Search results for “writing the book”

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Kathryn Miles on tall ships, the 'boxcar' structure, finding the story, reading 'promiscuously' and putting an English Lit degree to work

Kathryn Miles on tall ships, the ‘boxcar’ structure, finding the story, reading ‘promiscuously’ and putting an English Lit degree to work

Our latest Notable Narrative is "Sunk," a detailed narrative of the deadly capsizing of the tall ship HMS Bounty during Hurricane Sandy. Kathryn Miles’ story, in Outside magazine, gave a gripping account of…
February 22, 2013
Annotation Tuesday! Ben Ehrenreich on the grim reaper, L.A. style

Annotation Tuesday! Ben Ehrenreich on the grim reaper, L.A. style

The subject of death has proven inexhaustible, from the Greeks to Hamlet to E.B. White's pig. In "The End," Ben Ehrenreich examines The Inevitable from an unexpected postmortem angle, and with a…
February 19, 2013
Editors' Roundtable: Two boys, a basketball and a 'magical' shot

Editors’ Roundtable: Two boys, a basketball and a ‘magical’ shot

The Oregonian’s Anna Griffin wrote a story last Sunday about a small but rare and memorable moment in high school sports. Deadspin set it up this way:A young man named Davan Overton in…
February 15, 2013
Work the problem: How to look at your own stories more objectively

Work the problem: How to look at your own stories more objectively

Our storytelling advice column continues: A journalist asks a question and we find an accomplished narrative writer or editor to answer it. In our first installment, Dave Tarrant of the…
February 14, 2013

"Why’s this so good?" No. 71: John Jeremiah Sullivan and "Upon This Rock"

Last summer, John Jeremiah Sullivan wrote an essay about Faulkner’s Absalom! Absalom!, and amid his deft and borderline genius thoughts on the novel – “It…dramatize[s] historical consciousness itself, not just human lives but the…
February 12, 2013

Annotation Tuesday! Amy Wallace on Garry Shandling

Reading Amy Wallace's profiles is like sitting around your favorite bar with your favorite super-witty friend and talking about people over cocktails: You come for the companionship and vibe, you…
February 5, 2013
Thomas Curwen and the brave young man

Thomas Curwen and the brave young man

Our new Notable Narrative is “A young man’s fateful dance with death,” in which Thomas Curwen of the Los Angeles Times elegantly chronicles 19-year-old Jesús García’s struggle with a brain tumor.…
February 1, 2013
Work the problem: "How do you prospect for narrative beyond the obvious?"

Work the problem: "How do you prospect for narrative beyond the obvious?"

This is the inaugural installment of Work the Problem, a storytelling advice column featuring everyday craft quandaries and a roving band of narrative sages. Today's players:>Dave Tarrant, reporter, Dallas Morning…
January 25, 2013
Annotation Tuesday! Mary Roach and "Almost Human"

Annotation Tuesday! Mary Roach and "Almost Human"

Mary Roach’s voice is so distinctive you could take her byline off her stories and her NYT best-selling books and still know who wrote them. Roach immerses herself in worlds…
January 22, 2013

"Why’s this so good?" No. 69: William Hazlitt and Liber Amoris

Another writer introduced me to William Hazlitt’s Liber Amoris as if he were passing along a tip to eat in a restaurant with great food but clumsy waiters. “It’s not…
January 15, 2013