- don't muck up simple good story telling.

Some other general tips:

-Most interesting thing goes first. Always.
-Keep sentences short.
-Always look at your video and let it inspire you.
-Look for places to insert NATS and good sound.
-Time yourself when you write so that when it comes to crunch time, you'll already be prepared.
-Pick low hanging fruit first. Knock out the easy stuff so you can come back to focus on more difficult stories and/or stories you expect to change toward your newscast.
-Never use a word you wouldn't use in conversation. My favorite example: White Stuff.

If you're having trouble on a story, ask yourself, why is this in my newscast? Because it's important? Why is it important? That should help you write. Or google search the story and read more about it. That might help you be able to break the logjam.

Final tip:
Always, always, always read scripts aloud. Your ears will catch errors your eyes won't. My particular downfall? Omitted words. Also, when reading aloud, it will become very obvious if your sentences are too long or too wordy. If you are stumbling when reading your script aloud, how do you expect your anchor to read it?

Here are some links I think are interesting:

http://www.newsu.org/

http://www.mervinblock.com/