An Editor's Notebook - What Did You Say Was the Word Limit? : Sree Gururaja

by Sree Gururaja

24 June 2021


As editors of XUNICEF News and Views, we had braced themselves to edit and format 20-25 contributions ( each of 600-800 words ) while putting together the June Quarterly. The planning began in our weekly google meet session in early April. Each of us had our own little (??) list of what we thought were the critical new directions and significant things that happened in this 25 year period and there was maybe some overlap.

Gianni kindly volunteered to be the coordinator and promptly sent us his outline of themes and topics. As is always the case, a good draft spurs thinking, breeds more ideas and leads to useful debates on the ‘why’ and ‘what ‘. Informally, we assigned ourselves tasks for follow up on contents and contributors and I must say, as good “UNICEFers” each of us pretty much honoured our commitments and more. As our e-mails were hectically whirling in cyber space, Detlef had them organized neatly in an Excel ‘compendium’ of topics/ themes, names of possible contributors, follow-up editor, and other particulars.

Very soon, we knew that this was a colossal undertaking for we had overstretched our outreach and within days, some topics had mushroomed to a series of sub-topics. We did talk occasionally about what to keep and what to defer and arguments on both sides were heard. Seriously, I don’t think we dumped any topic or sub-topic for that matter, which was, in hindsight a good and a bad thing. Good, for we ended up with a 400 page wide sweeping “cornucopia of delights” (to quote Mary Racelis) and bad, for it meant many late nights of editing, formatting and assembling, at a frenetic pace. We sympathized with Tom and Fouad, who had chosen to write special tributes on Labouisse and Grant and a few other notable pieces which added considerably to their load.

Since most of us editors had served in UNICEF during this period, we knew or had worked alongside many of the contributors and for some, they were their friendly ‘supervisors’. Another happy coincidence was that perhaps, for the first time, a month before the deadline, we had already received some contributions and several others sent positive replies saying “yes”, many of whom were first time contributors.

Our Excel table was put to use as a tool for tracking progress. We resorted to color coding which helped our collective review on a computer screen on a weekly basis. Take it from me, we had all the colors of the rainbow! it went beyond just ‘yes’ or ‘maybe’ to include ‘received’,’ ‘sent back for revision’, ‘on its way’ , ‘being edited’ , ‘no show’, ’doubtful’ ,’delayed’, and ‘final’ categories.

We discovered that some colleagues simply loved to write, far exceeding our estimated word limit. There were stories within stories which needed to be told. Should we shorten? Do we have the time to do it ourselves or to send it back to the authors? What is the maximum length? After one or two attempts by Doreen, our persistent and adept “tweaker”, we realized it was a futile exercise. Do we accept more than one contribution? Can we be choosers and risk takers ? The way out was to accept what comes, tweak a bit here and there, opening the floodgates.


When deluged with the contributions , Fouad told us not to lament:

“Remember It was such a call

We made to XUNICEF and all

To write stories that thrall,

And memories big and small,

So let us recall,

We asked for a tiny hall,

And got instead a whole Mall !!”

To our rescue, our techie wizards, Detlef and Tom explored the landscape (word, pdf, web, etc. ) and came up with options for reader-friendly formats mindful of the lengthy articles, the insertion of photos and boxes without making the end product look cumbersome and boring! Doreen pitched in zealously for she is skilled in formatting the text, checking and rechecking of links before the final go!

That’s when we asked what if we did something different and yet manage the volume of articles? Ah! a STUB and a MYSTERY TITLE for every article tickled our imagination. The Stub had to be 100-125 words to fit against the mug shot of the author or illustration which seemed a challenge at first. After doing five in a row, all of us became wordsmiths and churned these out almost as though we were competing with each other, 80 plus in all. The shorter the title the higher its mystery value, so it seemed. On a Sunday, I chuckled when Fouad reminded us that we were venturing into the domain of Jesus as we had used ‘miracle’ in three titles. All of us pitched in and our inbox had never been so full of unread messages. Unlike me, Gianni bravely joined the others, in using the google drive for uploading and formatting edited articles with Stubs, Titles, Pictures and after due consultation with the rest of us, as the coordinator, promoting them to the FINAL FOLDER.

At our weekly meeting before the scheduled release, it was a relief when we had everything slotted in the right order of our Excel table, updated one last time, with almost all rows shown in green and a few remaining in orange color! We put in much efforts but had fun “working” again ( we are retirees!), watchful of deadlines and the camaraderie kept us going. Fulfilled that we had achieved coherence and continuity in content we previewed our attractively and compactly presented magnum opus. It was a collective endeavour with amiable leadership, dynamic participation and hard work in full measure. I was privileged be a member of such a great team. Personally. a rewarding experience, to talk about the unwritten stories and anecdotes and to be intellectually occupied accelerating my speedy recovery.

Finally,

for who are we, dear friends?

co-editors and facilitators

who collate what's received

we nudge, encourage and guide

colleagues to reminisce!!


we chuckle on the anecdotes

emote on our collective memories

of battles won and lost

we applaud the good efforts

we know what did not work

yet let’s remain assured

we made things happen

for children , women and families

the world over!


that’s why its important

to remember where we were

and with whom

so readers join us in what we do

its for ourselves as one family

that ’s UNICEF!!