Who's the boss?

The boss at the small newspaper had a few things he didn't want his writers and editors to do. No names in a headline, unless the subject is famous, of course. Andy Griffith might make a headline, but no one else. His reasoning? "Simpson wins lawsuit" could be a famous football player, an equally famous singer/actress who looks good in tight pants or Joe Simpson, a local plumber. So no names in headlines.

No names to start a story either. Sorry. His thinking seemed to be that stories that started with names were boring. He may have been right, but it sure was hard to write a story that didn't start with a name. Hey, the boss started this story, didn't he?

The boss's other quirk involved first person in column. He hated to see an I in a column. He once counted nearly 50 I's in a column and hit the roof. The next column had no I's, me's or we's, and he was thrilled.

His other quirk? He hated it when you used a name other than a person's name. If you said "the boss" too many times, he hated it. If you said "the writer" too many times, he changed it. Then he blew up.

But the boss was a terrific editor.

Oops! Sorry, boss ... few I's here, but too many bosses.

Contact: I can be reached at tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com. Also, my Twitter handle is EDITORatWORK.

More EDITOR@WORK blog entries

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

Entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 10 years with Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• YIP! YIP! The stereo-sound huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!