Across more than four decades of newspapering, I have learned a few things that stick with me – like a heart tattoo long after love has faded – but still worth sharing with newspaper veterans and novices, and savvy readers. • In an economy of words, many writers are overdrawn – a malady referred to often as “diarrhea of the pen.” Whether 6 or 60 column-inches long, a story is worth reading only if the content is compelling and writing succinct. Rather than drown readers in ink, a story should be no longer than it is interesting from a reader’s, not a writer’s, perspective. I have had to edit stories containing more flab than a buffet on grits night. The writers wrote much to say little. Facts that should have been etched on the tombstone lay buried under the casket. Submitting stories like that should result in a charge of intellectual homicide. Fire the incompetent? I did, in the worst cases, but I also condemned some persistent offende...