Articles

Where writers write when they can't write where they like to write

Where writers write when they can’t write where they like to write

Two-time National Magazine Award winner Tom Junod often writes from home. But not always, and especially not on deadline. In a recent Facebook post, he mentioned that when he is…
April 29, 2020
Matt Tullis
Take small steps to tell the big story: Make free writing a daily discipline

Take small steps to tell the big story: Make free writing a daily discipline

This column was originally published as an issue of Nieman Storyboard’s weekly newsletter. You can read back issues of the newsletter and subscribe here.Thoughts this week turn to the creativity…
April 28, 2020
Jacqui Banaszynski
Building writing muscles — a postcard a day

Building writing muscles — a postcard a day

With writing, as with most things, you get better with practice. Just ask an athlete. Or a sports reporter.Derrick Goold, baseball writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, guesses that he…
April 28, 2020
Greg Bowers
A Writer's Survival Guide: Tips for defying distraction

A Writer’s Survival Guide: Tips for defying distraction

The first year I had to work from home, it was dictated by a crisis.During a weekend visit with me and my family, my mother contracted bacterial meningitis and nearly…
April 23, 2020
Kim Cross
Deadline writing when the world is in chaos, your house is imploding and kids are home from school

Deadline writing when the world is in chaos, your house is imploding and kids are home from school

EDITOR’S NOTE: This essay first appeared in The Cabin, a center for writers in Idaho. It is used with permission. Also, read Kim Cross’s Writer’s Survival Guide: Tips for defying…
April 22, 2020
Kim Cross
Can deep reporting answer the ultimate coronavirus question: How will it end?

Can deep reporting answer the ultimate coronavirus question: How will it end?

One of the things that distinguishes the coronavirus outbreak from disasters that have come before is the disorienting flood of research and information. Credit — or blame — that on…
April 21, 2020
Monique Brouillette
Teaching narrative in the time of coronavirus

Teaching narrative in the time of coronavirus

Every year as I put together my syllabus, Hank Stuever’s list makes me smile. A decade ago, I came upon the 13 questions that my former Washington Post colleague would…
April 16, 2020
R.B. Brenner
A religion reporter profiles a charismatic community drawn to a "miracle Bible"

A religion reporter profiles a charismatic community drawn to a “miracle Bible”

Surprising stories spring from any number of places. Investigative or narrative or explanatory stories often start with curiosity sparked by a local news story or feature. That’s what happened when…
April 14, 2020
Trevor Pyle
When the narrative becomes the disease

When the narrative becomes the disease

EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece is published in partnership with our friends at the Poynter Institute. It’s happening again, as it always happens with disease. Our fear of contagion has turned some…
April 13, 2020
Roy Peter Clark
John Prine would want us to feel real life today, and write it with feeling every day

John Prine would want us to feel real life today, and write it with feeling every day

It’s 4:08 a.m. EST on Wednesday, April 8,  as I type this, and John Prine has been dead for too long.Like many of you, I went to bed a few…
April 8, 2020
Wade Livingston