My journey from journalist to author through the five Ws

‘Irish Examiner’ reporter Ann O’Loughlin discusses how she combined the day job with the day-and-night job to write her first novel.

Who, what, where, when, and why — the most important word of all.

In all my years as a working journalist those five words have been king. The big five are the cornerstone for any good piece of journalism. The five Ws have guided me through the difficult stories; the fluffy, feel-good, and easy stories; the controversial stories; the lead stories; the colour stories, and the odd exclusive. But it was the five Ws which had to get the boot when I sat down to write my debut novel, The Ballroom Café.