Creatures of habit

JOURNALISTS are creatures of habit. We like our coffee just so, we only use certain types of pens, and we've got a mental note of the best people to ring when news stories are thin on the ground.

Our habitual nature doesn't always extend to working practices, though.

Like any other office, we have the neat freaks and slovenly slobs.

In the immaculate corner is Sam Dimmer, who has the tidiest desk I think I've ever seen.

At the opposite end of the scale, John Harris is the poster boy for chaotic mess.

You'd think that this discrepancy might have something to do with the relative amounts of work done by said individuals.

Not so. Young Sam is a prolific writer with no less than 10 stories on the go at any one time. John...well, John's on sport.

I fall between two stools. My desk fluctuates between regimented tidiness and complete anarchy.

I let it get to a certain point of unruliness and then have a mass tidy-up. This generally has to happen every week.

It's really hard to keep track of everything we have on the go at any one time.

Take the process of writing of story. I may get a tip-off from a member of the public.

I'll take notes on their views, then have to investigate the issue. That could entail internet research, phone calls, consulting our archives.

It's pretty inevitable there'll be another side of the story, and I'll then have to try and get that.

If it looks like that could take a while, I might start writing the story with what I've got, then leave it waiting for a comment from someone else.

And that's just one story - there'll be many more like that in a day, so at any one time there'll be lots of news sitting around on my desk or computer in various states of completion.

Keeping track of everything means a little bit of organised chaos.

But there are times when I'm ultra organised. One of those will be tonight, when I go along to cover Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council's elections.

I will have all the wards and the candidates typed out so that I can just write in the results - it's crucial to make sure everything's taken down properly, and there's no point fiddling about with a notepad when the numbers start geting read out.

~ Emma Ray