By Chip Scanlan and Casey Frechette Nieman Storyboard contributor Chip Scanlan and Casey Frechette worked together for more than a decade at The Poynter Institute where they created online courses in reporting and writing. Casey is an associate professor … Read more
By Sophia Chen Last autumn I traveled with two friends, Monique and Jacob, to a cabin in the western mountains of Maine. We called it a writing retreat. Monique brought books on craft; I carried around more pens than … Read more
By Jacqui Banaszynski There is a standard play in ice hockey known as a “deke.” I don’t usually link to Wikipedia as a primary source, but in this case it will service just fine. According to … Read more
By Kim Cross As a writer of meticulously reported narratives, I geek out about process. A big part of my writing process is an evolving organizational “system” that supports the repetitive tasks that complicated writing projects entail. These tasks … Read more
By Jacqui Banaszynski The primary New York Times obit of Henry Kissinger listed it as a “38 MIN READ.” I checked the clock, my to-do list and my energy level. Then I bookmarked the obit for … Read more
By Mallary Tenore Tarpley Up until I started writing my first book, I wasn’t a big outliner. I spent the earlier part of my career writing news and feature stories about the media industry, then transitioned into writing personal … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is how Cristian Lupsa captured the key reporting/writing lessons from a workshop I led in the mountains of Romania the week of October 15, 2023. Lupsa (Nieman Fellow 2014) founded and ran a groundbreaking magazine in Romania … Read more
By Talia Richman Before our first meeting about how to tackle a tick-tock of the mass shooting at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas, this spring, Kelley Benham French sent over an annotated copy of David … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: In the spirit of transparency, Korrina Duffy wrote this post after attending a weeklong writing workshop I teach through the Madeline Island School of Arts. By Korrina Duffy “The more specific, the more universal.” … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the final post in our focused series on the core elements of narrative by nonfiction writer and teacher Lauren Kessler. Previous posts provided an overview of the power of narrative, how to … Read more