Telling True Stories : A Nonfiction Writers' Guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University

by Kramer, Mark; Call, Wendy

• ISBN13: 9780452287556
• ISBN10: 0452287553
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-01-30
• Publisher: Plume

Summary

Inspiring stories and practical advice from America’s most respected journalistsThe country’s most prominent journalists and nonfiction authors gather each year at Harvard’s Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism. Telling True Storiespresents their best advice—covering everything from finding a good topic, to structuring narrative stories, to writing and selling your first book. More than fifty well-known writers offer their most powerful tips, including: • Tom Wolfeon the emotional core of the story • Gay Taleseon writing about private lives • Malcolm Gladwellon the limits of profiles • Nora Ephronon narrative writing and screenwriters • Alma Guillermoprietoon telling the story and telling the truth • Dozens of Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists from the Atlantic Monthly, New Yorker, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Postand more . . .The essays contain important counsel for new and career journalists, as well as for freelance writers, radio producers, and memoirists. Packed with refreshingly candid and insightful recommendations, Telling True Storieswill show anyone fascinated by the art of writing nonfiction how to bring people, scenes, and ideas to life on the page.

Author Biography

Mark Kramer is director and writer-in-residence of the Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism at Harvard University.
Wendy Call is a freelance writer and editor based in Seattle. She has been a Fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs in southern Mexico and a Scholar in Nonfiction at the Bread Loaf Writers-' Conference.

Table of Contents

Stories matter	p. 3
Delving into private lives	p. 6
The narrative idea	p. 10
Difficult journalism that's slap-up fun	p. 14
Finding good topics : a writer's questions	p. 20
Finding good topics : an editor's questions	p. 22
Reporting for narrative : ten overlapping rules	p. 24
To tape or not to tape?	p. 28
Interviewing : accelerated intimacy	p. 30
The psychological interview	p. 34
Participatory reporting : sending myself to prison	p. 35
Being there	p. 39
Not always being there	p. 45
Reporting across cultures	p. 46
Reporting on your own	p. 48
Field notes to full draft	p. 51
Doing enough reporting?	p. 54
From story idea to published story	p. 55
(Narrative) J school for people who never went	p. 59
Profiles	p. 66
The ladder of abstraction	p. 70
Every profile is an epic story	p. 71
The limits of profiles	p. 73
Travel writing : inner and outer journeys	p. 74
The personal essay and the first-person character	p. 78
First personal singular : sometimes, it is about you	p. 81
Columns : intimate public conversations	p. 83
Writing about history	p. 86
Adventures in history Melissa	p. 88
Narrative investigative writing	p. 89
Public radio : community storytelling	p. 92
What narrative writers can learn from screenwriters	p. 98
To begin the beginning	p. 100
Narrative distance	p. 103
Hearing our subjects' voices : quotes and dialogue	p. 104
Hearing our subjects' voices : keeping it real and true	p. 107
A story structure	p. 109
Summary versus dramatic narrative	p. 111
Weaving story and idea	p. 112
Endings	p. 116
Character	p. 126
Details matter	p. 128
Developing character	p. 129
Reconstructing scenes	p. 132
A reconstructed scene	p. 135
Setting the scene	p. 136
Handling time	p. 139
Sequencing : text as line	p. 140
Writing complicated stories	p. 145
How I get to the point	p. 148
The emotional core of the story	p. 149
Telling the story, telling the truth	p. 154
On voice	p. 158
The line between fact and fiction	p. 164
Toward an ethical code for narrative journalists	p. 170
Playing fair with subjects	p. 172
Securing consent	p. 176
Truth and consequences	p. 177
Dealing with danger : protecting your subject and your story	p. 178
A dilemma of immersion journalism	p. 182
Ethics in personal writing	p. 184
Taking liberties : the ethics of the truth	p. 187
The ethics of attribution	p. 189
What about endnotes?	p. 192
On style	p. 198
A writer and editor talk shop	p. 202
Revising - over and over again	p. 205
Transforming one hundred notebooks into thirty-five thousand words	p. 208
How to come lip short	p. 212
Narrative in four boxes	p. 216
Serial narratives	p. 218
Care and feeding of editors and writers	p. 221
Beginning in narrative	p. 228
A brief history of narrative in newspaper	p. 230
Nurturing narrative in the newsroom	p. 233
A storyteller's Lexicon	p. 235
Narrative as a daily habit	p. 239
Building a narrative team	p. 243
Two visions, one series : a writer and an editor talk about what they do	p. 246
Team storytelling	p. 251
Photographer as narrative storyteller	p. 254
Subversive storytellers : starting a narrative group	p. 256
Making it as a freelancer	p. 264
Not stopping : time management for writers	p. 268
Lessons from the jury box	p. 271
Working with an agent Melissa	p. 272
What makes a good book?	p. 274
From book idea to book contract	p. 276
Your book and the marketplace	p. 278
Crossing over : from advocacy to narrative	p. 281
A passion for writing	p. 284
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