As I scramble to complete our group's blog from last Tuesday, I have papers thrown at me with links written them. I throw them back at my fellow reporters and beg them to just sign onto BUBBS and link them to me. There is no time to type out a URL that consists of multiple ampersands.
Through this experience as a bureau chief, I learned about time management, teamwork, how to be flexible, and oh yes, time management.
Though typing out a link takes mere seconds, those few seconds were surprisingly valuable. Those were moments that I could spend doing more research, or refining a lede, not wondering if that scribble was a B or a number 8.
Doing research for our piece was easy, but the challenge came when a quote would be texted to me that had nothing to do with the research done prior. I had to be willing to flow with the quotes and information that the reporters came up with. I learned the importance of deadlines, as the later quotes were texted in, the more anxiety I felt and the less time I had to complete it at the end.
I had to realize that it was not about the skeleton structure that I gave it, but about the faces and stories that the reporters encountered.
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You are copy-editor material. You are managing editor material. You are executive editor material. You have the insights, the flexibility, the emotional intelligence, and the writing expertise. Don't you dare give up on all that.
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