but it writers and photographers and their own creative people do need a
deadline to get anything done it's remarkable to me including myself
if someone isn't saying to me I want this piece I'm not gonna write it I'm
just not it's it's too hard writing is too difficult and doing any creative
work takes such intellectual sort of tussle but if there's any way you can
escape from it you will so deadlines I think are a critical point of extracting
great work and interestingly some of the best work has been done under deadlines
for instance the great photographer Richard Avedon he always liked to do
both kinds of work his deadline work his journalism work you know his fashion
magazine work and then his artistic shows his best art was actually the
stuff he did for magazines I mean it was better than anything he did on the slow
burn of his shows there was something about the adrenaline there was something
about the discipline of knowing that you had an audience as opposed to simply
being a museum show whatever that actually brought out the best work in
his in his artistry I think and I think that's often true that sometimes the
best work is done under the gun somebody writing at warp speed I think that
interestingly the journalism that was done right after 9/11 was some of the
best journalism that we've seen in the last 25 years it was like writers and
photographers and editors so energized by the need to get this content done
there wasn't any wasting of time or sort of frothing it all up whatever they did
their best work they were really inspired to do their best work and that
was done under the gun with a need to get it done there's nothing like the
urgency of subject matter content and passion I actually think sometimes you
can do your best work when you're up against the wall I mean sometimes we
create some amazing cover when we lost our big star bust by being creative and
in fact one of my mottos as an editor was if you haven't got a budget get
yourself a point of view it's like you have to be cleverer with no budget and
you have to perhaps come up with some angle some creative idea that will get
you over that that hump I always rather like working with TV producers actually
in my role at women in the world because they have to fill that seat on the
program otherwise there's empty so that makes them a bit less
procrastinating frankly than people working in a situation where they've got
another way out if you have to get somebody there you've got to figure out
well I haven't bill to get that big guest I've got to find this other guest
who's going to be as interesting but perhaps in a completely different way
that takes a bit more creativity get smarter faster with new videos daily at
5 a.m. Eastern