Writers and writing

Subscribe to RSS - Writers and writing

NASW member Charles Q. Choi presents the before-and-after versions of his first NOVA physics blog post side-by-side, with his comments on the changes that were made and the thinking behind them. "The stories you read often seem the sole work of the writer named in the byline." Choi writes. "In reality, stories often go through many incarnations as part of a collaboration between the writer of a story and the editors who represent what their readers want and need."

The biographer of Robert Moses is about to publish his fourth volume on Lyndon Johnson and he's running late, Chris Jones writes in an exquisitely detailed Esquire profile: "Caro knits together his fingers until he knows what his book is about. Once he is certain, he will write one or two paragraphs — he aims for one, but he usually writes two, a consistent Caro math — that capture his ambitions." Also, CJR's 2002 Caro profile revisited.

One of the best science writers dissects the work of another: "Great science writing is defined as much by what is omitted as what is used. Jargon doesn't appear without an attempt at explanation. There are no self-conscious asides, no obvious crutch words like "basically", and no woefully mixed metaphors. There's nothing to shake you out of the story, no moment where the writer winks at the camera." Also, Katie Pratt reviews a Zimmer talk.

Tim Carmody breaks down a Gladwell essay on two classic condiments. Among its other virtues, “The Ketchup Conundrum” took the word "umami" mainstream, Carmody writes: "I can’t stand ketchup. Any ketchup ... But I am riveted by the story of ketchup regardless, because Gladwell’s offered me a route, through history, science, and the words of men and women here and now, to understand these odd human beings around me who love the stuff."

Pamela Colloff's long but compelling Texas Monthly story about a boy's death and a mother's trial mixes science with questions of guilt and innocence, Nieman Storyboard reports: "We find out that the boy, Andrew, would have had to eat 23 teaspoons of Zatarain’s Creole Seasoning or 6 teaspoons of table salt to hit the lethal level." Plus an interview with Colloff about her specialty reporting on problematic convictions.

The famous Susan Orlean story goes under the microscope in this Nieman Storyboard post by Andrea Pitzer. Orchid thief John Laroche may be the central character, Pitzer writes, but it's Orlean's reactions to him that propel the story. "Orlean is not holding Laroche up as a figure of sympathy or someone to pity, because Laroche has done something most of us never will, at least on a grand scale: He has surrendered his life to obsession."

What made this story so good wasn't just that Andrea Curtis wrote a searing narrative about her son's premature birth, Bruce Gillespie says on Nieman Storyboard. It was how she wove it with a serious discussion of the costs and ethics of helping such babies survive. "Is it right to keep the tiniest, most at-risk babies alive outside the womb just because we can?" Curtis asks "And most critically, what are the short- and long-term consequences?"

Beth Macy's story about an Air Force veteran's death was a challenge to report because her sources were both traumatized and estranged: "I don’t want to do another story like this ... When I read it again the other day, it didn’t sound like the way I normally write. So it leaves me a little cold, but I guess the whole thing leaves me cold because every little piece of it was emotionally draining to do." Editors discuss.

Paul Lieberman beat the odds when his Los Angeles Times series about a mob-fighting police unit became a motion picture, "The Gangster Squad," to be released this fall. He tells how it happened in this article from the Winter Nieman Reports. "The desire to have the best — or most salable — story must never undermine our responsibility to challenge even our most compelling material," he writes. "A commercial film, on the other hand, thrives on embellishment."

Easily the best reading of the holiday season was Amy Harmon's “Navigating Love and Autism,” a front-page New York Times story, with accompanying video, about two young people with Asperger syndrome who are trying to build a relationship. Seth Mnookin, who knows a thing or two about covering autism, interviews Harmon on his PLOS blog. And Jim Romenesko has the story behind “the best NYT correction ever”.