5 Comments

1. Lisa
   03.12.10

   Usually I start by printing out all of my interview notes and background material. I also start outlining once I have an idea of what the story is about (usually halfway through the interviews). The outline keeps changing as I go along, and once I begin writing I cut and paste the relevant quotes into the outline at the right places. After that it’s mostly filling in the background, shifting things that need to be changed, and writing sentences that flow together. I do a lot of scribbling and hi-lighting on the printed interview notes to pick what’s relevant.

   I don’t really have tight deadlines at High Country News. But I need written pitches for each story idea, and if the story is accepted, the pitch ends up as a reasonably detailed outline of the final article, which helps a lot. My editors also warn me to look out for the “sawdust sandwich”–the second part of every story (after the initial scene-setting) where you get into boring paragraphs of background, history, context. It’s always good to make this sawdusty part as interesting as possible.

2. Kiah Haslett
   03.12.10

   Organizing stories is so difficult, and at the Trib, it’s taken me multiple edits to finally organize and focus stories appropriately. And I’m still working on it every time I write.

   This is where an editor helps a lot. And not just to be a new set of eyes reading the story and getting confused by your lack of direction, but also to bounce off what the focus of the story is or why one source is important and different from another source. When I’m confused about organization, I talk about it with my editor and then go back and write down what I’ve said. And then I improve on that.
   For enterprise stories, I’ve mapped out the story in an informal outline. My outlines include: News hook, the # of “example sources” and the point of each source and the # of “expert sources” and the point of each source. That helps me know what I’m going to write on that person and use their interviews. And as I’ve said before, I often end up interviewing twice as many people as I use.
   And I think hard about what each source brings to the story. They have to have something about them that is unique but also illustrates a point.
   The hardest part is writing. I start my ledes with either a compelling/telling detail about the person or the most interesting fact about the story.

3. Nicole Norfleet
   03.14.10

   I’m one of those who gather everything I have and then lay them out kinda people. I tend to do that with all my stories including ones with tight deadlines. Sometimes if I know I’m not going to have a lot of time to write something I prereport and put together the framework of what the story is going to be (a supporting quote should go here, details about event here etc.). But I don’t really like doing that a lot because I think it can pigeonhole me in what information I gather.

   If I have more than a day to write a story, I gather everything and then chunk it. I have a story for tomorrow’s paper about our metro system. The agency is losing a lot of money on its paratransit services that are offered to people with disabilities so they invested more money in a travel training program. They want some of the people who are not as seriously disabled to use fixed route transportation. All my notes were typed out. I divided everything by source first. Then I chunked those into topic or issue or whatever. I also cut stuff and put it into a different file for the follo I’m going to do because there was just too much info. I think then I just arranged those chunks into an order that made the most sense, added transitions. After some more tweaking, presto! LOL BTW I miss you guys.

4. Diane
   03.21.10

   After I finish all my interviews, I write out my favorite quotes from sources and the background details they provided. I always try to come up with an interesting lead first, and then I’ll organize the story from there. I sprinkle quotes and details throughout the story and move it around as I see fit. After I’m done, I read it over to make sure the story flows and makes sense. Then I’ll print the story out, and with a red pen, I’ll make check marks next to each paragraph to make sure I spelled names correctly, got the numbers/facts right, etc. I’ve caught misspellings/errors seeing it in printed form, as compared to its digital counterpart.

   When I covered the mayor’s city address, for example, I brought my mini laptop to take ferocious notes. I make asterisks next to the quotes I plan to use, and refer back to the time mark on my audio recorder. With that particular story, I organized everything into an outline and wrote the story from there. When I had some questions, I called the mayor on his cell to clarify a few points and to make sure I didn’t take him out of context. I always get cell phone numbers, so I can follow up with them after hours. I’ve found that sources usually appreciate it when you’re working hard to get the facts accurate, even if it means calling them multiple times.

5. colleen
   03.25.10

   Hey Scholars,

   Thanks for your sharing your techniques. While there are some tricks and useful devices, the process of writing is so individual, and what works for one person may not work for another.

   In that vein, I offer another approach, taken from our “Ask the Coach” Mary Ann Hogan. Mary Ann wrote the following in one of her columns:

   Here is the best basics-of-organizing tool I have come across:
   It’s the FORK method of designing a story.

   F: Focus. Find a focus for the material. What’s the point of the story?

   O: Organize. Now, outline your material AROUND that focus.

   R: Repeat. Keep readers moving through the story by running a key word, phrase, image or idea through it like a thread.

   K: Kill the rest.

   That last point is really important for new reporters.

   Do not just empty your notebook when you write. The heart of the best journalism (of the best writing in general) is selection – drafting and redrafting, condensing and deleting.

   (As the author Vladimir Nabokov put it, “My pencils outlive their erasers.”)

   If you have 50 facts, which THREE really tell the story?

   If you have 10 quotes, which ONE nails the meaning of it all?

   One way to get a second opinion on what you are doing is to save all of your drafts for a week, and all of your editor’s changes.

   Then seek out a colleague – not an editor but a senior reporter known for good writing – and sit down to go over what you are doing. There may be patterns your colleague can show you, things you can change.

   Talk to your editor about what you’ve learned and how you are trying to improve.

   Then repeat all steps above.

   You’ll be amazed at how thing start to … fall into place.