Leaving Room for Reality

Our first brainstorming session for this magazine took place when it was still Nissan, and our closets were still stocked with winter clothing. As I opened up a “Shavuos 5783” document, I can’t say I was fully recovered from the effort of putting out the mega Pesach package — but we all know that good material takes time to plan and produce.

We finished that meeting with a nice list of ideas. Some were new, at least two were ideas that we’d discussed in the past but whose time just hadn’t come. (This happens often — we’ll get excited about an idea only to find that the proper writer, sources, or logistics just aren’t in place — so we try again at a later date.)

But the magazine that you’re holding now is very different from what we planned. And that, in a sense, was also part of the plan.

In almost every Yom Tov brainstorm session I’ve attended, the editor has a basic list of the “categories” of pieces they’re looking for. They know what they need and what they want, what the readers are looking for and they would appreciate. As the ideas come in, they slot them into those basic categories. (Of course, there is also that category of “something new and different that doesn’t fit any category.”)