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Nov 27, 2024 | 
niemanstoryboard.org | Kim Cross
“Excuse me for interrupting, but you’re The Writer, right?” I looked up from my conversation at a coffee shop in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood to see a burly man with a chest-length beard the color of steel wool. He wanted to know if my coffee companion was, in fact, Lee Gutkind — the writer, editor, and professor whom Vanity Fair in 1997 called “the Godfather behind creative nonfiction.” It was.
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Nov 13, 2024 | 
niemanstoryboard.org | Erika Hayasaki |Kim Cross
Three weeks after the nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century blackened a huge swath in Maui, freelance journalist Erika Hayasaki felt called to go there and tell the story. At home in Southern California, she saw dramatic TV coverage and news stories about escapes, but noticed that “information felt very muddled.” “I thought: There is a need for narratives there,” she recalls. After reaching out to a few editors, some of whom were on vacation, she wasn’t able to secure a story assignment.
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Sep 19, 2024 | 
niemanstoryboard.org | Kim Cross |Erika Hayasaki
Tagged with Dramatic Tension Ledes narrative structure Nut grafs Wildfires Writing scenes By Kim Cross Three weeks after the nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century blackened a huge swath in Maui, freelance journalist Erika Hayasaki felt called to go there and tell the story. At home in Southern California, she saw dramatic TV coverage and news stories about escapes, but noticed that “information felt very muddled.” “I thought: There is a need for narratives there,” she recalls. After...
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Aug 8, 2024 | 
niemanstoryboard.org | Kim Cross |Mark Warren
Tagged with Dialog Narrative elements narrative structure Nut grafs Source relationships trauma informed reporting By Kim Cross I don’t go to church, but I am a religious reader of The Sunday Long Read, which arrives in my inbox each Sunday like a menu of the week’s best long-form stories. I peruse the choices — curated by narrative connoisseurs — and read the ones that I hope will move me and teach me something about exceptional journalism, but also about life, about the human condition and...
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Jul 25, 2024 | 
niemanstoryboard.org | Kim Cross
Tagged with Details Interviewing Narrative nonfiction narrative structure Writing scenes EDITOR’S NOTE: The final post in our series on narrative interviewing explores how a reporter focuses in on the cinematic details that create compelling scenes. Previous posts outlined the difference between reporting for news and for narrative, the pre-interviewing needed to find a character and make a successful story pitch, the interview that outlines a story arc and sequencing scenes to build a...
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Jul 24, 2024 | 
niemanstoryboard.org | Kim Cross
Tagged with Narrative timeline Organizing notes Story structure Writing scenes EDITOR’S NOTE: The fourth post in our series on narrative interviewing describes how a reporter begins to zoom in to explore defining moments and plot points in a character’s story. Previous posts outlined the difference between reporting for news and for narrative, the pre-interviewing needed to find a character and make a successful story pitch, and the interview that outlines a story arc. By Kim Cross Your story...
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Jul 19, 2024 | 
niemanstoryboard.org | Kim Cross
Tagged with Character development Interviewing narrative structure Nonfiction Narrative EDITOR’S NOTE: In the third installment of our series on interviewing, narrative journalist Kim Cross describes how to find and follow the arc of a story and the central tension or conflict that drives it forward. Previous posts outlined the difference between reporting for news and for narrative, and the pre-interviewing needed to make a successful story pitch. By Kim Cross Interviews are not...
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Jul 18, 2024 | 
niemanstoryboard.org | Kim Cross
Tagged with Cast of Characters Interviewing Pitching stories Prereporting EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second post in our five-part series on the art of the interview from narrative journalist and teacher Kim Cross. In the opening piece, Cross notes the need for an interviewing approach that is different than that she learned about straightforward news reporting. He, she focuses on the pre-interviewing that’s needed for a successful story pitch. By Kim Cross There is no narrative writing...
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Jul 16, 2024 | 
niemanstoryboard.org | Kim Cross
Tagged with Historical Narratives Interviewing techniques Longform narrative Reconstruction By Kim Cross Interviewing for narrative is like hunting for something in a pitch-black warehouse with nothing more than a flashlight. It’s a good flashlight — with a head you can twist to change the shape and range of the beam. Even so, finding what you’re looking for takes time and a deliberate process. First, you need the wide beam to scan the room. The light is diffuse, so the details are fuzzy, but...
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Jun 14, 2024 | 
niemanstoryboard.org | Kim Cross |Seth Wickersham |Justin Heckert
Tagged with anthologies Narrative nonfiction The New Journalism The New New Journalism By Kim Cross There are many worthy books about the narrative craft of great storytelling. But the story behind a story — the hurdles, dilemmas, ethical quandaries and logic puzzles invisible in a seamless final draft —can be the best (and most specific) teacher. These tales are the heart of a new craft book that itself has a poignant backstory: Its path to publication embodies the narrative arc. “Stories...
