The Mayborn is back! In person and online
A Storyboard standard was tracking and reporting on as many of the top annual journal conferences we could, from association events — like the Society of Environmental Journalists, Investigative...
View ArticleShaping a historic narrative: The Jan. 6 hearings as story craft
Much attention has been rightly paid to the congressional hearings into events before, during and after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. By any account, it qualifies as a big deal. Perhaps...
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How Rolling Stone revisited a mass tragedy to ‘humanize the horrendous’
In the first half of 2021, Matt Sullivan and his family took refuge in Miami from the pandemic in New York City, and to finish his first book, “Can’t Knock the Hustle: Inside the Season of Protest,...
View ArticleDan Barry, baseball and the love of the (writing) game
If there is such a thing as the perfect summer read, this might be it. First, it’s about baseball. Even if you’re not seduced by the sport, the writing it has inspired through the years can be superb —...
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Bear essentials and beyond
Stand-out story craft never loses its luster. But it really is time to start sharing gems from my STORYBOARD SAVED file before they lose their sparkle. With no particular order or theme, here are a few...
View ArticleDo Not Erase! the magic that happens on deadline
A fave recent story find: a tight little feature in the Boston Globe: ‘Please do not erase’: A treasured whiteboard at Boston’s Children Hospital has not been touched for 15 years. Whiteboards are on...
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Yardscaping your way to a story
The temperatures topped 100 Fahrenheit week (38+ Centigrade) up at the mountain cabin one day last week. The three-man yardscape crew seemed indifferent. They spent their first afternoon prepping the...
View ArticlePunning the way to a point
A note from a professional friend landed in my inbox a few days ago, with this quick header: “… the best lede I’ve ever read.” So I clicked. (Wouldn’t you?) It took me to a piece by Dana Milbank,...
View ArticleBill Russell, unbeatable on and off the court
Tributes this past week to basketball great Bill Russell were as many as they were deserved. I couldn’t follow them all, which is a pity. Sportswriting and obituaries often display some of the best...
View ArticleUnlearning old-school lessons from a J-school education
Two months into my just-the-facts-ma’am, inverted pyramid life as a novice reporter assigned to cover every commission had that ever been formed anywhere in any municipality on Earth at any time...
View ArticleNot just SayWhat, but SezWho?
For a time in the early 1990s, I wrote narrative journalism for a business magazine. One of my better efforts recounted the fight for control of an investment bank. Someone would become the bank’s next...
View ArticleJ-school everywhere, everyday
The start of a new school year is upon us. That may have some feeling excited — days spent with old and new friends, new adventures in learning and all those yummy new school supplies. I retired from...
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Four years of reporting follows new threads in a previously reported crime story
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of two posts about a complex tale of crime, assumptions and mental health published by The Atavist. Today we talk with writer Katia Savchuk about how she found and reported...
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The Pitch: Landing a “definitive narrative” in The Atavist Magazine
EDITOR’NOTE: Tbis is the second of two posts about how the pitching, reporting and editing of a complex story about crime, assumptions and mental health. Today, Storyboard talks with Atavist editor...
View ArticleStorytelling that reaches through your feet to your soul
It’s probably a good thing I missed the memo about suggested attire to the Chicks concert earlier this month. I don’t have a straw cowboy hat. My days of strappy tank tops and butt-tight cut-off jeans...
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Hacking and whacking the way to writing clarity — and pie
They are sweet, tart, succulent and tangy. Summer on the tongue. The mighty blackberry: as big as your thumb; a deep, inky sheen with purple highlights; a nuanced flavor with earthy undertones and...
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Cutting through compassion fatigue with sensory writing
War can become an abstraction unless, of course, you’re in the middle of it. We can read about it or see images, which often are more powerful than words in conveying the realities. As the war in...
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Combing through clips, records and emotions for lessons from the past
As abortion rights in the United States grew more and more tenuous this summer, Los Angeles Times reporter Brittny Mejia grew curious about the history of those rights. That led her to uncover a...
View ArticleTeaching (or learning) story craft? Storyboard is here to help
We interrupt your syllabus prep with this important message: Consider Nieman Storyboard as a resource – and even publication destination – in your reporting, writing and journalism ethics courses....
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So you want to write book? A long journey from newspaper reporter to book author
A stray remark during a visit with her grandmother sent newspaper reporter Casey Parks, then a college journalism student, on a years-long quest to unearth the story of a trans man in Louisiana. As the...
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