Keeping the reader hooked

One of the first things I learned as a journalism student was that you only have three seconds to get a reader's attention and keep it.

When I first began as a journalism student, I thought that writing an amazing lead very well would be the hardest part. However, the more I wrote, the easier it got.  But as I began to read the news more and read it not only as a reader but also as a writer, I noticed that getting a reader's attention is not the hard part. The hard part is keeping reader's attention.

In Think Like An Editor, a book by Steve and Emilie Davis that is full of strategies to become a  good editor, Steve Davis shares an experience in one of the newsrooms he worked in. The staff invited readers to the office, gave them copies of the paper and told them to mark where they stop reading.  Davis said the results were brutal. 

Everyone gets bored with a story at a certain point. It's because we're busy people with busy lives, and we want to read something that's either a really good story or really informative.

One of the keys to writing informative and telling stories is to provide lots of context (background, research, statistics, etc.) and to include good descriptions of people and places, as well as good anecdotes and details.

Strategy 16 in Think Like An Editor offers way to help editors and reporters include more context in stories, such as using background, numbers and comparisons. One of the Strategy 16 assignments specifically helped me to think more about incorportating more details and information into a story:

Chose and enterprise story (or any other story) and look for ways to add context. What opportunities exist? What else is there to this story? What's missing?

Another important way to keep a reader's attention  is to use the Show, Don't Tell method. 

Journalists probably hear this all the time. I did, especially in my feature writing class. It was always Show, Don't Tell over and over and over again. But there's a reason I heard it so much.

It's because readers want to be there. Think about it. Why do you read a book (other than textbooks)? It's most likely because something about it appeals to you, or maybe you've read something by that author you liked before.  I think journalists should strive to have that same affect on readers. 

Of course, I can say all this as much as I want, but that doesn't make it easy. Including background, anecdotes, examples, details, etc. into a story is not always doable. And  for all we know, we could do ALL of that, and readers still would read passed the third or fourth graph.

I guess it's a toss up....

Enterprise stories: Finding good story ideas

There's a saying I've heard a few times before. It goes something like this: There are reporters who write stories and reporters who have story ideas. 

I've written for a variety of different magazines, all with different styles. They all asked me, at one point in my time with them, if I had any new story ideas. Aside from the importance of finding new stories for your beat, journalists shouldn't get into the everyday routine of taking only assigned stories. Some of the best stories are those that you looked for and are most passionate about. In fact, all of the stories I came up with myself are some of my best and most in-depth pieces.

According to "Think Like An Editor" by Steve Davis and Emilie Davis, there are 10 steps to better enterprise stories. Here's what they recommend:

1. Make a list.
2. Think about change.
3. Think about the unusual.
4. Ask yourself what interests you.
5. Think about the next steps.
6. Think about people.
7. Apply the five W's
8. Ask how.
9. Ask others.
10. Read.

 In addition to the above suggestions from Strategy 3 in the book, I found a few other sites that might be useful in coming up with new story ideas:

The Student Newspaper Survival Guide:
This blog has tips for student journalists working at a college paper. One blog includes finding story ideas. Although the blog is geared for students, the suggestions and tips would be beneficial for any journalist.

Off The Wall: Bruce Byfield's Blog:
This blog post has great suggestions for practical ways to find story ideas. The blog offers very useful suggestions and answers a question writers often have, how do I come up with story ideas?

Hold The Front Page:
This page has useful tips that might spurn other ideas or might get writers thinking in different ways. The site offers a list of different questions or ideas, with links to more in-depth explanations.

All this said, I don't think any of the suggestions matter as much as listening, observing and thinking matter.  Granted, all of the above tips are methods to get people thinking, but even then I sometimes think it's too complicated. 

It's simple. Write what you think. Write what you feel. Write what you wonder. Write what you like. Write what you don't like. The list could go on and on, but essentially, everyone has a story. Everyone has something special to tell.  I think too often journalist (myself included) get too caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, and we forget why we became journalists.

I don't mean to detract attention or importance from the above tips, however. When you're in a crunch, some of these tips can be great resources to get you thinking in ways you might not have previously. 

I looked at the tips. I read them. I read them because I always want more story ideas - that makes me a better journalist. I just don't think we should over analyze it.

Tip four from Think Like An Editor hit the nail on the head: Ask yourself what interests you.

So with all that in mind, I hope journalists can remember the basics.

Happy writing!

The Storytellers' Summit: Tips from a few of the best

This past weekend the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications held the Storytellers' Summit, featuring big-name journalists from around the country. The Summit, which was free for journalism students, offered journalists and students the chance to learn some of the secrets to good storytelling.

Here are some tips from a few of the speakers:

Jeff Klinkenberg:

Klinkenberg is a writer for the St. Petersburg Times and focuses his writing on Florida culture. Klinkenberg spoke at a session about writing about place.

A story can be broken down into two parts, broccoli and ice-cream cones, he told the audience on Saturday. Broccoli is often the nut graph, while ice-cream cones are the special gems in a story, such a place or setting.

Klinkenberg's biggest advice was the importance of in-person interviews and getting to know the person or place the story is about.

"You need to take feild trips with whoever you write about," he said. "Don't do storytelling by phone. Get there early and stay late. Let things soak in."

He also advised the audience to become experts about the community they write about and to always be students, constantly learning something new.

Rick Bragg:

Rick Bragg was one of the highlights of the conference. For good reason: Bragg has won the Pulitzer Prize and is a master storyteller.

"If you can't paint a picture, then you fail," Bragg told the audience. "You have to be more into the reporting than the writing."

Bragg said he thinks writing has become too complicated. The secret to good storytelling, he said, was to write clear and thoughtfully and to think about what you're writing.

"If you can't make them see it," he said of writing, "then you won't make it. Writing is like coloring--make it as vivid and colorful as is true."

Lane DeGregory:

Lane DeGregory, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her "The girl in the window" story, spoke Sunday about 20 different ways to find story ideas.  The tips were taken from DeGregory's own experience as a reporter at the St. Petersburg Times and included links to stories she has written. Here are five of her tips:

1. Talk to strangers
Be a noisy neighbor, DeGregory suggested, everybody has a story.

2. Celebrate losers
Dreams don't always come true, ask people about their failures.

3. Write stories no one else wants.
Make people care, write for other sections, find a way it hasn't been done before, DeGregory told the audience.

4. Listen to the quiet
The sound of silence--what doesn't happen? What's not answered? she asked.

5. Don't be afraid of yourself
Share your life, open up, tell stories, take risks, she said.

Although many speakers at the conference were journalists, book editors and literary agents also turned up for the Summit, giving aspiring authors a chance to learn more about the publishing business. The conference featured tons of talented writers, and sadly, they all couldn't be captured in a few tips and paragraphs.

However, there was at least one common theme in all of the sessions and speeches. Go there and get to know the subjects. Good storytelling, the speakers advised, can't be done over the phone. To be a good journalists, writers must capture the place and the person and try to recreate it for the reader.

The conference served as a good reminder about what a journalist's job is. They all made it sound SO simple.  But at the end of the conference, I'm was left with one question:  Can it really be THAT simple. It must be, though, because each reporter was no different than the average reporter (well, other than the Pulitzer and years upon years of awesome experience).

The basic idea is to get to know the subject as well as possible. The problem arises when you calculate deadlines and other stories. So, taking that into consideration, it is not a matter of trying to write a wonderfully telling story every time, but rather to balence your stories and every now and then, write a wonderfully telling story.

Maybe that's the secret to being a good storyteller.