Mumbai, July 26 -- In "The Beat Report", Mint's journalists bring you unique perspectives on their beats, breaking down new trends and developments, and sharing behind-the-scenes stories from their fieldwork. Subscribe to the newsletter here to get it in your inbox.

It takes anywhere between a few days to several weeks to write one Mint Long Story, sometimes even longer. For each story, we chase sources, meet disparate people, pore over sheets of paper, and often visit faraway places to piece together a story for ourselves.

So, we thought: isn't the telling of a Long Story a story worth telling in itself? What does it take to come up with an idea worthy of 2,000 words that would be worthy of your time and attention? And how do Mint's re...