But getting to know these folks personally, seeing what the wife was going through, sharing that pain, having readers react. This was in the late 1980s or early 1990s, and it was a topic that was then generating lots of scary, generic headlines. I remember a story where I spent time with an elderly couple, and the husband had Alzheimer’s. Once I discovered narratives, I came alive. I wanted to make people care – about another person or an issue that deserved attention. We conveyed information, nicely written, perhaps, and in clear form, but they didn’t often move people. I became a journalist to be a storyteller, but often, we didn’t tell stories. But I didn’t feel challenged or motivated. I learned to put together basic stories, using the inverted pyramid, and occasionally veering off into something deeper. What do you love about narratives? Why are they so important?Īs a young journalist, I found myself quickly uninspired. Don’t spring a daily narrative on her if she’s expecting something traditional. That witness, are they sharing information that provides deeper meaning to what just unfolded? Is it a story that many people can relate to or could be moved by? If not, let it go, turn in a standard story and try again the next time.Īnd don’t forget – let your editor know what you’re doing. There has to be something compelling that drives the story. A festival story might be a bore, but maybe there’s someone there who has a compelling backstory and the moment means a great deal to them. Others involved may take months or years to tell their story. Report for narrative.įor instance, at the scene of an accident, it might be a witness who is willing to share what they saw, and you weave the “news” into their account. Is there someone available at that moment, a stakeholder whose story you may be able to tell quickly.
But then they should consider whether they can tell a narrative off the news. I teach people to report as they normally would during breaking news, taking in everything and interviewing everyone they can. You can, but you have to learn to look for narrative possibilities, and you have to have the courage and determination to pursue them. What advice would you give a journalist interested in writing narratives, but whose daily assignments keep them tied to breaking news? Can you do both? Many didn’t get these lessons in j-school or early in their careers. They know to deliver payoffs that make the journey worthwhile.īut here’s the thing, too – the best narrative writers I’ve known are people who learned to do the work by spending time on craft. They know to be spare in the most dramatic moments.
#Suck me shakespeer lapl how to
They know how to focus, to produce stories that go a mile deep and an inch wide. They must be driven by a desire to understand – and explain – the world around us.Īnd yes, ultimately, the best ones know how to tell great stories. They must be genuinely curious and not settle for someone’s first response but peel back layers. They must be observant and also willing to make the extra effort to figure out what kind of tree that is, what the weather was like that day, what bus route the homeless kid took. So they must be great interviewers, empathetic and patient. But everything is driven by the reporting, by the heartbreaking and stark and emotional details that they come back with. Some people think that it’s all about the quality of the writing, this incredible prose that narrative folks can deliver. The best narrative writers I’ve worked with are amazing reporters.
What are the characteristics of an excellent narrative writer? What makes one stand out?
Don’t miss Maria’s original 4 Questions interview.īefore your recent retirement, you edited narrative journalism for decades at several newspapers. Petersburg, Fla., with her husband, and they have two grown children. Carrillo was born in Washington, D.C., two years after her parents left Cuba in exile. She is a board member of the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism and the National Press Photographers Association. She has edited dozens of award-winning projects, frequently lectures on narrative journalism, co-hosts a podcast ( WriteLane) about craft and has been a Pulitzer Prize juror six times. She was an enterprise editor at the Tampa Bay Times and Houston Chronicle and, before that, managing editor at The Virginian-Pilot. Maria Carrillo is a consultant and coach after spending 36 years in seven newsrooms.
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