Hank Stuever in the preface in Off Ramp: I am unassigned, mostly. I was a child born and raised and now living in a permanent Elsewhere, and because I didn't have a beat, I gave myself one. It started out as a private list I taped next to my computer, in my newsroom cubicle, for several years: I put "false cities" on my beat, which meant airports, the Best Buy, bland buildings. I put "things kept in shoeboxes in spare closets" on my beat. I claimed "teenagers who don't help out the community" for my own. Also:
People Who Are Loathed.
Spare Freezers Kept in the Garage.
People Who Move Heavy Things; Rock Bands Who Have Not Yet Figured Out That They're Not Going to be Famous; Stories Where People Voluntarily Get Out Their Old Yearbooks. Also I wanted exclusive rights to stories about embalming, algebra, bedrooms, breakfast cereal, and pieces of furniture that cost under $500. This was just part of my template for ideas.
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