Related story: Change is in store

By Lisa Biank Fasig
Journal Staff Writer

A women's retailer slipping on men's dungarees, who could resist? The news that Talbots would soon open men's stores sells itself, especially since Talbots is such a well-branded, and identified, chain. Think of Talbots and you think of structured jackets, suburban women and gigantic SUVs. But not men.

So what do you put in the second paragraph? Like all stories, I looked for the drama -- the challenges, risks, failures, etc. I made several calls and had done research through public records about the company's plans. Once I had identified the challenges (can Talbots swagger in slacks, or will men be too freaked out?) it was easy to move ahead.

I start writing all stories the same: On the top of the screen I write, in one sentence, the point of the story. This pays off since it keeps me focused through the reporting process.

Then I jot an outline. Nothing elaborate here, mostly words (lede, nut, part 1: girdle hurdle, part 2: store design, etc). But the outline helps me organize my thoughts and ask more pinpoint questions.

I often write a very brief outline before my main interviews, to help with questions, and then shape it up after the interviews. That's what I did here.

The hard part was coming up with a lede that wasn't too cute -- there were so many obvious options. I needed to include all the elements -- that Talbots has many lines, that it has always been a women's chain, that it is crossing over to men's. I wanted to make it a thinking man's cute.

After a lot of revisions, I ended up with the Talbots woman hooking up with a man, after she'd tried all those other things.

I peppered similar plays on words throughout the story in places where I was afraid the reader would get bored, or after a lot of numbers.

Fellow business reporter Andrea Stape told me these are called bread crumbs. So I peppered it with bread crumbs.