Author

Jack Hart

Jack Hart served as managing editor, training editor, and writing coach at The Oregonian. During his quarter-century there, he edited four Pulitzer Prize finalists, including winners in explanatory journalism and feature writing. He also edited a portion of the work recognized with the 2001 Pulitzer Gold Medal for Public Service and the 2006 breaking-news Pulitzer. He is the author of “Wordcraft: The Complete Guide to Clear, Powerful Writing,” (published earlier as “A Writer’s Coach”), and “Storycraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction.”

Nut grafs: Getting to the heart of the story

Nut grafs: Getting to the heart of the story

Renowned editor and writing coach Jack Hart urges writers to build stories around a theme statement that establishes meaning and guides structure

Building Character: A Checklist

Newspaper folks talk a lot about getting people into stories. But all too often that means trotting out direct quotes from a variety of sources. True characterization taps an array of…

The Comedy of Life

The doctor at the Army base had a young corporal as his assistant to keep track of the paperwork. The young man was curious about the doctor’s affairs. He was…

Building Character in Three Dimensions

We’ve heard it to the point of numbness: “Get people into your stories. Tell it in human terms.”Who’s to argue? Yup, human beings are more interesting than paper creeping through…

Building Character: What the Fiction Writers Say

Think of the great characters from fiction. Gustave Flaubert’s romantic and unfocused Emma Bovary. Mark Twain’s spunky Huck Finn. Larry McMurtry’s lusty Gus McCrae. Margaret Mitchell’s willful Scarlett O’Hara.Each is…

The Art of the Short Story

“It wasn’t by accident,” wrote Hemingway, “that the Gettysburg Address was short.” His 1932 letter to his editor, Maxwell Perkins, went on to lament every writer’s tendency to write too…