Story Craft

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
Paige Williams

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

I would never presume to define “presence,” but I knew it when I saw it: the handsome, tall, man who’d just walked into the seminar room had it in…well, tweeds.…
May 30, 2013
Peter Richmond
Everything you need to know about storytelling in 5 minutes

Everything you need to know about storytelling in 5 minutes

This basic framework is at the heart of it all
May 24, 2013
Tommy Tomlinson
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
Paige Williams
"How'd you find that 'invisible army' story, Sarah Stillman?"

"How’d you find that ‘invisible army’ story, Sarah Stillman?"

Sarah Stillman’s “The Invisible Army” (The New Yorker, June 2011) told the stunning and deeply reported tale of the 70,000 “third-country nationals” who work on U.S. military bases in war…
May 2, 2013
Paige Williams
"How'd you find that secret-compartments story, Brendan Koerner?"

"How’d you find that secret-compartments story, Brendan Koerner?"

Brendan Koerner’s recent Wired piece about Alfred Anaya, a “genius at installing secret compartments in cars,” was nothing short of delicious as a piece of storytelling and discovery. Sure, someone’s out…
April 5, 2013
Paige Williams

Inside “Snow Fall,” the New York Times multimedia storytelling sensation

“Snow Fall,” the widely celebrated New York Times multimedia narrative on a deadly avalanche in Washington State, won a Peabody this week (and would later win the Pulitzer) for being “a spectacular example of…
March 29, 2013
Paige Williams

Just one question … for Michael Graff, on the death of Earl Badu

Big buzz earlier this month when Michael Graff‘s story on the suicide of former University of Maryland basketball walk-on Earl Badu hit SB Nation‘s longform wing: You know the wish can’t come true, but people…
March 28, 2013
Michael Kruse
Just one question ... for Gene Weingarten, on the Jeffrey MacDonald case

Just one question … for Gene Weingarten, on the Jeffrey MacDonald case

Everybody's read his latest? Great.WILMINGTON, N.C. — They are old men now, the doctor and the lawyer, ancient adversaries confronting each other one last time.The doctor shuffles into the courtroom, his…
March 7, 2013
Michael Kruse
Building your canon: Small-scale narrative

Building your canon: Small-scale narrative

Narrative isn’t synonymous with long-form work. A narrative journalist doesn’t need thousands of words or loads of reporting and writing time to tell a memorable story. For you hunter-gatherers of…
March 1, 2013
Paige Williams