When syncopation rocks a nation: “Hamilton” enthralls fifth-graders (and parents) with a rockin’ story of history

One honey-glazed autumn afternoon, I watched a tangle of fifth-graders playing Capture the Flag in a park in Boise, Idaho. Their favorite soundtrack blared … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Large writing lessons from a small space

A morning’s hasty scroll through Facebook earlier this week showed the above photo from Traci Angel, an author, teacher and freelancer … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

“…readers want to feel secure in the hands of the author.”

This simple statement stands as a truism for all storytellers, regardless of platform or genre. Every writer, filmmaker, photographer, illustrator, podcaster, editor and teacher of … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Eulogy for Paradise: A breaking news story framed as the profile and history of a town

The Facebook post was conversational and almost light-hearted: And on Day Two of Camp Fire coverage, I spilled water all over my notebook and … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

“And a lean, silent figure slowly fades into the gathering darkness, aware at last that in this world, with great power there must also come – great responsibility!”

 That’s how Stan Lee introduced Spider-Man to Marvel Comics readers in 1962. The narrator pronounces these words, which so many of … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Serendipity brought two men together on the football field, and then in the rest of life

A story that garners wide acclaim, gets multiple plays across ESPN and draws tweets from Reese Witherspoon is not your everyday deadline … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

A family’s loss, written by a sister, channeling her mother’s voice

Sometimes I push writing students to look for new ways to tell stories. Should you start with the “small” things? Is there a story … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

“Developing a writer’s voice is almost a process of unlearning, one analogous to children’s painting.”

A clear grasp of “voice” in writing has always eluded me. Not that I don’t have one. Everyone does. But I’ve never been able … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Thoughts on voice: What it is (and isn’t). And how to find yours

Growing up in a family of Chinese immigrant mathematicians and scientists, then ditching my PhD in biology for a career in journalism makes me … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Power of Storytelling: Daring to bear witness to society’s villains

How do you tell the story of an extremist without allowing your own judgment to cloud your reporting? How do you interview people who … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

The Power (and challenge) of Storytelling: “Seeing more of the truth”

  Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of Polish journalist and media entrepreneur Zuzanna Ziomecka’s keynote at the 8th edition of The … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Narrative in a weekend conference, and the thank-you note that followed

Power of Storytelling 2018, Bucharest, Romania Below is a post … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Telling the video story: Scatter visual breadcrumbs, keep the camera steady and shoot from the heart

Early in his career, Eric Seals adopted a straightforward mission statement from a former colleague: “If you learn to shoot with your heart you … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

“How could you have a new country without excellent dreamers?”

The last time I posted One Great Sentence, it was with thoughts about how context informs and layers the meaning of a single line. Only … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Finding a narrative in “our most urgent national conversation:” the one about guns

  There are known news conventions: something happens and someone writes about it and somebody publishes it and then maybe people talk about it. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Mic drop? A veteran print reporter puts down her notebook and puts on headphones

  The email response to my story pitch came from the senior producer.   It read, more or less: We want this.  But do you … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Don’t be a turkey: Earn your flight wings

Editor’s note: At Storyboard, we’re always looking for moments of inspiration, epiphany and, yes, struggle that we can all relate to or learn from. We … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

The Pitch: Hate to wait? A Marie Claire editor responds to pitches within 48 hours

Editor Kayla Webley Adler is a freelancer’s dream. She’s willing to gamble on unknown writers if they bring her a great idea. She’s written … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Divining the true source of stories

  The tap water in Flint, Michigan, went bad more than four years ago, when the budget-strapped city stopped drawing its water from Lake … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

“The girl, Fernanda Jacqueline Davila, was 2 years old: brief life, long journey.” 

  Fernanda Jacqueline Davila The New York Times There is much … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

A conversation with Tommy Tomlinson: Getting naked in print

  The first time I met Tommy Tomlinson, he and his wife, Alix Felsing, took me to their favorite spot for breakfast in Charlotte, … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

The craft (and art) of the interview, from thoughtful homework to whatever happens

Notes on interviewing process Jacqui Banaszynski The panel was promoted … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

“From the dancing came the dancing.”

  Sentences can seem simple. Even the most tangled and complex are just a few words arranged between punctuation and white space. Ideally they … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Legendary writer John McPhee to a student: “I don’t create the writer. At all.”

John McPhee John McPhee, a master of nonfiction storytelling, became a teacher by … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

How a Rubik’s cube helped a father understand the puzzle of his son

  New York Times sportswriter John Branch is best known in the journalism world for  “Snow Fall: The Avalanche … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Q&A: A conversation with Alexandra Petri on conjugating gender and politics

    I‘ve always thought writing should be learned by osmosis. Like if you read enough good books you shouldn’t need to know the … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

“Just be the kite.”

An award-winning author writes a break-out novel, and then another, and then… It has been 10 years since Minnesota novelist Leif Enger‘s … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

A conversation with Nathaniel Rich on “Losing Earth,” human inertia and storytelling as “a moral act”

  Before anyone could even unfold the tree pulp, The New York Times Magazine wanted readers to know the magnitude of the story it … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

“To the press alone, checkered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.”

Standing in the lobby of the gloriously ornate Chicago Tribune Tower, gazing  at this James Madison quote, I am filled with pride. And fear. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

After the fires burn down: A surprising story of a haunted hero and the ashes of regret

  Who knew there was a beat called “fire coverage,” or it was a job they would learn to love? Certainly not … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

An alligator attack sparks a Facebook attack – and an invitation to reconsider meanness

  I sat on a bench with Wade Livingston the other day. We talked about an alligator attack, a woman who drowned, and the people who saw … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

“No matter how long we study them, the images are unfathomable. No matter how quickly we look away, they are unforgettable.”

There are endless memories and memorials marking yesterday, the 17th anniversary of 9/11. I find it impossible to post about something else, but impossible to … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Christopher Solomon on how he captured the controversial wolf man of Washington

Before Christopher Solomon took on the case of the wolf researcher who ignited a political firestorm, the situation had sparked plenty of regional coverage. | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

“Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

This passage – not quite a Haiku, but with that feeling – comes as part of Mary Oliver’s poem “Sometimes.” It is introduced in … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Rebecca Solnit’s long and winding road to following the tangled tale of politics

The opening paragraph of Rebecca Solnit’s new LitHub essay, “Why the President Must Be Impeached,” is a single sentence, 88 words long. It … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

“Do not despair of our present difficulties. We believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.”

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@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

The Pitch (Take Two): Erika Hayasaki on the reality of landing the big freelance story

Erika Hayasaki was an award-winning reporter for the Los Angeles Times when she left the relative security of the newsroom for the feast-and-famine … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Parachute reporting in a foreign land: Getting it fast and getting it right

On May 3, 2018, volcanic fissures opened in a residential neighborhood on the island of Hawai‘i, forcing more than 2,000 people to evacuate their … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

“Words. Words upon the wind. What will endure, perhaps is what I have written. If so, it is enough.”

Geraldine Brooks laid that line down in “Secret Chord,” her deeply researched and richly reimagined novel about the life of biblical King David, … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

The Pitch: Erika Hayasaki on how to leave the newsroom and kill it as a freelancer

EDITOR’S NOTE: Erika Hayasaki’s conversation with Storyboard contributor Katia Savchuk explores what it took to earn a regular byline in magazines. She also shared the … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Q&A: How a letter, honesty and patience won the trust of a shamed school cop

This week marks a return to school for students around the country, including at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, where six months … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

“During six Sundays, he never varied his routine, faithful as a migratory mallard, his route taking him through a neighborhood of apartments that all seemed to be dying of boredom.”

Sometimes a sentence stops me for reasons I can’t entirely explain, or even defend. Often it includes a moment of description or metaphor that teases … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Immigration reporting from the inside-out: through the mouths and eyes of babes

America’s debate over immigration has played out to the recorded cries of children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, to … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Letter from Sing Sing: Writing from inside

Editor’s note: Reporter and teacher Shaheen Pasha (2018 Nieman Fellow) met John J. Lennon when she interviewed him for a larger package she did on writing … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

“I think of myself as a humble student trying to get better and just lucky to still be getting chances to do it.”

Why it’s so great: This isn’t a particularly elegant sentence. It may even come across as disingenuous – a popular, successful Hollywood actor who, at … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

“What is beyond grief?”

Why is this great?  Writers wade into the world to witness it in all its dimensions, then remake it in the hieroglyphics we know as … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Q&A: Greg Bishop on a quarterback, a suicide and a search for answers

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@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago

Learning to read: The daily news as information and inspiration

Editor’s note: Our third Shop Class – part of our Story Craft posts – grew out of breaking news stories and blogs that offer rich lessons … | Continue reading


@niemanstoryboard.org | 6 years ago