Nieman Narrative Journalism Conference
On a late fall weekend in 2001, the Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism convened its first conference. More than 800 journalists traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts to take part in three days of interactive seminars, lectures and readings with many of the nation’s leading practitioners. By the end of the conference, there had been 26 seminars, four plenary sessions, and three group readings, and it is from words spoken at these sessions that Nieman Reports compiled the report that follows. — Melissa Ludtke
- Select a good topic.
- Secure good access.
- Find good narrative runs.
- Find character hints in action.
- Find the right scene details.
- Find emotionality for your subjects, not for you.
- Do some contextual research.
- Find or crystallize the point, the destination.
- Do a refined comparison of the difference between your views and your subject’s views.
- Cherish the structural ideas and metaphors that you have in the field.
- Create translated writer’s notes.
- Make a flow notation of scenes.
- Clean your prose.
