Story Craft

"How'd you find that pickpocket story, Adam Green?"

"How’d you find that pickpocket story, Adam Green?"

GreenIn “A Pickpocket’s Tale,” in the Jan. 7 issue of The New Yorker, Adam Green told the engrossing story of professional thief Apollo Robbins, who has plucked personal items from…
January 18, 2013
Paige Williams
Just one question ... for Justin Heckert, on the kid who scored 138 points in one game

Just one question … for Justin Heckert, on the kid who scored 138 points in one game

HeckertJustin Heckert had a great late 2012 with stories in Esquire and the New York Times magazine, and then this piece in Sports Illustrated, “The Loneliest Number,” which is about Jack…
January 17, 2013
Michael Kruse
Andrew Corsello on authorial empathy, the problem of goodness, the writer-editor relationship, the importance of rule-breaking, and naps

Andrew Corsello on authorial empathy, the problem of goodness, the writer-editor relationship, the importance of rule-breaking, and naps

In yesterday’s post, guest curator Michael Fitzgerald wrote about the storytelling power behind “The Wronged Man,” a 2004 GQ piece by National Magazine Award winner Andrew Corsello. Fitzgerald, a Massachusetts-based business…
December 7, 2012
Michael Fitzgerald
Eli Saslow on detail, dignity, nut grafs, patience, reporting v. writing, and what's in his notebook

Eli Saslow on detail, dignity, nut grafs, patience, reporting v. writing, and what’s in his notebook

Our latest Notable Narrative is an Eli Saslow story called “Life of a salesman,” about a swimming-pool salesman struggling in a terrible economy. Yesterday, we listed some of the story’s…
November 23, 2012
Paige Williams
Politics & storytelling, a sampler: Thompson, McGinniss, Sullivan, Lepore, Bowden, Bellow

Politics & storytelling, a sampler: Thompson, McGinniss, Sullivan, Lepore, Bowden, Bellow

Why hasn’t anybody Hunter S. Thompsonized this election? Or have they, and we missed it? Esquire’s Charlie Pierce approacheth –In the interest of keeping you abreast of news that hasn't…
November 6, 2012
Paige Williams
Junot Díaz on imagination, language, success, the role of the teacher, the health of American literature and Star Wars as a narrative teaching tool

Junot Díaz on imagination, language, success, the role of the teacher, the health of American literature and Star Wars as a narrative teaching tool

To hear the novelist Junot Díaz talk about writing is to have your mind augured open to new ways of processing the human experience and to feel swept up in…
October 12, 2012
Paige Williams
Audio danger: Going live

Audio danger: Going live

One morning this summer, I got on the elevator with a colleague at WNYC, where I’m working as an interim producer for national programs. My elevator pal had just gotten…
October 4, 2012
Julia Barton

Building blocks: Scene, detail, character

From the Storyboard archives: tips on three of the fundamentals of narrative, from a trio of accomplished writers and editors. Click through to their full essays, and in the meantime…
September 27, 2012
Paige Williams
"What's on your syllabus?" Narrative professors on what stories and books they assign

“What’s on your syllabus?” Narrative professors on what stories and books they assign

Every narrative journalist can point to a story or a book, or two, that changed their lives, and that made them want to tell true stories. What story does it for…
September 20, 2012
Paige Williams
Writing 9/11: Erin Sullivan on survivors, intros, collaboration, inspiration and the importance of working with what you have

Writing 9/11: Erin Sullivan on survivors, intros, collaboration, inspiration and the importance of working with what you have

We chose Erin Sullivan’s story about a 9/11 survivor as our latest Notable Narrative for the usual reasons − interesting characters; strong, memorable writing − but also because it contained the watermark…
September 14, 2012
Paige Williams