Journalist’s Trade

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…

Serial Narratives

Their power comes from ‘that delicious sense of enforced waiting.’

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…

‘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…

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.

Endings

‘The inverted pyramid makes endings impossible.’

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…

Scenes, Suspense and Character

‘Everything really boils down to one or another of those three things.’

‘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.…

Finding Time to Write

Hold yourself accountable. Get your work on paper.