Well here I am on the overnight shift of a major international news agency in Washington DC. I have to do seven of these shifts every three months. This is my third night of four -- I'll do another three in a few weeks.
I come in at eleven and am on duty until 7 am. One by one, my colleagues leave and by midnight I'm all alone in the large newsroom.
It's usually rather quiet but sometimes it can be busy. I edit the stories that come in from the West Coast and after that I'm on alert. If something happens, I'm responsible for sending out the news to the world. We're connected to the U.S. Geological Survery which means I get an alert every time there's an earthquake anywhere in the world. If it's a biggie, I'll have to send out a bulletin. Then, check the Internet for tsunami warnings.
I monitor CNN (which is really boring at night). I write a bit, work on my own stuff, try to stay awake, drink herbal tea.
Last night, North Korea handed over information about its nuclear program to China. This happened around 5 am our time. My colleagues in Asia couldn't get confirmation that the documents had actually been handed over. I phoned the White House duty press officer who eventually confirmed it. Then I sent a bulletin. Soon after that, they announced Bush would speak about it at the Rose Garden at 7:40 -- that was another bulletin. By this time, two of our White House correspondents had rushed in to work. News came that the United States was taking North Korea off its list of states that sponsor terrorism. We sent another bulletin. Each bulletin has to be followed within 10 minutes by a longer story -- maybe a couple of paragraphs. I was still alone editing the story until help arrived at 7 am. I was very tired, my mind hardly functioning.
Then home to try try and get some sleep. It's tough sleeping in the day. I got in three hours in the morning but it doesn't feel like really restful sleep, more like a short nap. After that, I usually exercise and eat lunch, then I try to grab another couple of hours of sleep in the afternoon. By the fourth overnight shift, I'm carrying a large sleep deficit and feeling my age. Saturday can't come soon enough.

Here's a sad but true story about the slow death of editing in our nation's newspapers.
When I'm not writing books my day job is as an editor for a major wire service. I spend my time trimming extraneous words, turning passives into actives, shortening sentences, unburying buried leads and generally making stories flow better, become more readable, more logical, more rigorous. If sourcing is insufficient, I insist on more sources. If a story is biased, I make it balanced. I also often catch errors. As any honest reporter or novelist will tell you, the world needs editors.Yet in our new Internet world, where everything is speed, where accuracy is not particularly valued, these skills seem ever less appreciated.
Call me old-fashioned but accuracy is more important than speed. There's no point being first with the story if you're also wrong. False information, even if traders can make money on it, is ultimately useless. I wish the world would realize this.