But Seriously

[russ parsons]

One thing it seems writers rarely talk about to writers is how they actually go about their business. Maybe it's too personal. But since we are now engaged over the impersonal internet, rather than face to face where I may have to confront a look of scorn, there's something I've always been curious about.

The thing that impresses me the most about your pieces (not that there is only one, of course, but one that is predominant in my mind right now), is the balance of research and humor (the "Jeffrey factor"). The pieces read so easily, the kind of flow that can only come with repeated and painstaking rewriting. So what I want to know is: Which comes first? Obviously this is not cut-and-dried, but when you are working a story, do you find the first draft is devoted mainly to getting the structure of the facts, to which you then add personality in rewrite, or to establishing a personality which you augment with facts later on? Do you even think about this? Would you?

And, of course I knew that was a chalkstripe, not a pinstripe and I kicked myself as soon as I posted it. But that really is some fine wool. I wish I was an ex-lawyer and not an ex-sportswriter.