Our occasional series “From Pencil To Print” shares how a story went from conception to a bylined feature for our print edition and website.

A feature that ran in last week’s paper, “Diane Sarna Named To Hearts Of Hope Board Of Directors,” began life on January 12, when an e-mail arrived from Hearts of Hope (HOH) founder and Executive Director Judith Pedersen. Judith was offering a heads-up that her organization was about to announce that a Newtown resident had been added to the corporate board of directors for Hearts of Hope.

The story, with two photos and captions (what we refer to as “cutlines”) was filed ten days later, on January 20. It ran in the January 22, 2020 print edition, and was posted online that same morning.

The Newtown Bee has been writing about Hearts of Hope since February 2013. That month, a small group of local volunteers coordinated with Pedersen and some of her volunteers, who traveled to town from New York and New Jersey, hanging the palm-sized ceramic hearts near the center of town ahead of the two-month anniversary of 12/14.

Since that time, a local chapter formed. Press releases tell our readers about special events, while features have introduced readers to Pedersen and others who have become very involved in the local chapter.

When Pedersen’s e-mail arrived earlier this month, she was offering the opportunity to learn more about the newest person on her board. HOH had just issued a press release announcing that Sandy Hook resident Diane Sarna had been added to its board. Pedersen thought Sarna’s hometown newspaper would be interested in speaking with Sarna, as well.

Press releases are often a good starting point for a feature. While the majority that appear in the paper serve their purpose, usually by announcing an event or appointment, sometimes they can be developed into a feature. That was the case with this one from HOH. With HOH’s newest board member living in the town this newspaper focuses its coverage on, it was an easy leap from press release to feature about this woman, her new appointment, and the nonprofit.

An e-mail was sent acknowledging receipt of Pedersen’s news and asking to be put in touch with Sarna.

Pedersen’s response included a link to the HOH website, where a brief biography and photo of Sarna had been posted. Meanwhile, she also reached out to Sarna with my contact information and a request for an interview.

The Interview

Before the pandemic nearly halted them completely, ten months ago the interview would have been done in person. A telephone interview would have been the second choice. E-mail is always the third choice for a journalist to conduct an interview.

With in-person and telephone conversations, at least the inflection of a subject can be heard; in-person conversations, of course, also allow parties to see facial expressions. Those forms of conversation also allow spontaneity.

E-mail does neither. There is very little impulse. There is a lot of typing, reading, erasing, typing, reading, erasing, some more typing, and then finally sending.

The benefit to e-mail interviews is that the responses are in writing. There is little chance for a writer to misquote a subject.

This month the interview, much to my chagrin, was done via e-mail. Even during a pandemic, Diane Sarna is a very busy woman. It took a few days to catch up with her, and we did not want the story to get too stale.

After reading the online bio, I came up with a few questions to further explain her connection with Hearts of Hope. I asked about the first HOH heart she found, when it was found, and where. I wondered if she still had that heart, and where she kept it.

I had already learned that she was very active with the local chapter, so I asked if she had been part of any deliveries.

The same way that hearts were hung in Newtown following the shootings at Sandy Hook School, now the hearts that are painted in Newtown each month are delivered to local nonprofit organizations or to communities that need some positive thoughts.

Diane took the weekend to get back to me. She was gracious with her time and answered everything I threw at her.

She talked about finding that her first heart on Valentine’s Day 2013, and what it meant to her. She discussed some of the trips she has taken, including one to Pittsburgh following the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue.

As with most interviews, I learned more than I was able to include in the final story. I did not have room to share Diane’s comments about a police officer who broke down crying after she told him that she and two other HOH volunteers had driven straight to Pittsburgh from Newtown, during a snowstorm, in February 2019. Diane, HOH-Newtown Chapter President Pattie Ptak, and a board member from New Jersey delivered 300 hearts that day, according to Diane.

Additionally, I asked for an updated photo. The one posted on the HOH website was black and white, and it was a small digital file.

For print newspaper, large digital files are best. For website posts, color photos are best. Diane and her husband worked with the photo request, and sent over updated photos, as well as some of her work.

Judith Pedersen was also contacted again, with a few questions concerning her relationship with her newest board member. She, too, responded within a few days. Our e-mail back-and-forth was concluded by January 18.

To ensure all readers understood HOH and its mission, a little bit of background on the organization itself was also added to the story. Because this newspaper has been covering HOH activities for seven-plus years, there is a lot of archive material at hand.

By Monday, January 18, all my notes about HOH, and all comments from Diane and Judith, had been collected. Over the next 48 hours — while juggling a few other features and weekly assignments that also needed to be filed for deadline — those thoughts and comments were collated into a Word document.

This is when it becomes difficult to answer the question "How long did it take to write that story?" I rarely do a feature in one sitting. I like to collect as much information as possible, which often leads to a list of questions for interviews. Once interviews are conducted, I will usually let things simmer for a while — sometimes hours, sometimes overnight or longer — before deciding how to put a feature together.

That format is not possible for breaking news, mind you. But this story is about putting together a feature, when there is a little bit of time to work with.

I generally work between a few Word files. One will be where the story is pulled together, while others contain notes from separate interviews and research. When it is time to focus on the story, my process is to read from multiple files, copy from those files, and paste into the file that will hold the final story.

Copy, paste, tighten, read to make sure everything makes sense. Then do a little more of the same, until the story is tight and ready for a final read-through before filing. It’s my version of lather, rinse, repeat.

By midday Wednesday, January 20, the “story” document was finished. It was then copied into the newspaper system.

Cutlines were set for two photos for print — the updated one of Diane, taken by her husband, and one showing many of Diane’s recently painted hearts — and for two additional photos that accompanied the website post. The HOH logo was also added to the website story.

The entire collection was marked Filed, which completed my work on the feature.