|
|
Getting Started |
Before you an start work on a story, you must figure out what you would like to write about. So what makes a good story? Just about anything, providing it's about a topic that involves people and matters to people! When you are looking for ideas, listen to what's going on around you. What are people talking about? What gets them excited or angry? Read everything you can - including the newspaper, magazines, posters on bulletin boards, and the Web. Watch television and listen to the radio. Most importantly, just watch everything in your everyday life.
Those questions will help you recognize a new development
or trend in your peer group or in your
A topic is a very general and broad category. But a story idea is something that's specific and narrowly focused. Here's an example: Television and young people is a general heading that includes many different things. But a story idea would be: do today's television shows aimed at young people accurately reflect the lives of the intended audience? In order to focus your story, try to boil it down to one statement or one question. If you can do that, you probably have a clear sense of what your story will be.
News: A news story is immediate and often delivers time-sensitive information that may change moments later. It must compete with many other stories for a reader's or listener's attention, so the punch line must be in the very first sentence. News stories include facts, quotes and details about what is happening. Feature: If you often ask the questions "how" and why", then you would probably enjoy writing feature stories. A feature takes an in-depth look at what's going on behind the news. It gets into the lives of people. It tries to explain why and how a trend developed. Unlike news, a feature does not have to be tied to a current event or a breaking story. But it can grow out of something that's reported in the news. Opinion: Think of an opinion piece as a persuasive essay the writer has an opinion or a point of view on an issue and he or she wants to convince the reader to agree. In order to do that well, you must research your topic and know the facts. Pretend you are a lawyer - you want to convince the jury to believe that your client is right so you present as much evidence as you can that proves the point. Do the same when you write a column or editorial. Interview: This form allows the subject of the story to tell the story in his or her own words. The reporter asks a series of questions and records the answers. The interview can be presented in print (like newspapers or magazines do) or in recorded form (the way television and radio stations do). In an online publication like SNN, reporters have the option of including quotes in print and on tape. The reporter prefaces the interview with a short introduction that tells the audience who is being interviewed and why. Review: In some ways, a review is much like a column or editorial. You are expressing your point of view on a subject which, in this case, is a movie, a book, a c-d or a performance. As in a column, you should try to back up your opinion with examples from the actual work.
Research takes many forms. It can start with searches of the World Wide Web, newspapers and other media, libraries, and documents. The research can also include doing personal interviews, attending news conferences, and covering events like meetings or conferences. For advice on doing research, check out the section on Research and Reporting in the Reporter's Toolbox.
Start by telling your story out loud. Tell it to your mother, your friend, a tape recorder, your cat. Explain what happened, who was involved, what they said, how it looked. Do this as if you were talking about something that happened on the way home from the mall this afternoon. Going through this process usually helps you figure out what story you're going to tell in writing. Then, start typing or writing your story. Once you've formed a rough outline of your story, stop and take a look. Have you included all the points you wanted to make? Is there a better way to explain this point? Can you add more specific details that will help your reader see and hear what's going on?
7. Edit and fine-tune your piece
Give your story to a friend, teacher or mentor to read. Another person will often see mistakes or awkward sentences that you, the writer, have missed.
Once you're happy with your story, send it to SNN for publication! You can send your story by mail, fax or e-mail. Check out the section on How SNN Works for details. |
© www.stemnet.nf.ca/snn |
Back to Toolbox |