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. Read more
Tom French’s talk was an argument for the power of the slowly unfolding story—the wait, the suspense (though I don’t think he ever used the word cliffhanger). For him, the world in general, and the newsroom in particular, are like … Read more
Jacqui Banaszynski is the assistant managing editor/Sunday at The Seattle Times and holds the Knight chair in journalism at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Her series, “AIDS in the Heartland,” covering the life and death of a gay … Read more
‘Pick three things and just keep working on them, keep reinforcing them.’ Think of each of your reporter/writers as a one-year investment. Match the assignment to the writer, but stretch it each time. Give them things to work on. But … Read more
Talese and Michel Marriott New York Times reporter and 2002 Nieman Fellow Michel Marriott introduced Gay Talese at the Nieman Narrative Journalism Conference. Excerpts of their comments follow: Michel Marriott: As a young … Read more
‘You can break the action at times and give us background.’ Say you’re writing about the Little League team winning the Little League World Series and you’re doing a narrative. That’s a dramatic story, but it’s … Read more
