Long live the release Twitter has never issued a news release. Amazon introduced the Kindle through a series of tweets. Google announced Alphabet via a blog post from Larry Page. It's not just the tech companies: Canada — yep, the country — sent out its last traditional news release on Dec. 31, 2013. Now, it offers social media releases instead. Is the … [Read more...] about The release is dead
Archives for October 2015
Take your lead from meh to masterpiece
Master Class graduates nail the feature intro Too many writers have married the inverted pyramid and made a lot of triangular babies. Problem is, the traditional news structure doesn't work well with humans. But at our Master the Art of the Storyteller Master Class in San Francisco in July, writers started flirting around with other structures. Here are three of … [Read more...] about Take your lead from meh to masterpiece
Begin in the middle
Start your story in medias res You remember learning about in medias res (classical Latin for "into the middle things") in college. That's where you open your story the midst of the action. Here's a great example, from The New York Times Magazine: [Don't bother with background, scene setting or even introducing the subject. Just start at the most dramatic moment … [Read more...] about Begin in the middle
Why minimize modifiers?
They make journalists cry 'hype' and more "Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts." — Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird Why cut adjectives and adverbs from your copy? Because modifiers: 1. Strike journalists as hype Writing media relations pieces? Journalists hate hype and fluff … and modifiers are hype-y and fluffy. "Be fair," … [Read more...] about Why minimize modifiers?
On the same page
Get best practices down on paper "Ann is one of the few people who can actually teach something substantial about writing." — George Stenitzer, former vice president of corporate communications, Tellabs Ever wish you had a reference tool you could hand off to new team members to answer the question, "How do we write around here?" How about a resource you could … [Read more...] about On the same page