Didn't know editing books was part of the job description

Wow....

I assigned a very good reporter to cover an event on campus this past week. It seemed to me to be a very cut-and-dry event.

Get the facts, the quotes and the responses. Then give me 500 words.

No problem, right?

Well, I now need help inserting my foot into my mouth. I am not limber enough to do it anymore and became quite adverse to the taste of my toes from previous incidents.

My very good reporter turned in a 1,900 word tome on the event. What am I going to do with 1900 words? Pare it down and use the leftovers as filler on the jump page? Sell words to my fellow editors if they need extra for their stories?

Save them for a later date when someone only turns in a 250 word story?

I don't know what I'm gonna do, honestly. It will take me at least 2 hours to edit this novel (with Gin's help at that) and I'm supposed to do it sober?

At times like this I truly wonder what the great Hunter S. Thompson would do. Something tells me it would most certainly involve guns and drink.

Unfortunately, I have none of the above. Guess I'll be tackling The News Record's version of "The Old Man and the Sea" without anything to assist with the pain in my brain.

Life is so unfair.

-James