Banks: Why I write, how I edit — a reintroduction

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of commentary online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

I’ve often said I like to take things just seriously enough.

I’m not sure it’s true in every context. For instance, I take my work very seriously. I want it done right — to the point where I’d control every last bit of it if I could and sometimes have tried to. But I don’t have a career where that’s possible. And I chose the career.

To be a journalist is to be part of a collaborative process. And to be a commentary editor — which I’ve been formally for a few months but which I’ve been doing in some form or another for a few decades — is to be part of a sometimes messy collective process of gathering voices from the community.

The kind of editing and logistical work I do takes up most of a workweek. But I’m a writer above all, so I look for the opportunity to write columns when I can. Thus I am what we now call a Strib Voice. And that’s how I come before you today, as part of the Minnesota Star Tribune’s effort to help readers get to know the people who are writing regularly under that banner.

Usually when I write I’m trying to give readers something they won’t find somewhere else. Sometimes I write because I think the public discourse is missing the context at the heart of a matter. The former style can be free-spirited; the latter is often straightforward and frank. I’ve noticed how much more serious, and how much less playful, my tone has gotten over the last 20 years. Does that reflect a growing prevalence of terrible things in our society? It would be easy to say yes. A sensible person would say no. Trouble has always been with us.

There’s an art to taking things just seriously enough. A person must pick their spots, but a piece of writing with levity can also be serious. A world without levity is just misery.

I’d encourage people to feel free to use humor in the commentaries they send. No need to force it, but no need to squelch the urge, either.

•••

Commentaries can be many things. Criticism. Analysis. Arguments for or against a certain course of action. Sometimes they can simply be a unique way at looking at the conditions of life — perhaps earnestly, maybe sarcastically, or best of all with a sense of wonder.

Many commentaries fall into a formulaic style of writing. Don’t do that if you can help it. Write like you’re having a conversation with a friend — one who sometimes disagrees with you but who likes you anyway, and vice versa.

If you’re making an argument, know the opposing arguments better than your own. I think the strongest commentary submissions I receive can be seen to be doing that.

Our submission guidelines can be found on our website and on our print pages daily. Check them out. Editors like that.

Above all you should always send your submission to opinion@startribune.com, or use the submission form at startribune.com/opinion (scroll down the page for “submit a letter or commentary”), which will direct it to that same central inbox, which is always monitored no matter who’s on duty on a given day. Send a copy there even if you’re directly pitching someone you know at the Star Tribune.

My colleagues and I read and consider everything that’s sent to us, but space is limited (in print), as is readers’ attention (in both print and online). We publish maybe 5% of what we receive and generally will respond within 10 days if we’ve chosen your article, though we’ll always be mindful of urgency.

Don’t consider it a rejection if your submission doesn’t make the cut. Sometimes it’s just a matter of what was competing with it in its moment of consideration. How many great movies didn’t win an Oscar?

•••

Before I go, a little background about me. I was born in St. Paul, was adopted at the age of one month, lived briefly with my parents in St. Louis Park and then in Prior Lake until I was 7, when we moved to Kasson in southeastern Minnesota, where I stayed until after high school.

Among my favorite words to hear on WCCO Radio (830 AM) on snowy mornings was “Kasson-Mantorville, closed.” “Kasson-Mantorville, two hours late” was less inspiring. I spent one particular snow day around age 9 or 10 making my own version of a daily newspaper on a manual typewriter, including boxscores. As a kid I used to tell people I wanted to be an ophthalmologist when I grew up, but it’s what you do, not what you say, that’s predictive.

I went to college at what was then called Mankato State University, and after graduating worked at daily newspapers in Austin (Minn.) and St. Cloud before starting at the Star Tribune in 1994. I’ve been a copy editor, an editor and coordinator of local news, a page designer, and — for a brief time — a newsroom tech trainer. I first got involved with our opinion presentation in 2005, and have had a hand in just about every aspect of it since then.

All right, that’s about all of the “getting to know me” either of us can stand. Back to the job at hand — which after all, readers, is about you. There are so many more topics to explore. I’ve lived and worked in Minnesota all my life, and I feel like one day I could really get to know the place.

Seriously.