October 7 2002

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Otto von Bismarck said, "To retain respect for sausage and laws, one must not watch them in the making." I try not to think Bismarck's thoughts after him, preferring not to have illusions about lawmaking and not to eat sausages at all.

People harbor illusions about writing. The New York Times recently fed such fantasies with an idyllic picture of Roald Dahl's writing chair—it was introvert heaven, with wide arms bridged by a sturdy lap desk. That is the writer's life—in your dreams.

Much of the writing we consume is the product of multiple minds. The speeches of presidents (U.S. and corporate) and the opinions of big-name opinion writers are often researched by others and sometimes polished by other hands as well.

CT columnist Charles Colson usually turns his pieces out on his yellow legal pad (or dictates them as detailed memos) and senior writer Anne Morse tunes them up on her computer (suggesting quotations and illustrations when appropriate). But occasionally a column's origins are more complex. Chuck says this issue's piece is "the closest thing to a column where the idea came from someone else."

Because Chuck turns out so much copy, including daily radio broadcasts for BreakPoint with Charles Colson, he works with a staff that includes managing editor Jim Tonkowich, senior writer Anne Morse, Wilberforce Forum fellow Roberto Rivera, and a number of other thinkers. Their varied backgrounds (prep-school ministry, tax law, and daily newspapering, for starters) enrich their meetings. The sparks fly as ideas are sharpened. ("Roberto is clearly the spark plug," Chuck told me. "He has far more good ideas than we could ever deal with.")

In the case of this issue's column, almost everyone in the meeting had read a Washington Post ...