Advice from Our Mentors

ACN members lean into wise words from their learning years.

By Bill Spiegel, ACN President

When I was a fledgling field editor at Kansas Farmer years ago, Hank Ernst, the magazine’s editor, told me a couple of editing rules that I’ve never forgotten:

• “So” is what happens in your church’s quilting bee, not in a sentence.
• Quotes are like actors in a play: don’t put them on stage unless they can sing and dance.
• You don’t enter a room rear-end first, so don’t start a sentence with the word “but.”

It’s possible I’ve misremembered those writing rules and they are certainly not as hard and fast as they used to be. But they were gold to a young editor who could once barely string words together into a coherent sentence.

I can almost imagine generations of haggard and wise editors, pencils worn to a nub and exasperated expressions on their faces, writing their notes on the copy of young writers.

For this multiple-part article, I emailed several ACN members to learn some of the best writing tips passed on to them from past mentors. If you have any of your own to share, email me at: [email protected]

Fewer words pack a stronger punch

Mike Wilson, executive editor of Farm Futures, recalls the guidance of his mentor at Prairie Farmer, Gary Reynolds.

“I was an empty vessel, a farm magazine intern who knew nothing about writing and journalism. My first drafts at Prairie Farmer certainly proved it,” writes Wilson, who says his first drafts came back bleeding with red ink and rewrites.

“But he very kindly walked me through his editing decisions and thankfully, some of the advice stuck with me.

“The overarching theme of Gary’s advice? Brevity. Omit needless words, a favorite theme of a book all writers should read, ‘The Elements of Style’ by William Strunk and E.B. White.”

John Walter, retired executive editor at Successful Farming, also recommends “The Elements of Style.”

“Over the years, I consulted the slim volume until its covers fell off, then bought a new copy. Without its wisdom on writing, I’m not sure what sort of career I’d have managed otherwise. The idea that you can’t err to brevity has always stuck with me. ‘Vigorous writing is concise.’ Enough said.”

Make quotes count

Many, many times I’ve thought about Hank Ernst’s thought on quotes that can sing and dance.

Greg Horstmeier, editor-in-chief at DTN, has a similar view.

“Quotes should accent a piece, not be the piece,” he says. “An editor can always tell when the reporter has a new recording device as stories suddenly become full of unnecessary quotes.”

Quotes give stories flavor. They are the proverbial cherry on top of the word sundae, says Steve Werblow, freelance writer and earner of the ACN’s Writer of the Year in 2020 and 2022.

“One of my mentors used to say ‘quote the quotable,'” Werblow says. “To me, that carries a deeper lesson than just using sources’ voices to advance the most important elements of the story and paraphrasing the rest.

“His emphasis on good quotations taught me to really listen to sources-not just what they say, but how they say it-and make them the stars of the story.”

 

Part 2 with two more pieces of advice will come next week!