Ernie's Advice

These clips are from Ernie Pyle's War, by James Tobin. They transcend time. Thanks, Sheeler.

Written by Ernie as a memo to his reporters when he was an editor:

"We have to MAKE people read this paper, by making it so alert and saucy and important that they will be afraid of missing something if they don't read it...We are asleep. Dead...Get alive...Keep your eyes open. There are swell stories floating around your beats every day that you either don't see or don't bother to do anything about when you see them...You can hardly walk down the street or chat with a bunch of friends without running into the germ of something that may turn up an interesting story if you're on the lookout for it. News doesn't have to be important, but it has to be interesting. You can't find interesting things if you're not interested...Always look for the story - for the unexpected human emotion in the story...Write a story as tho it were a privilege for you to write it...You don't have to be smart-alecky or pseudo-funny. Be human. Try to write like people talk."

And this one when he was fighting the editors:

"You'll probably think I've gone nuts...but lots of times when I'm describing a scene or feeling, I try to make it almost sound like music, and I think sometimes it does, and I think it does to readers, even though they may not be specifically conscious of it. And often the dropping of a word or the cutting of one sentence into two shorter ones destroys the whole rhythm of it."

And this one that speaks to a lot of reporters now:

"I just don't see how we can go on with this ogre that the job has become. I wish we had the nerve to quit before it completely destroys us. The pleasure in the freedom of the job has become only occasional little flashes, and the pressure of day-to-day writing after all the correlary (sic) distractions that have come with it, have become a specter to me; and I know to you too. But what the hell is a guy to do? I don't know."

And self-doubt:

"I'm not worried about what anybody thinks of my stuff; I'm worried about the fact that when I sit down to write I haven't any emotion or enthusiasm...I worry...that maybe I'm just a flash in the pan, and that I'm written out...I'm not trying to be any prima donna, as you must surely know, but I am interested in the column, and I'm also cursed with such a touchiness and melancholia. I feel that my stuff at its very best is just barely good enough..."