Story Craft

Foreshadow forward; echo back. How writers harness the power of the callback

Foreshadow forward; echo back. How writers harness the power of the callback

In his “New in Town” standup comedy special, John Mulaney tells how, when he was 10, he was in love with his babysitter, who he thought was much older. But as…
May 2, 2019
Ben Yagoda
A young journalist is inspired by fickle spring weather (and an old newspaper story)

A young journalist is inspired by fickle spring weather (and an old newspaper story)

Walking onto campus one morning in early April, coffee in hand, I approached Indiana University’s iconic Sample Gates. It’s always a spirit-lifting sight, especially with the statue of Ernie Pyle on…
April 30, 2019
Kelley Benham French
Learning from what seem the unkindest cuts

Learning from what seem the unkindest cuts

There were two things I knew: I wanted to write a story about how heartburn can kill you, as it did my father, and I wanted to write for Undark,…
April 24, 2019
Caren Chesler
Hitting home runs with story pitches

Hitting home runs with story pitches

Pitching rises again and again as one of the main challenges facing writers who want to make the leap from idea to publication. Whether you’re a reporter hustling support for…
April 5, 2019
Jacqui Banaszynski
Probing dark corners and dark souls

Probing dark corners and dark souls

 “The Trials of Whiteboy Rick,” the Atavist Magazine story, by Evan Hughes, of a baby-faced young white man who rose to the top of Detroit’s mostly black cocaine world. “I’ll…
April 5, 2019
Julia Shipley
Ripping up the narrative arc and fumbling your way to structure

Ripping up the narrative arc and fumbling your way to structure

 Every story has a beginning, middle, and an end. But in the telling, stories don’t necessarily conform to that neat order. For Dave Cullen, freelance journalist and bestselling author, there…
April 4, 2019
Monique Brouillette
High notes from the keynotes

High notes from the keynotes

EDITOR’S NOTE: The 2o19 Power of Narrative conference at Boston University was a full immersion into the craft, challenges and characters of story work. We are scrambling to mine as…
March 29, 2019
Caren Chesler
Golden nuggets from the rich river of narrative nonfiction

Golden nuggets from the rich river of narrative nonfiction

EDITOR’S NOTE: The 2o19 Power of Narrative conference at Boston University was a full immersion into the craft, challenges and characters of story work. We are scrambling to mine as…
March 28, 2019
Caren Chesler
Can a soundtrack ease you through a story?

Can a soundtrack ease you through a story?

A key character in a story I was struggling with was a woman with a broken heart. She’d been cheated on by the man she had married, but continued to…
February 21, 2019
Jessica Wapner
Forget the chocolates. Tell a story instead

Forget the chocolates. Tell a story instead

I‘m not much on Valentine’s Day. I liked the grade school tradition of exchanging Valentine’s Day cards with classmates. (Is that just a U.S. thing?) Each of us was supposed…
February 14, 2019
Jacqui Banaszynski