“It is not ‘news you can use,’ as the modern catchphrase goes, but ‘news you can feel.’”

The Nieman Storyboard essays were, to say the least, inspiring. They got me excited to start writing my story however daunting the task may seem. Because while narrative journalism writing can be enjoyable due to the freedom of creativity the writer is given, it can also be intimidating. Not only must the story contain the narrative arc that captivates a reader but it must also embody the empirical style of reporting that every journalistic piece has. Nevertheless, my excitement still remains high.

I love to listen – to anything: stories, anecdotes, music, radio, all of it. I feel like I’m a lot like LeBlanc, the writer of Stories Are Everywhere. I look for stories all the time and wish I was as disciplined as she was (or even had the job that she had) where I could have files for story ideas – phrases, slang words, and little idiosyncracies found throughout the day. Even moreso, I love to just call people up and say, “Hey, do you want to grab a cup of coffee? No reason…just to talk.” This is the essence of human connection: talking. We all strive to be connected to something and when we enter into simple conversation with another person, we become the most authentic versions of ourselves. Effectively, we can create the narrative pieces of journalism that I feel are the most powerful. When there is a story behind a fact then it can’t be ignored. It’s been given a face.

Now how to do this is a different story. However, Walt Harrington, writer of A Writer’s Essay: Seeking the Extraordinary in the Ordinary, gives some useful suggestions on how to create captivating and informational literary works of journalsim.

  • Capturing a narrator’s voice and/or writing the story from the point of view of one or several subjects
  • Gathering telling details from our subjects’ lives, details that evoke the “tone” of that life
  • Gathering real-life dialogue
  • Gathering “interior” monologue
  • Reporting to establish a time line that will allow us to write
  • Immersing ourselves temporarily in the lives of our subjects
  • Gathering physical details of places and people
  • Stories are primarily meant to enlighten, caution, criticize or inspire, and always resonate, in the lives of readers

I will strive to fulfill these sound pieces of advice in the piece that I write because I believe that they all have some credibility to them.