Search results for “so you want to write a book”

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How writers show you the love

How writers show you the love

It’s a predictable moment: A reporter needs some relevant emotion for story, so — recorder running and notebook poised — asks: “How does it feel?”You can insert the situation of…
February 14, 2020
A blocked writer rediscovers her voice as she discovers America's national parks

A blocked writer rediscovers her voice as she discovers America’s national parks

Dan Zak of the Washington Post toured 800 miles of Iowa in five days to explore the real place behind the political headlines and cultural cliches
February 7, 2020
Dishing up some sides of gratitude with notes

Dishing up some sides of gratitude with notes

Editor’s note: It’s Thanksgiving, that singular and, for many, favorite American holiday. We welcome you to hunt around for stories of the true origins of the day, rather than the…
November 28, 2019
Lessons from biographer Robert Caro's instructive mini-memoir "Working"

Lessons from biographer Robert Caro’s instructive mini-memoir “Working”

If there were no Robert Caro, he could not easily be invented. Consider the job description: Commit your career to exhaustive research into the lives of two legendarily powerful men,…
October 15, 2019
"The third is when you can make a basket without worrying about whether it is good enough."

“The third is when you can make a basket without worrying about whether it is good enough.”

If this sentence seems lacking a word, it is. We’ll get to that in a moment. Until then, bookmark the notion of “good enough” — an aspiration that seems to…
October 11, 2019
"Life is too short to write something boring."

“Life is too short to write something boring.”

A conversation with Los Angeles native and magazine journalist Mary Melton, who profiled a famous photographer in 36 exposures, as in a roll of film
September 26, 2019
Exposing what the police and courts wouldn't — and what society owes in return

Exposing what the police and courts wouldn’t — and what society owes in return

It’s difficult to find a writer who isn’t haunted by a story. It could have been the quest that couldn’t catch a glint in an editor’s eye. Maybe one that…
September 11, 2019
Shop class: Stuck before you start? Eat a cookie, take a walk, set it out for the elves

Shop class: Stuck before you start? Eat a cookie, take a walk, set it out for the elves

Advice to a blocked writer from others who have suffered the same
August 28, 2019
A tribute to the "beauty and power" of work by novelist Toni Morrison

A tribute to the “beauty and power” of work by novelist Toni Morrison

EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece was shared, with thanks and permission, by our friends at The Poynter Institute.AUTHOR’S NOTE: American author and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison died August 5, 2019, at…
August 6, 2019
"Truth is whatever you can get enough people to believe."

“Truth is whatever you can get enough people to believe.”

You can’t turn around in the U.S. these days without bumping into a cry of “Fake News!” or a news story decrying the same. Not that spin is a modern…
July 5, 2019