Helping the chronic late filer

Here's a puzzler that an assistant metro editor brought to me. If anybody has successfully dealt with this problem, we'd love to know what worked:
How do you help the reporter who habitually files late copy? He's an excellent reporter, and he knows how he wants to structure his stories, but it takes him too long to get it down in words. The same problem exists whether he's writing a daily story or a project. The editor says he writes three graphs, goes back over them, making minor changes, then writes three more graphs, reads it all again making small changes. Self-editing is great, but this is more like compulsive perfectionism. Any ideas?
-- John Burr, assistant managing editor, The Florida Times-Union

The question drew a range of responses, from deadlines are not to be broken to tolerating this quirk given that we¹re talking about an otherwise excellent worker. Here¹s a sampling:

This may be harsh, but it worked for one of my reporters. Their copy failed to make the edition. After several times of being bumped by his co-workers, he learned that if he wanted to continue as a reporter, and have his copy in print, he needed to adhere to the rules and deadlines that all others must follow. It took a while (two to three weeks), but he has yet to miss a deadline since - knock on wood.
-- Karl Kling, Editor Milford Times, Milford, MI

If you've given him a number of chances and nothing improves, it's time for negative reinforcement. If he misses deadlines, don't print the stories. If his stories are that critical, give them to somebody else and tell him he has to show he's reliable at making deadline before he can be given any decent assignments. He'll get the message. Somebody should explain to him that missing deadline can result in delays all the way down the production line. Some reporters don't even think about that. They're just fixated on their ledes.
-- Kathy Norton, Public Editor, Poughkeepsie N.Y. Journal

In my experience, solid reporters who file late have a flaw built into their writing process. Often it's lack of organizing their material before writing, which doesn't sound like this writer's weakness. Just as often, it's lack of knowledge about what drafting is and what it can do for their story. Drafting ought to be a freewheeling, headlong, no-rules-apply plunge into discovering how the writer will express the story that's already in his or her head. But we cringe at writing without rules. We think: Gotta have a lede. Gotta have a nut graph. Gotta have a quote up high. I started in the business writing that way, and did OK. I took pride that good-to-great leads were my calling card. My sources noticed them (though I don't know if readers paid much attention). But late in life I learned about the idea of just sitting down, taking off the mental shackles and writing whatever came out. No lead needed. Get the quotes later after your brain, as it writes, tells you which ones it wants to use. Don't sweat the nut graph. Just create. When I coach and lead writing comes up, I like to tear down the bad habits we've learned by sharing that I started the draft of a column a year or two ago with "Mary had a little lamb" because no words would happen. So I forced some onto the screen. Right after that, more gibberish spilled out. And soon after, the message I was looking for started happening. And I have found it works far better than creating perfection a graf at a time. When the column draft was done, I simply had to lop the gibberish off the top and polish what remained. The finished product was pretty much there. I wrote faster and revised faster because I had better raw material. So I've learned to eschew perfection; I think it's illusory. I'm much more interested in getting organized, then letting my brain do the hard work and letting great stuff happen.
-- Kevin McGrath, The Wichita Eagle

Actually, I suffer from the same problem, and earlier, intermediate deadlines do help. If the story is due at 5, make a summary, or top, due at 2. Then a first draft at 3 or 4, or whatever's appropriate. The draft may have holes, but it must have a beginning, middle and end. Where facts are still to be collected or confirmed, that can be indicated.
In other words, make the story like a Polaroid photo, whole from the beginning but coming into focus, not like a fax, which is transmitted line by line.
-- Bill Dedman, Power Reporting, newsroom training, Boston

One solution is to not run the story in that edition. Of course, you need to do that on a story where the timeliness is more important to him than it is to the editor. It makes the point, though, that deadlines are deadlines, not wishful thinking.
Of course, part of the problem may be that deadlines traditionally have been set earlier than they needed to be for the most urgent story and reporters know that. You could take two or three stories after deadline, but you couldn't take them all that late. Of course, any good reporter often regards the story he's working on as one of the most urgent. The fact that he's been getting away with this reinforces his assumption that he can do it.
Another part of the problem may be that he either has had some bad experiences with editing or thinks he has and feels as though the longer he hangs onto the story, the less time the editors have to screw it up.
Talking with the reporter candidly might help. For instance, if you're paginating, deadlines might not have the slack they once did. If you're giving deadlines to individual pages or stories, rather than a general deadline, they may not have much give, so you might have to disabuse him of an outdated notion.
If attitude is not the problem here, I would suggest encouraging that he try any or all of these three techniques:

1. Write as he reports. If he starts writing earlier in the reporting process, he should finish sooner. When it's not a daily story, this technique also will play into this reporter's need to revise continually, without delaying the whole project.
2. Write first, then polish. Reporters spend way too much deadline time pondering. You get a better story if you write as quickly as you can without taking time to ponder and polish. Then you'll have time to polish the finished product. If you polish as you go, it always takes longer.
3. When it's a long-term story and the reporter hasn't been writing as he reports, encourage him to write without notes. The story is in his head or his heart, not in his notebooks. This way the reporter writes in one sitting or a few, then goes back with notebooks to check facts and add a few details. Of course this reporter will (and should) do his compulsive polishing when he's going back through with the notes, but at least it won't delay the whole writing process.

While this reporter sounds more compulsive than most, problems writing on deadline are quite common. My workshop on writing clearly on deadline is one of my most-requested (meaning editors see it as a need in their staffs) and one that gets strong response from writers (meaning they also see the need). The handout is available at NTNG: http://www.notrain-nogain.com/Train/Res/ArcT/deadline.asp
And don't rule out continuing to put up with his idiosyncrasies. An excellent reporter is worth a few headaches, and this isn't the worst I've heard of in an excellent reporter.
-- Steve Buttry, Writing Coach/National Correspondent, Omaha World-Herald

It might be his work habits, but there's also this possibility: Does this habitually-late reporter feel good about what happened to his stories when he did file them on time? As we all know, sometimes reporters (1) self-edit to the extreme or (2) hold stories till the last minute so the desk won't have time or reason to change them. An idea: Somebody who isn't this reporter's editor could ask him over a cup of coffee why he thinks he hands his stories in late. Has he had a good experience when he did hand them in on time? It also might be that he feels the editor is just passing them through, so he must be editor too.
-- Kate Long, Writing Coach

The first issue is whether this is an efficiency issue or a deadline issue. If it's a deadline problem, it has to be solved. If it's the writer's style, and he's fairly efficient despite this mechanism, then is it worth worrying about, even if it goes against the editor's grain? (That's the way our projects reporter works, so we've focused on helping him become faster on his shorter daily stories.) Some techniques you might try: Have the reporter divide his time into quadrants (this is Peter Elbow's philosophy): two-fourths to reporting, one fourth to writing, one fourth to rewriting. No rewriting allowed until the fourth quadrant. Have him write the first draft without notes -- just sit down and write. Or try to get him to at least write without stopping, then make a printout and do the editing/rewriting on the hard copy. I often suggest that people set artificial deadlines: finish the story by 3 p.m. and enforce it, then take until 4 p.m. to revise as warranted. I do this for myself. I'd also suggest that the asst. metro editor read "Coaching Writers" by Roy Peter Clark and Don Fry, if she/he hasn't already done so. That may give the editor tips for coaching the writer and helping him organize. Is he filing late because he figures that gives the editors less time to muck with his copy? (I had a friend who habitually filed late for that reason, and because it meant his story was more likely to appear on a section front because the inside pages already had been filled). And look at whether it's an organizational issue, despite the organizational skills he seems to have. Is he organized in his pre-reporting and reporting? I find that when I'm well-organized and have a clear viewpoint, I do little rewriting during my first draft. But if I'm unsure or hesitant (that is, I haven't taken time to think through a well-defined focus statement and outline), I tend to do a lot of back-and-forth writing and rewriting.
-- Dick Hughes, Editorial Page Editor/Newsroom Writing Coach, Statesman Journal, Salem, OR