Journalist’s Trade

‘What transforms journalists into nonfiction authors is the heft of their voice, the narrative arc of their idea, and its marketability. These aren’t lessons that tend to be reinforced on…

‘The desire to have the best—or most salable—story must never undermine our responsibility to challenge even our most compelling material.’

Paul Lieberman, whose newspaper series is being adapted into the film “Gangster Squad,” offers tips—and cautions—for journalists when film or TV folks are interested in a story you have reported.…

This story is ‘about how the worlds of journalism and fiction writing are not as unimaginably different as one might think.’

In ‘Storycraft’ Jack Hart ‘reveals the story behind the stories.’

Several journalists have participated in Michele Weldon’s Writing to Save Your Life memoir writing workshops during the past decade. While she finds that journalists are at an advantage because of…

‘… it would be a while before people would say, “Hey, this is a book.” ’

‘I have come to realize that my obsessive precision—a great virtue in a reporter—wasn’t necessarily the greatest quality in a would-be memoirist.’

‘I teach nonfiction books. I study them, praise them, and pick them apart, and as I do so, I often wonder what’s holding me back from writing one.’

‘The biggest shift in going from journalism to books is not from scribe to artist, but employee to entrepreneur—suddenly self-employed, with no benefits, no expense account, and no security.’