Writing the Wall Street turmoil book as the news event unfolds

Stephanie Smith of Women’s Wear Daily talked to Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times about his plans to write a book on the current Wall Street turmoil.

Smith writes, “In Sorkin’s case, he admits ‘the hardest part about this book is to figure out where the story begins and where it ends. It’s still a moving target and we’re still seeing how it plays out,’ he told WWD in a 10 p.m. interview Thursday, just after he filed the breaking news of J.P. Morgan Chase buying the assets of Washington Mutual, a firm now considered to be the largest bank failure in U.S. history.

“At the least, Sorkin knew two weeks ago there was enough drama in the news for a longer form treatment. ‘There was a moment…where I remember going home at about 2 a.m. and Lehman had gone bankrupt, Merrill Lynch had just been sold to Bank of America and AIG was on the precipice of bankruptcy. And I remember thinking, Holy s–t this is a book, or a movie or something.’ It wasn’t until last Monday that he ‘got remotely serious’ about putting pen to paper, though. His proposal, Sorkin described, ‘was pages, it wasn’t really much of a proposal. A couple of scenes, a sense of character…[enough to] give a sense that there are rich characters and plot points that can be [flushed out].’ Sorkin said he’d be writing the book himself, but didn’t say if he’d be taking time off from daily reporting to complete it.”

Read more here.