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Fifty years of Robert Caro’s reporting notes going public
Oh, to study those yellowed pages, with words pecked by a typewriter, then crossed out and scribbled over and typed on more pages. To marvel at those scrapbooks — more than two dozen of them — holding...
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A reporter’s search for “lost history” becomes a best-selling book
Worthy books are released almost every day. No doubt more than a few authors bemoaned the publication of their hard this past year, when so much of the world’s attention was distracted by a lethal...
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When writing news requires a distance from neutrality to “tell it like it is”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This essay and analysis on journalistic language was first published by our friends at The Poynter Institute, and is shared with permission. One of my favorite songs by the great Aaron...
View Article#4 rule of pitching: Know what’s come before
Question to a successful writer (newspapers, magazines, book) who now does contract editing for top mastheads: What are your expectations for a clips search when a writer pitches a story? Answer: That...
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America’s first hip-hop inaugural poem ties history to the present, optimism...
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of two posts today analyzing the power of the presidential inaugural poem delivered Jan. 20, 2020, by Amanda Gorman, and reflecting on its place in history. The other, by...
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Lessons in the purpose of poetic language from a presidential inauguration
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of two posts today analyzing the power of the presidential inaugural poem delivered Jan. 20, 2020, by Amanda Gorman, and reflecting on its place in history. The one below, by...
View ArticleAn imperfectly perfect photo that honored content over style
By now, you’ve no doubt seen a few dozen — or several thousand — of the creative memes featuring Bernie’s Chair. Or is it properly thought of as Bernie’s Mittens? Maybe we need an art naming contest:...
View Article“We start with more questions than answers…”
The retirement of newspaper editors is usually the stuff of insider industry news. Occasional one breaks through to merit attention far more broadly. Martin Baron is one of those. The announcement of...
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How 66 days of shell art helped a retired journalist rediscover her writing...
EDITOR’S NOTE: Cathy Henkel, a retired newspaper reporter and editor from Seattle, was wintering on the west coast of Mexico when borders closed because of COVID. She turned a hobby of shell-and-stone...
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Five days and five senses: Free writing as a daily practice
About this time every year, the stories start rolling out, urging you to reset your New Year’s resolutions — and make this realistic. That’s because by this time, every year, the vast majority have...
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How the magic of mushrooms inspired magical science writing about ecology
When I walk in the forest, my eyes almost always scan the ground. That’s not because I fear to lose my footing, but because poking through the duff or loitering on a mossy log or squatting at the edge...
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Jumpstart your writing routine: coffee, journals, sketches and postcards
I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions this year. However, I did launch a new morning routine. Every morning I get up, make coffee, get the woodstove going, sit in my reading chair, and: write three...
View ArticleVideos taken by Parler users from the U.S. Capitol assault tell a valuable story
Last week, Sen. Mitt Romney called for preserving evidence of the destruction caused by the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol “so that 150 years from now, as people tour the building, they’ll say, ‘Ah,...
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“… equal was the one thing all men were not.”
Clichés are a bane of original writing. Unless you turn a worn and tired cliché on its ear (I sure hope you notice what I did just there) and make it new. Then all the meaning people attach to the...
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Who, How and Why? What we can learn from an interview with the Super Bowl...
Curiosity grounds all good journalism. Following up on curiosity — wondering about everything, and then caring to find out — is what makes journalism soar. Lane DeGregory finds and follows stories that...
View ArticleMetrics can’t always or instantly measure impact
It has become an all-too-common question, from students and young journalists and even struggling veterans: Why does this work matter if nothing changes? I could spend a lifetime of study and...
View ArticleSharpen your narrative journalism skills in 2021 at these writers’ conferences
If you’re feeling stalled and rusty in your writing, you’re far from alone. The pandemic disrupted the rhythm of our jobs, and put a hold on most of the conferences or workshops we rely on for...
View Article“She was delicate the way a ribbon of steel holds up its part of a bridge.”
I love that feeling when a passage promises you that a story is worth sticking with. I had this experience recently when reading Wesley Morris’ profile of the late Cicely Tyson, who died last month at...
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A Black reporter sets off on a journey of “My Country”
It’s been just over two years since we wrote about Tyrone Beason, then a Seattle Times columnist who had fallen out of love with the city as its tech-fueled growth seemed to discard funk and character...
View ArticleThe teaching power of obituaries
EDITOR’S NOTE: A version of this essay was first published Feb. 19, 2021, as a Storyboard newsletter. That was two days before the tragic news that COVID deaths in the U.S. had topped 500,000. In...
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