Articles

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

An award-winning sports reporter learns to relax his professional writing by penning personal notes on postcards
April 28, 2020
Greg Bowers
A Writer's Survival Guide: Tips for defying distraction

A Writer’s Survival Guide: Tips for defying distraction

One moderately productive, relatively-sane freelancer’s approach to writing through a crisis
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
How knowing the full story process informs a writer's work

How knowing the full story process informs a writer’s work

The anecdote is packed. Daniel Riley was writing a profile for GQ of Brooks Koepka, one of the world’s elite golfers, and he knew immediately that this would be a…
April 8, 2020
Greg Bowers