If you, like me, strive for more narrative nonfiction in your work, you need role models. Here's one:
Bill Hayes, author of Five Quarts: A Personal and Natural History of Blood, The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray's Anatomy, and others. The following is a 47-minute reading and discussion by the narrative nonfiction and science writer Hayes. Happy Sunday!
Showing posts with label great writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label great writing. Show all posts
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Happy Memorial Day: Thinking about Genius
If you haven't seen this great talk by writer Elizabeth Gilbert on genius and the challenge of showing up and doing your work every day--with or without your muse--you should.
Enjoy, and happy Memorial Day!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
30-Day Persistence Challenge: Going from good to great
Following up on yesterday's post on the role of persistence in becoming a great journalist, I wanted to revive this oldie but goodie from the This American Life host Ira Glass. Click and enjoy:
This applies to both writing and to literally what Glass is talking about: Video. For all of us print writers who are learning these new worlds of multimedia storytelling, it's daunting. We kinda know what we're doing with writing (though not always). But video? Podcasting?
To me, these sound fun. I love TV and I love radio. Great storytelling can happen anywhere and in any form. But to learn to do it myself? Aside from the financial investment I need to make in something I'm not sure I'll be good at, it's a different way of thinking.
I'll end by saying that many of us grumble about having to add more skills on. "I'm a print reporter," we growl. "That's what I do."
But again, if we can get our ego out of the way of what we are and what we do, we can open a tiny door that allows us to give our clients what they need, not just what we want to do. And in so doing, we may find new joy in our work, discover a hidden talent, or bring new information back to our writing that improves it.
The keys, it seems to me, are these:
What creative task could use a shot of persistence this week?
This applies to both writing and to literally what Glass is talking about: Video. For all of us print writers who are learning these new worlds of multimedia storytelling, it's daunting. We kinda know what we're doing with writing (though not always). But video? Podcasting?
To me, these sound fun. I love TV and I love radio. Great storytelling can happen anywhere and in any form. But to learn to do it myself? Aside from the financial investment I need to make in something I'm not sure I'll be good at, it's a different way of thinking.
I'll end by saying that many of us grumble about having to add more skills on. "I'm a print reporter," we growl. "That's what I do."
But again, if we can get our ego out of the way of what we are and what we do, we can open a tiny door that allows us to give our clients what they need, not just what we want to do. And in so doing, we may find new joy in our work, discover a hidden talent, or bring new information back to our writing that improves it.
The keys, it seems to me, are these:
- Deadlines: Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. We all need them, and if you, like me, are a newspaper-trained reporter, you live by them. If you're just practicing, you need them even more, because no one is paying you for it yet.
- Support: Just like many of us get help with decluttering or querying, we need people who will hold us accountable for these new creative projects. Bring this issue to your writers groups, to your lunches with other freelancers.
- Do it again: Once more, with feeling--we need to take that approach to trying these new things. Know you'll fail. Know that each time you try, you learn something new. Take it at your own pace, but progress. Do something.
What creative task could use a shot of persistence this week?
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
30-Day Persistence Challenge: Cultivating great writing
"Enthusiasm and persistence can make an average person superior; indifference and lethargy can make a superior person average."~William Ward
Last year, I took a narrative nonfiction class sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists and led by Tom Hallman. Hallman has won a Pulitzer and writes the kind of long, people-focused stories I long to do. As this persistence challenge has progressed, I've been thinking more and more about what he told us.
I'm paraphrasing, but it went something like this:
The people who are most successful aren't necessarily the ones who have the most innate talent. They're the ones who are willing to keep trying and failing and keep trying and looking foolish. The ones who win the prizes and do this kind of journalism are the ones who are willing to admit that they don't know.This really struck me. I had been so insecure about my writing, and so afraid of possible criticism, that I hadn't even submitted a story for him to review with the class. So you can guess which camp I fell into at the time.
Since then, his words gave me courage: I've tried to use some of the techniques he offered in stories. I've asked for some help. And in general, that hard veneer of needing to look in control has softened somewhat.
So the lesson of becoming a great writer is about persistence. It's about failing and showing up and not taking it personally. Just like everything else, it's about acting from faith, not ego.
Sounds challenging? Of course it is. It's counterintuitive, especially when trying and failing in front of others could affect your business. The stakes seem higher for freelancers than they seem for fullt-time employees. But the truth is, I don't know if they are.
Being a freelancer affords us a kind of freedom that full-time staffers don't always get: We can pursue stories without worry about getting paid because we do that all the time--it's called querying. We can be adventurous with our writing when we have our editor on board.
We can risk.
What are you doing this week to move your writing in the direction you really want to go?
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
30-Day Self-Care Challenge: Day 7
Today's surprising self-care goal: Foster my passion.
Here's a shock: My passion is writing, words, journalism and storytelling. The proof is documented as far back as my baby book, in which my mother wrote of my 4- or 5-year-old self, "Little Heather is following me around complaining that what she's writing 'doesn't sound right.'"
In college, I joined the school paper and sank into the comfort of listening to other writers share their favorite word. Who knew other people had favorite words? I had come home.
I became a journalist because I wanted to write every day, but I didn't realize that would often mean covering planning commission meetings, procedural turns of the screw and, in the parlance of the newsroom, "reax" to the State of the Union Address. There's no music there, but hey, it's a living.
So is freelancing. Often I write stories I love, full of real people's lives and how they address the big challenges facing them. But just as often, I write fun, interesting and educational front-of-the-book shorts or service pieces. They aren't why I got into writing, and I know several freelancers who have burned out because they only write those pieces.
Who would have guessed the shot in the arm I needed to get excited about my business again would come from my iPod? I subscribe to literally dozens of podcasts on personal finance, self-improvement, entertainment, cooking and journalism.
Last night, as I was going from friend's house to meeting to home, during the long waits between buses, I found myself captivated.
Do yourself a favor and subscribe to Poynter's Writing/Editing and Writing Tools podcasts.
In Poynter's most recent Writing/Editing podcast, Cleveland Plain Dealer Columnist Connie Schultz described how she found her stories, how she incorporates video and blogging into her work and where she gets her inspiration. It made me want to look for those stories I know I'm missing now. It filled me up with a passion that pushed out the panic about the economy that had overwhelmed me the day before. It helped me focus on what I can control: the stories I seek out, my connection with the brave and articulate sources that are the heart of what I do and the hope that my work can improve people's lives in some small way.
Then I listened to several of several of Roy Peter Clark's Writing Tools podcasts, also available in his book of the same name.
Here are some of my favorites:
* Climb up and down the ladder of abstraction
At the top of the ladder is lofty ideas like "democracy" and "compassion." At the bottom is the utterly concrete, like "pop tops" and "red-and-black sneakers covered in a fine film of city dirt."
In the middle is the dregs of bureaucratic language--"single-family mixed use development," for instance. Or "full-time equivalent."
* Choose the number of elements in a list.
This fascinated me: Use one to emphasize what you have, two to compare and contrast and three to imply a sense of wholeness and completion. Four and more is just a list. In this way, he says, the mathmatics of language make three greater than four. Dig that, people! Now you know why writers are bad at math.
* Know when to back off and when to show off
When you're writing about something where the drama is already built in--say, writing about a person dealing with a life-threatening illness or the death of a family member--let your writing be understated. Let the story shine. If you're writing about something frivolous, let the writing shine.
There's an implied symmetry there, a balance that appeals to me.
What's your passion and how can it feed your soul today?
Here's a shock: My passion is writing, words, journalism and storytelling. The proof is documented as far back as my baby book, in which my mother wrote of my 4- or 5-year-old self, "Little Heather is following me around complaining that what she's writing 'doesn't sound right.'"
In college, I joined the school paper and sank into the comfort of listening to other writers share their favorite word. Who knew other people had favorite words? I had come home.
I became a journalist because I wanted to write every day, but I didn't realize that would often mean covering planning commission meetings, procedural turns of the screw and, in the parlance of the newsroom, "reax" to the State of the Union Address. There's no music there, but hey, it's a living.
So is freelancing. Often I write stories I love, full of real people's lives and how they address the big challenges facing them. But just as often, I write fun, interesting and educational front-of-the-book shorts or service pieces. They aren't why I got into writing, and I know several freelancers who have burned out because they only write those pieces.
Who would have guessed the shot in the arm I needed to get excited about my business again would come from my iPod? I subscribe to literally dozens of podcasts on personal finance, self-improvement, entertainment, cooking and journalism.
Last night, as I was going from friend's house to meeting to home, during the long waits between buses, I found myself captivated.
Do yourself a favor and subscribe to Poynter's Writing/Editing and Writing Tools podcasts.
In Poynter's most recent Writing/Editing podcast, Cleveland Plain Dealer Columnist Connie Schultz described how she found her stories, how she incorporates video and blogging into her work and where she gets her inspiration. It made me want to look for those stories I know I'm missing now. It filled me up with a passion that pushed out the panic about the economy that had overwhelmed me the day before. It helped me focus on what I can control: the stories I seek out, my connection with the brave and articulate sources that are the heart of what I do and the hope that my work can improve people's lives in some small way.
Then I listened to several of several of Roy Peter Clark's Writing Tools podcasts, also available in his book of the same name.
Here are some of my favorites:
* Climb up and down the ladder of abstraction
At the top of the ladder is lofty ideas like "democracy" and "compassion." At the bottom is the utterly concrete, like "pop tops" and "red-and-black sneakers covered in a fine film of city dirt."
In the middle is the dregs of bureaucratic language--"single-family mixed use development," for instance. Or "full-time equivalent."
* Choose the number of elements in a list.
This fascinated me: Use one to emphasize what you have, two to compare and contrast and three to imply a sense of wholeness and completion. Four and more is just a list. In this way, he says, the mathmatics of language make three greater than four. Dig that, people! Now you know why writers are bad at math.
* Know when to back off and when to show off
When you're writing about something where the drama is already built in--say, writing about a person dealing with a life-threatening illness or the death of a family member--let your writing be understated. Let the story shine. If you're writing about something frivolous, let the writing shine.
There's an implied symmetry there, a balance that appeals to me.
What's your passion and how can it feed your soul today?
Monday, June 2, 2008
Cultivating Persistence
I've been a writer and reporter for 15 years, if you include all my schooling. When I started, I was terribly shy. I sat in front of that big, old, clunky, beige phone for an hour sometimes working up my nerve to call a source. I wasn't friendly, or when I was it was forced and, I'm willing to bet, creepy.
But I loved the writing. Writing was my favorite part. Not that it always came easily, but it was what I got into journalism for. I wanted to write every day.
Today, I'm finally following my dream: I want to write more narrative journalism. There's a reason my Web site is called "Writing with a human face." I want to tell those stories. I want to help readers connect with other people. I want to help foster conversations.
I say all this not to promote my business, but because I'm not entirely there yet. But I'm working on it. If you're reading this, you're working on it, too: You're trying to make writing into a career. You're trying to scale the vertical learning curve that is entrepreneurship and managing business finances and cultivating clients and--oh yeah--writing really well.
The way this happens is messy. Take this great, great clip from Ira Glass of This American Life (and really, who doesn't want to be Glass when they grow up?):
This is the same advice that the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Tom Hallman gave at a narrative writing workshop I attended recently through The Society of Professional Journalists. The key nugget I took with me, aside from a few techniques was: be persistent and be brave. Admit you're insecure. We're all insecure. Do it anyway.
It's also the same advice that Erik Sherman gives for querying: if you keep doing it, you're guaranteed to succeed. But you have to keep trying.
This advice falls into the category of "serenity tips that make you feel crazy." This one won't feel good. But it's true. So my wish for you this week is that you make another start at the things that feel like you're failing. Keep going. Send that rejected query out one more time. Try again to do some good writing.
Just try. Again. For today.
But I loved the writing. Writing was my favorite part. Not that it always came easily, but it was what I got into journalism for. I wanted to write every day.
Today, I'm finally following my dream: I want to write more narrative journalism. There's a reason my Web site is called "Writing with a human face." I want to tell those stories. I want to help readers connect with other people. I want to help foster conversations.
I say all this not to promote my business, but because I'm not entirely there yet. But I'm working on it. If you're reading this, you're working on it, too: You're trying to make writing into a career. You're trying to scale the vertical learning curve that is entrepreneurship and managing business finances and cultivating clients and--oh yeah--writing really well.
The way this happens is messy. Take this great, great clip from Ira Glass of This American Life (and really, who doesn't want to be Glass when they grow up?):
This is the same advice that the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Tom Hallman gave at a narrative writing workshop I attended recently through The Society of Professional Journalists. The key nugget I took with me, aside from a few techniques was: be persistent and be brave. Admit you're insecure. We're all insecure. Do it anyway.
It's also the same advice that Erik Sherman gives for querying: if you keep doing it, you're guaranteed to succeed. But you have to keep trying.
This advice falls into the category of "serenity tips that make you feel crazy." This one won't feel good. But it's true. So my wish for you this week is that you make another start at the things that feel like you're failing. Keep going. Send that rejected query out one more time. Try again to do some good writing.
Just try. Again. For today.
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