Welcome back for another installment of Ask TON. (Wondering what Ask TON is? See here for background information and our introductory post. Click on “Ask TON” above to see previous installments.) Today’s question: Should anonymous (unattributed) quotes be used to develop stories which would not be possible without them — such as when individuals are unwilling [...]
Archive for December, 2011
Ask TON: Anonymous sources
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann and Siri Carpenter on December 21st, 2011
Posted in Ask TON 
Tags: Anonymity, Ask TON, Ethics, Interviewing, Peplow, Travis, Witze 
No Comments »Lost and found: How great nonfiction writers discover great ideas
Posted by Brendan Borrell on December 13th, 2011
In June 2010, Michael Finkel needed a new idea. The Bozeman-based author of True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa and writer for GQ, National Geographic, and Men’s Journal wasn’t satisfied with the stack of print-outs in the two-inch deep brownie pan on his desk. And none of the hundreds of ideas in a Word document [...]
Posted in Elements of Craft Tags: Borrell, Elements-of-Craft, Finding Ideas, Guest Contributor 4 Comments »Taking good notes: Tricks and tools
Posted by Siri Carpenter and Jeanne Erdmann on December 6th, 2011
Whether you rely on a digital recorder or a laptop or a ragtag collection of mismatched notebooks, you need to take good notes. That doesn’t just mean that your handwriting needs to be legible — though that matters too. It means that your notes capture the essence of what you have observed, from the words [...]
Posted in Elements of Craft Tags: Field Reporting, Grimm, Interviewing, Notes, Notetaking, Reporting, Tools 4 Comments »