Short Takes

Foreshadowing, detail, flashback and story hook with the late great George Jones

Foreshadowing, detail, flashback and story hook with the late great George Jones

Sometimes, when I get stuck for ideas, I imagine some of my favorite songs as real-life narratives. What if you could find a real story as good as the song…
July 11, 2013
Tommy Tomlinson
Pinned: Story trailers, a notable narrative, writers on rejection, writers on Twitter, Michael Hastings' tips for young journalists

Pinned: Story trailers, a notable narrative, writers on rejection, writers on Twitter, Michael Hastings’ tips for young journalists

Pinned this week, for your storytelling pleasure: Inspired: Story trailers. Esquire made not one but two (a 46- and 20-second version) for Chris Jones’ “Animals,” a taut narrative about the Zanesville, Ohio,…
June 21, 2013
Paige Williams
Pinned: Dan Zak, 40 Towns, Chimamanda Adichie, TED Radio Hour, writing advice, Walter Lippmann

Pinned: Dan Zak, 40 Towns, Chimamanda Adichie, TED Radio Hour, writing advice, Walter Lippmann

Pinned this week week for your storytelling pleasure:Highly recommended: In schools, the complexity in assigned reading is dropping, NPR reports: “A century ago, students were being assigned books with the complexity of…
June 14, 2013
Paige Williams
Pinned: Wells Tower, James Agee, Jill Lepore, David Foster Wallace, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Jennifer Egan, Sylvia Plath

Pinned: Wells Tower, James Agee, Jill Lepore, David Foster Wallace, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Jennifer Egan, Sylvia Plath

Pinned this week, for your storytelling pleasure:Interviewland: Wells Tower talked to Bookforum about alternating between the worlds of journalism and fiction. When asked what he makes of longform’s new popularity…
June 7, 2013
Paige Williams
WBUR + The Atavist + Whitey Bulger: using Creatavist to manage a major tale

WBUR + The Atavist + Whitey Bulger: using Creatavist to manage a major tale

If you haven’t already seen Justin Ellis’s Nieman Lab piece on WBUR’s plans for the Whitey Bulger trial, have a look at today’s news: The Boston NPR station is partnering with…
June 5, 2013
Paige Williams
Writing a tornado narrative, with Esquire's Luke Dittrich

Writing a tornado narrative, with Esquire’s Luke Dittrich

The news out of Moore, Okla., couldn’t help remind us of the historic tornado in Joplin, Mo., and of one narrative in particular: Luke Dittrich’s National Magazine Award-winning Esquire piece…
May 23, 2013
Paige Williams

Storytelling with Gordon Lightfoot (yep, that’s right)

Sometimes short nonfiction pays. Today we’re going to talk about a (mostly) nonfiction narrative of 457 words that made it to No. 2 on the pop charts.In 1975, a freighter…
April 12, 2013
Tommy Tomlinson
The Venn diagram of hip-hop, country & narrative

The Venn diagram of hip-hop, country & narrative

Songs speak not just to us but also to one another, crossing years and miles and even genres. One of last year’s best hip-hop singles, written by a rapper from…
January 31, 2013
Tommy Tomlinson
The best in narrative, 2012: Storyboard's top picks in audio, magazines, newspapers and online

The best in narrative, 2012: Storyboard’s top picks in audio, magazines, newspapers and online

Welcome to Storyboard's first annual year-end roundup of top storytelling: 34 of our favorite pieces in audio, magazines, newspapers and online, with three of the categories guest curated by Mark Armstrong (online), Julia Barton…
December 20, 2012
Paige Williams
What we're reading: Stories on teenage gumption, secret clinical trials, wrongful imprisonment and the convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald

What we’re reading: Stories on teenage gumption, secret clinical trials, wrongful imprisonment and the convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald

We love December for its inevitable bouquet of great year-end stories. Lots of good stuff out there right now, including these, four of our recent favorites:Anne Hull’s poverty piece, “In…
December 13, 2012
Paige Williams