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Best of Storyboard: the essence of story, in a short, haunting song (+ fried chicken)

Best of Storyboard: the essence of story, in a short, haunting song (+ fried chicken)

The haunted “third of June” cannot pass without calling out Tommy Tomlinson‘s classic piece on the essence of story, via Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe.” Tomlinson, a onetime Pulitzer…
June 3, 2013
Professor Hersey: one student, the iconic author of 'Hiroshima,' and 6 timeless takeaways

Professor Hersey: one student, the iconic author of ‘Hiroshima,’ and 6 timeless takeaways

In good fiction, the reader absorbing a compelling narrative never notices the writer as intermediary. In nonfiction, that translator’s presence is inevitable. Since the former is the ideal relationship with…
May 30, 2013
Get Pinterested, Storyboard style

Get Pinterested, Storyboard style

Join Nieman Storyboard on Pinterest! We’re expanding our reach via categories on everything from reporting resources to tip sheets. Among our growing number of boards:Narrative news: Fresh quick reads, pinned daily.…
May 29, 2013
Everything you need to know about storytelling in 5 minutes

Everything you need to know about storytelling in 5 minutes

I spoke to the Public Relations Society of America’s Charlotte chapter on Wednesday, May 22, 2013. They’re a good group. Sometimes I speak off the top of my head at this…
May 24, 2013
Writing a tornado narrative, with Esquire's Luke Dittrich

Writing a tornado narrative, with Esquire’s Luke Dittrich

The news out of Moore, Okla., couldn’t help remind us of the historic tornado in Joplin, Mo., and of one narrative in particular: Luke Dittrich’s National Magazine Award-winning Esquire piece…
May 23, 2013
Annotation Tuesday! Amy Wallace and one of "the most despised and feared" men in Hollywood

Annotation Tuesday! Amy Wallace and one of "the most despised and feared" men in Hollywood

When Amy Wallace profiled then-Variety editor Peter Bart for Los Angeles magazine, she took on issues of access, personality, misdirection, industry politics, journalism and retaliation. To write about a guy…
May 21, 2013
Work the problem: Story regret

Work the problem: Story regret

Our “Work the problem” series continues with a psychological situation that every writer faces:How do you make peace with stories you wish you’d done differently?Fielding this one is Esquire legend…
May 17, 2013
"The Prophets of Oak Ridge"

“The Prophets of Oak Ridge”

Our latest Notable Narrative: “The Prophets of Oak Ridge,” Dan Zak’s 9,448-word Washington Post project—and, as of this morning, e-book—about a house painter, a drifter and an 82-year-old nun who…
May 14, 2013
How's it going with The Big Round Table and other narrative ventures, Michael Shapiro?

How’s it going with The Big Round Table and other narrative ventures, Michael Shapiro?

As if longtime Columbia J-school professor Michael Shapiro didn’t already have enough to do, with Big Round Table launching in September: Yesterday he put 17 of his students’ stories online…
May 10, 2013
Why Charles Ramsey’s interview is great (and it’s okay* to think so)

Why Charles Ramsey’s interview is great (and it’s okay* to think so)

Everybody loved the Charles Ramsey interviews on freeing Amanda Berry, one of three young women abducted in Cleveland a decade ago and apparently held captive all this time. Then of…
May 9, 2013