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The Pitch: Can’t wait? A Marie Claire editor tries to answer pitches within...
Editor Kayla Webley Adler is a freelancer’s dream. She’s willing to gamble on unknown writers if they bring her a great idea. She’s written a detailed guide to pitching that she’ll share with anyone...
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Don’t be a turkey: Earn your flight wings
Editor’s note: At Storyboard, we’re always looking for moments of inspiration, epiphany and, yes, struggle that we can all relate to or learn from. We hope to make such discoveries a more regular...
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Mic drop? A veteran longform writer trades notebook for headphones, text for...
The email response to my story pitch came from the senior producer. It read, more or less: We want this. But do you have a clue how to do it? The actual wording was kinder, but it was the right...
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Finding a narrative in “our most urgent national conversation:” the one about...
There are known news conventions: something happens and someone writes about it and somebody publishes it and then maybe people talk about it. There are known narrative conventions: a relatable...
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“How could you have a new country without excellent dreamers?”
The last time I posted One Great Sentence, it was with thoughts about how context informs and layers the meaning of a single line. Only when I opened that post two weeks later, did I remember that it...
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Telling the video story: Scatter visual breadcrumbs, keep the camera steady...
Early in his career, Eric Seals adopted a straightforward mission statement from a former colleague: “If you learn to shoot with your heart you will move people’s souls.” That has guided him for 25...
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Narrative in a weekend conference, and the thank-you note that followed
Power of Storytelling 2018, Bucharest, Romania Below is a post offered on Facebook earlier this month as a thank you to speakers and attendees at the 8th Edition of the Power of Storytelling...
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The Power (and challenge) of Storytelling: “Seeing more of the truth”
Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of Polish journalist and media entrepreneur Zuzanna Ziomecka’s keynote at the 8th edition of The Power of Storytelling conference, held last month...
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The Power of Storytelling: Daring to bear witness to society’s villains
How do you tell the story of an extremist without allowing your own judgment to cloud your reporting? How do you interview people who are racist or violent, white supremacists or members of terrorist...
View ArticleThoughts on voice: What it is (and isn’t). And how to find yours
Growing up in a family of Chinese immigrant mathematicians and scientists, then ditching my PhD in biology for a career in journalism makes me somewhat of a maverick. But that transition was fun. My...
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“Developing a writer’s voice is almost a process of unlearning, one analogous...
A clear grasp of “voice” in writing has always eluded me. Not that I don’t have one. Everyone does. But I’ve never been able to define mine, and certainly can’t control it. I still remember, with...
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A brother’s death, written by a sister, channeling their mother’s voice
Sometimes I push writing students to look for new ways to tell stories. Should you start with the “small” things? Is there a story in the way a character dresses? How about the things they hang on the...
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Serendipity brings two men together on the football field, and in the rest of...
A story that garners wide acclaim, gets multiple plays across ESPN and draws tweets from Reese Witherspoon is not your everyday deadline fare. For most writers, it will never happen. But Sarah Spain...
View Article“And a lean, silent figure slowly fades into the gathering darkness, aware at...
That’s how Stan Lee introduced Spider-Man to Marvel Comics readers in 1962. The narrator pronounces these words, which so many of us have heard so many times, in the last panel of Amazing Fantasy #15....
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Eulogy for Paradise: A breaking news story framed as the profile and history...
The Facebook post was conversational and almost light-hearted: And on Day Two of Camp Fire coverage, I spilled water all over my notebook and laptop (tips?!). Seems fitting that the only legible line...
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“…readers want to feel secure in the hands of the author.”
This simple statement stands as a truism for all storytellers, regardless of platform or genre. Every writer, filmmaker, photographer, illustrator, podcaster, editor and teacher of same should keep...
View ArticleLarge writing lessons from a small space
A morning’s hasty scroll through Facebook earlier this week showed the above photo from Traci Angel, an author, teacher and freelancer based in Kansas City and a recent Storyboard contributor. In a...
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When syncopation rocks a nation: “Hamilton” enthralls fifth-graders (and...
One honey-glazed autumn afternoon, I watched a tangle of fifth-graders playing Capture the Flag in a park in Boise, Idaho. Their favorite soundtrack blared in the background: Alexander Hamilton. My...
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“We don’t carry that brand, but I think Gimbel’s does.”
If this choice for One Great Sentence seems odd, rest assured we’re not going to go all holiday sappy on you. That’s what the Hallmark holiday movie channels are for. Instead, when this line zipped by...
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Braving the Drake Passage, swimming with leopard seals and interviewing a...
Cover of the 2018 print edition of National Geographic. Editor’s note: Photos from this project, published in the 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine, are used with permission and gratitude. As...
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