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How film class led to fighting wildfires which led to finding a home which...
In a full-circle illustration of the way life sometimes imitates art, screenwriting led Sarah Berns to smokejumping. Then smokejumping led to a cinematic memoir, written with a director’s eye and the...
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Want to make your headlines sing? Try writing to the beats of “Hamliton”
As a newish multiplatform editor at The Washington Post, I’m always looking for help writing great headlines. My mind isn’t naturally filled with puns, I haven’t read reams of poetry and my musical...
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THE PITCH: How to crack the code of live storytelling with Pop-Up Magazine
When I first saw Pop-Up Magazine in San Francisco a couple of years ago, I struggled to describe the experience to friends. What do you call a show where you might watch a singer in drag pull a golf...
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A “final” phone call from the wildfires inspires an unusual, intimate story...
The first sentence is treacherous: This is how I die. It stands alone, in italics – first person, no quote marks. It reads like an epitaph beneath a photograph of six people huddled close – some...
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Roy Peter Clark: A red-nosed reindeer lights the way to better writing
Roy Peter Clark EDITOR’S NOTE: In the spirit of the giving season, the Poynter Institute gave us permission to use this piece (first published by Poynter Dec. 10) in which Roy Peter Clark teaches us...
View ArticleAn “Advent Manifesto” written in 100 short bursts becomes a study in deep...
EDITOR’S NOTE: The below note came to us from Cathy Grimes, a Nieman Fellow alum and faithful Storyboard reader. She said it was prompted by recent posts in which other writers wrote of being inspired...
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Yes, everyone, there is a reason to believe …
Dear Reader, As the holiday weekend approached, a newspaper friend asked me why, as editor of a community newspaper, I reprinted the editorial “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” on Christmas day...
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“Everyone likes to reminisce, but no one wants to listen, and everyone feels...
There is much to consider in “The Three-Body Problem,” the first in a trilogy by Chinese science fiction novelist Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu). Much of it – physics, astronomy, technology – is...
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A writer Instagrams his way back to love … or something close to it
Since Tyrone Beason moved to Seattle in the mid 1990s, the city has undergone record-breaking growth and transformation. Gone are the funky old hangs of the 1950s and ’60s, the low-slung brick stores...
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Newsroom Ode #1: Friday night on the city desk
EDITOR’S NOTE: For something a bit different, we offer the Monday bonus: an eight-week series (give or take) of poems that chronicle the legacy newsroom. Each is written from first-person perspective....
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Five life hacks for beating writer’s block
Every writer procrastinates. Even John McPhee, one of the most prolific writers of our time. “I’ll go hours before I’m able to write a word,” he has said. “I’ll make tea. I mean, I used to make tea all...
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The Sixth Cactus: When green becomes so much more than green
Editor’s note: This is another in our Shop Class series. The goal is to break down the work that goes into creating stories, and offer prompts, suggestions or exercises to help you practice the craft...
View ArticleNewsroom Ode #2: Reporter on deadline
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of a series of odes that chronicle the legacy newsroom. Each is written from different first-person perspective. Together they create the mumbled narrative of a...
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An annotated project that “breaks the ‘rules’ in all the right ways”
EDITOR’S NOTE: While we did not annotate this project by ProPublica Illinois, we are including it in “Annotation Tuesday” because the story itself, as published, was an innovative example of annotated...
View Article“There’s a story he’s waiting for, long before he comes across it.”
In the original context of “The Overstory,” this sentence applies to a young man — a teenager, actually — who tumbles into the little-known language of coding and programming in the nascent days of...
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Finding the brightest stars in a constellation of writing tips
Conference panels can be frustrating things. Several subject experts droning on, absorbed with the minutiae of their own work, sometimes failing to make bigger points, often repeating what other...
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Newsroom Ode #3: The last desk of defense
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third of a series of odes that chronicle the legacy newsroom. Each is written from different first-person perspective. Together they create the mumbled narrative of a special...
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Shining light on a “shadow” special-ed program in the Georgia public schools
Editor’s note: All photos are courtesy of LaToya Ruby Frazier and Gavin Brown’s enterprise for the New Yorker. The images cannot be reused without consent or permission. New Yorker writer Rachel Aviv...
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From a Kickstarter about avocados to conviction as an American spy
Jason Rezaian’s twin allegiances were baked into his life and his journalism. He was born and raised in Marin County, California, the son of an Iranian father and American mother. He held dual...
View ArticleNewsroom Ode #4: Don’t shoot the photographer
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth in a series of odes that chronicle the legacy newsroom. Each is written from different first-person perspective. Together they create the mumbled narrative of a...
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