Story Craft

2019 Power of Narrative: Dave Cullen on how he wove time and perspectives to tell a fuller story of the Columbine High School shootings

Quick hits from featured speakers at the 2019 Power of Narrative Conference

Big Ideas from small sessions at the 2019 Power of Narrative Conference

A veteran journalist tuned into music to turn on her writing

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…

EDITOR’S NOTE: Storyboard recently revisited the long-standing debate over the ‘nut graf’ — variably called the summary nut, the billboard, the transition, the significance graf, the so-what passage, the foreshadow. Veteran writer…

Perspectives from more than 20 top journalists on what the "nut graf" really means

A defense of the summary nut as it is used in variations by Ken Burns, the Beatles and Shakespeare

When a summary nut beeps like the back-up horn on a truck or blinds like a searchlight, it can ruin the magic of a narrative

Conference panels can be frustrating things. Several subject experts droning on, absorbed with the minutiae of their own work, sometimes failing to make bigger points, often repeating what other panelists…