Writing profiles

1. Always interview your subject in person — at home, if possible. This
allows you to see what the person values in his/her life and what taste
he/she has.

1.a. Do not be late for your interview; you will suffer for it.

2. Note what the person is wearing, what is on his/her desk, office wall. Look at the books and CDs he/she listens to.

3. Profiles, when done correctly, integrate the personal and professional aspects of the individual you are writing about.

4. Often, poignant details about mannerisms, domestic habits, favorite turns of phrase, hobbies, or listing contents of top desk drawer can tell more about a person than a lengthy resume/biography.

5. Again, details rule. Even the tiniest details offer revealing information about a person's character and habits.

5.a. These details need to be woven into the story, not presented in a single paragraph or two.

6. Interview with open ended questions and, as with all interviews, use silence on your part to lead the subject to jump to unexpected comments. Most people cannot stand silence, so they will move in to fill it. Great salespeople know this and they use it to close sales. The salesman who closes the sale is the one who knows how to ask for the sale and then shut up. The next person who talks in this ensuring silence (usually the buyer) is the one who loses. (Keep quiet and amazing words tend to spew out of your subject.)

7. Learn to tolerate unresolved tension. Tension will create a canvas on which your interviewee will paint a portrait of his/her character.

8. Watch the way your subject responds to certain questions — not just the words, but the facial expression, the nervous habits such as tapping fingernails on a desk, the tugs and pulls at clothing as though the subject is uncomfortable.

9. Realize that the best interviews are like a conversation. Sometimes conversations heat up, sometimes they cool down. After a while you will get a sense of how to pace the conversation so you can get all the information you want.

10. Realize that when you are interviewing a newsmaker or official, he/she often has an agenda and will try to steer you in that direction. Don't be pushed off your mental path, but be willing to take a detour if it presents itself.

11. Ask the really tough questions last, so if the interviewee stops the session, you still have material for a story.

Inverted pyramid stories and summary leads:

Although some journalists announce the death of the inverted pyramid story and the summary lead every year, the fact is they are still popular. They are popular and plentiful for several reasons:

a. They convey important information to the reader in an efficient manner.

b. They allow the reader to determine quickly if he/she needs more information about the story.

c. They are easy on page designers who might have to trim an article to get it in the paper, because inverted pyramid stories can be trimmed from the bottom up.

d. They have a structure that is easy to replicate in any story: 1. The lead gives the reader the crux of the story and invites the reader into the story, often by the simple use of one stunning twist or detail of the story. 2. The next paragraph offers either an amplification of the lead with more factual matter or background that is the nut graph if the lead does not serve that purpose. (The nut graph contains the information telling the reader why he should read or care about this story.) 3. The second or third paragraph (depending upon the location of the nut graph) can provide a quote from someone involved in the story that gives a human touch and further draws the reader into the story. 4. The body of the story contains secondary material or amplifies the lead with supporting reports. 5. The ending carries the least important material or the material that can be trimmed for space if necessary.

e. The summary lead is usually short: It runs from 25 to 35 words — and encapsulates the most important facts about the story. It does not necessarily contain all of the 5 W's (who, what, where, when, why) or the H (how), but it does contain the most important of these written with interesting detail. The summary lead generally follows the simple subject-verb-direct object form of sentence for better reader comprehension.

1. If you are having trouble writing an inverted pyramid story and are stuck for a lead, write three leads as FAST as you can — just throw words on the screen. Then pick the best one and tweak it.

1.a. Or pick out the best quote and build the lead around that.

1.b. Or ask yourself: If I were telling the story to someone, what would I say?

2. If you cannot get a handle on a lead, then write a 3-word headline (subject-verb-direct object) at the top of you page and this should get you going. (example: Diva Drops Dead or Husband Slays Wife or Teacher Whacks Star Student.)

3. Get enough practice at writing news stories that they don't waste too much of your time.

4. Use the inverted pyramid sparingly; there are more interesting story forms. It is suitable, generally, only for straight news stories.

4.a. Some folks believe the inverted pyramid story is your "go-to" story form. Use other story forms only if the story you are telling lends itself to that treatment.

5. Avoid stories where you simply stack facts; strive to get a story to "flow" from one angle of information to another. Vary the length and structure of your sentences.

5.a. Vary the placement of attribution and the use of names and pronouns.

6. Beware of concision. It may be imposed on you by space and time, but it is a demonic obstacle to new ideas. Be careful in deciding what to include and what to leave out.

6.a. Those who object to the information in item 6 say, "What? We don't have ideas. We report the news."

7. If you have to write an inverted pyramid, distill the essentials of your story, even identify the essential words, and write your first paragraph to convey this essence as quickly as possible. Subsequent paragraphs expand on this, adding detail in a measured way.

8. Never use boring quotes; except for a few choice words, live voices are your only source of color in this form. (or the use of interesting details can make your story riveting.)

9. An inverted pyramid should tell a virtually complete version of the story in three to six paragraphs.

Writing narrative leads

1. Start the story (usually not breaking news) with people or a person. People will read about people. An anecdote that says something funny or
interesting or controversial can hook the reader immediately.

2. Entertain the reader above all else. Let the rest of it — educating, propagandizing, finding truth and beauty — come second.

2.a. Some newsroom people disagree, saying "There has to be a balance of entertainment and information.

3. Most news stories are not meant to be features, so don't embarrass yourself by "featurizing" them.

Writing feature stories

1. Collect all your notes and information and reread it. Then, write a first draft fast — don't worry about quotes, numbers, spelling! Just get it down. Then start rewriting.

1.b. If that fails, make a detailed outline on a big sheet of paper and start filling in the blanks. Don't be afraid to change the outline as you go along.

1.c. If that fails and you are blocked: Type your best quotes onto the screen and try to write a "web" of a story in between. Flip 'em and move 'em until something makes sense. 1.d. If that fails, consider taking a break. Walk around the neighborhood or have a snack. Clear your head.

1.d. Sometimes, you have to get it done on deadline, so learn to blast this stuff out.

2. Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.

3. Don't try to be a poet! Good stories tell themselves, just get outta the way.

4. Strive to make your prose clear and TRANSPARENT — the reader should never notice that someone was "crafting" a sentence.

5. The ultimate beauty is in the first story idea. You can ruin it by bending to the thoughts of reporters and editors, but a great editor can nail your idea down with one masterful "tweak."

6. If you are stuck for subjects, first look around you and notice what people are doing, what is broken, what is fixed, what needs to be improved.

7. Look where others don't. The mundane never is. Go out to your local county landfill if you need proof.

Working with your editor

1. Editors must earn a reporter's trust; just as reporters earn an editor's trust. The goal is mutual respect.

2. Realize they may have different goals and perspectives than you do.

3. While reporters who fight all changes to their stories won't succeed in the news business, they should 'nt be afraid to challenge an editor's judgment if they feel it makes a story incorrect, biased or misses a point.

4. Use your editor to test story ideas, but always do some research on your subject before mentioning any ideas to him/her.

Bright, clear writing

1. Always read more today than you did yesterday.

2. Pay attention at the most intimate level to how words make their meanings known. (This means learn how sentences and paragraphs convey your meaning.)

3. Find writing, turns of phrase and words you love and find reasons to apply their lessons to your daily work. You don't have to plagiarize the work to learn how to make word cadence, sentence structure and other language tricks make your writing electric.

4. Illumination comes from unforeseen corners. A soup can label can easily teach you more about the magic balance of cadence and compactness than a NYTimes frontpage feature.

What can reporters expect from librarians or research personnel at newspapers when they ask for help with a story?

1. What they ask for. Research personnel spend a lot of time pulling teeth to get reporters to narrow their requests. The worst words in the world are "give me whatever you can find on . . . "

2. We research articles, Websites, books (!), microfilm, whatever is necessary. Just like reporters, the more time we are given to work on something, the better the results.

3. A lot of what can be done depends on the size of the library staff.

4. At papers with larger library staffs, librarians compile statistics for graphics and make timelines.

What are the best online sources for information and background on people, events, concepts, etc. that have been covered in the news media.

1. For things which have been covered in the press, the best sources are the paid services like Lexis-Nexis and Factiva (Dow Jones).

2. Individual newspaper web sites vary since some go back farther than others and fees vary.

3. Learn how to use Google.com effectively.

What are the best online sources for information on people, events, concepts, etc. in general?

This is a tough question as you need to consider the source and its agenda. Everyone has their favorites and their favorite search engines. I tend to use google, dogpile (a crawler which uses something like 15 different search engines) and altavista as my main searchers. The very best source is probably a person's newspaper of choice or a respectable paper from the city/country they're looking for. For example I'm a fan of the London Daily Telegraph's web site, other people like The Times or the Guardian. You just need to dig and see what suits your taste.