Last month, I wrote about the creation and birth of a short story. Executive summary: it can take months if not years of revisions to really get a story that pops and works. Then, finding the right home can also take years.

On the flip side, the world of reported, online journalism can be super quick. I'll often send a pitch email and get an answer back in a day or two. For example, I wrote a story on soccer stadiums and legal changes for Guardian (US) recently. I emailed Tom at The Guardian, he said "yes" within two days, I drafted and filed copy two weeks later, and it went live within a month.

A simple tale? Do you people who watch Submittable religiously feel jealous?

Compared to fiction, the inception to publication went quick. However, the tale had a few more turns than that.

Basically, for the past five years, I have written a lot of muckraking, public accountability reported features on stadiums. Here is how: I normally send out public info requests, get hard facts and key details, and then compare them to the snazzy press releases emailed out by sports clubs and local politicos.

They seldom match up. Facts rarely equal the fictional PR reality.

Still, this type of journalism can be draining and negative. The lede is basically "We taxpayers got scammed."

Thus, for The Guardian, about a year ago, I wanted to write something positive. I started to look into how local governments are defending themselves in stadium deals. I saw an odd entry in Wikipedia about public ownership. Basically, some local governments are insisting on an ownership stake in exchange for public funds for stadiums. Makes sense.

And Wikipedia claimed that the City of Houston owned a part of the Houston Texans of the NFL.

This struck me as odd because the NFL has strict rules about ownership: you must be an individual, not a corporation. However, the Green Bay Packers were owned by a local govt. Maybe Houston was another exception?

I emailed Tom, my editor at The Guardian, and he was super on board. However, my public info requests showed that, in fact, Wikipedia was wrong and the City of Houston does NOT have an ownership interest. Zilch. Thus, the story got put on the backburner.

Then, last Fall, the Columbus Crew and MLS decided to try and relocate to Austin. There was one problem: they had used taxpayer funds for their stadium, and Ohio had passed a special law to stop this. I sent out requests and penned a detailed, heavily reported feature for VOX.

Then, combined with other positive news in Miami and DC, I rekindled my "how cities and counties are fighting back" angle for this Guardian US feature.

Thus, in nonfiction, I normally get editor feedback within days or weeks, but...the reporting can take years. And stories and ledes often get tweaked as facts come to light.