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.