Author

Historical Writing and the Revival of Narrative

‘…the line between scholarly and popular writing is now much more difficult to discern.’
March 15, 2002

Conference Diary

Ideas and insights, opinions and suggestions—all of these surfaced again and again in the swirl of presentations. What follows are snippets from these sessions that didn’t find a home on…
March 15, 2002

Serial Narratives

Their power comes from ‘that delicious sense of enforced waiting.’
March 15, 2002

An Unexpected Ending

“What Price the News” was written a couple of years ago but certainly resonates today because of the subject matter. The writer is a young man named Ian Stewart. And…
March 15, 2002

‘Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story.’

Tim O’Brien had the bad fortune to be caught up in the Vietnam War, and he’s written about it several times, and he wrote a book called “The Things They…
March 15, 2002

A Love Fest on Narrative Elements

It’s the voice, you fool. No, it’s the theme, dummy. No, it’s the story, you buttonhead.
March 15, 2002

Endings

‘The inverted pyramid makes endings impossible.’
March 15, 2002

Reporters Read From Their Narrative Articles

During the conference, there would come a time each day when writers would share their narrative writings with participants who wanted to listen. And many did. The hundreds of chairs…
March 15, 2002

Scenes, Suspense and Character

‘Everything really boils down to one or another of those three things.’
March 15, 2002

‘Writing is all about rewriting, which means you’ve got to get something down.’

Steps for Managing Your Stories Lower your standards. Get something down. Swallow the bile that rises in your throat when you write a first draft. Print out early. Read aloud.…
March 15, 2002