writing headlines is torture

seriously hate doing this more than anything on earth -- mad respect to anyone who does/has done this for a living -- i'd end up killing myself/someone else after about a week

Imagine you're writing ILX thread titles, ie, 'President Obama, what's on your iPod?'

dwyane wade is a disgusting savage imo

I fucking LOVE writing headlines. Of course, at the publications I've worked on, there seems to be an unwritten law that pop lyrics are to be shamelessly mined for headers and ledes, along with puns and the entire lyrical output of Mark E Smith.

If this is not your day to day work experience, sorry - also, Britishers are hardwired to compose tabloid headers using the aforementioned tasteless puns in ways that most Americans just can't.

i just get really frustrated after 3 mins of "brainstorming"

Britishers are hardwired to compose tabloid headers using the aforementioned tasteless puns in ways that most Americans just can't

^ football threads would be exhibit #1 of the truth of this

What are you writing headlines for?

J0rdan, what's the story? You've got bored/enthusiastic headline writers on standby now.

"amusing" headlines and captions = the very worst thing about sub-editing. i think journalism everywhere would be well served if everyone just STOPPED TRYING TO BE FUNNY ALL THE TIME. apart from literally three select people in the entire country.

i mean i can do it but even when i think of a good headline it seems accidental, it's so much more "work" than any other facet of journalism

apart from transcribing obv, that goes without saying. though that's not so much "work" as "hell"

i'm writing a calendar item for this http://thesummergroove.com/all-star-game/ and it needs a short, snappy headline

i.e. for one i wrote about a roc-a-fella artist i used What The Roc is Cooking

i'm going to bed now, you guys don't actually have to suggest headlines, figure i'd come up with something while sleeping

Haha Lex, to be fair, the demands of style mag headline writing mostly occur at 1 AM when you're jacked out on work caffeine and you and the editor sit there like jetlagged idiots with English degrees, playing word association until even Cocteau Twins lyrics seem like a suitable header choice.

apart from literally three select people in the entire country.

requesting we make this a guessing game

Does Eamonn Holmes still have a column anywhere?

i.e. for one i wrote about a roc-a-fella artist i used What The Roc is Cooking

― the boy boy young messi (J0rdan S.), Monday, July 5, 2010 6:04 AM (13 minutes ago)

This is some combination smh/lol/A++ stuff imo. Well done.

yeah headline-writing as stupid o'clock collaborative effort is much better. weirdly the only things i miss about office working are the all-nighters.

xp marina hyde, caitlin moran and um that's it. two! no one else should try to be funny! ever!

canklin moran amirite

does charlie brooker get to (try to) be funny? craig brown? (high tory facetiousness nonpareil)

We don't like sexist comments about the CatMo. Her ankles were just fine the last time I saw them.

yeah i dunno anything abt her other than she writes for the times iirc, i'll take yr word for it

certainly not charlie brooker, so bored of his grumpy old man shtick at this point

xp I was hoping you were going to reveal she was a massive fan of American football and n-bombs

she is?

the problem with puns/jokes in headlines is that you usually need to slightly shift the meaning of what you're trying to say in order to make the joke work, so your hed ends up not actually conveying the article properly

i love writing headlines tbh

i love headline writing. also after editing a few stories in a row and writing headlines for them, it's like i can actually feel the tangible physical process of my brain working