Assuming that people are actually interested in how a story is formed and goes to press, Wired magazine is continuing how-to series with a blog about how a Wired article gets written. The article in question is about Being John Malkovich/Adaptation screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, so it's "meta." Wondered some editors, "What if we posted the edit—hell, the rough draft. What if we posted the pitch letter? What if we posted the emails about the pitch letter?" Haha, what if you exposed the sad quotidian details of our everyday work lives?
"You're going to request meeting with Charlie on three separate occasions in his hometown of Los Angeles. First, a standard in-person interview of a couple hours or so. Second, you'll be a fly on the wall as Charlie conducts some business related to the film’s release. If there’s any postproduction left, that would be ideal—would love to see him in the editing room, for instance. Maybe even riding along with Kaufman as he heads to the grocery store. Then you do a follow-up interview—by phone if necessary. I'm confident once you meet him and form a rapport, you will come back with plenty of material and we'll strategize from there."
Well, the grocery store part sounds fun! You know there are a bunch of journalism professors out there making their students read this right now. [The Process]