Write Cool. Heat It Up Later.

Writing coaches like to fill your head with quotes about Hemingway that likely are not true, such as “Write drunk. Edit sober.” Did he say that? I don’t know. It seems like good advice for most kinds of writing. You want to spew something onto the page and clean it up later. Another one is “Write with fire. Cool it while editing.”

Let me be clear: Having that attitude in the fast-moving television news business will burn you more times than not. Your day may shift so dramatically that you won’t find time to cool off your copy later. That’s why it’s so important to make it clean and correct the first time.

Get the basics onto the page. Then, make your story interesting. I have experienced thousands of instances in which I’ve written a story and never got a chance to edit it before air because of more pressing issues like breaking news. The story may not heat up your show, but if you have the who, what, when, where, how, and sometimes why, the story won’t burn down either.

That said, go back when you can and refresh that lead sentence. Think of nuggets of info that will stoke the flames a little. If the structure is in place first, you can create a copy that hums with a warming glow but doesn’t go up in smoke.