* * Welcome back for another installment of Ask TON. (Click here to see previous installments.) Today’s question: How many stories are you working on at one time, and how do you manage your assignments so that you’re not over or under worked?
Posts Tagged ‘Erdmann’
Maryn McKenna reports the dark side of agriculture
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann on February 12th, 2013
Science journalist Maryn McKenna has covered the infectious diseases beat for more than a decade. During that time, she’s written countless articles and two award-winning books on the subject. Through her reporting, she developed an interest in how large-scale farming operations spread antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Last year, McKenna produced a package of stories on women who had [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews 
Tags: ABC News, Atlantic, Erdmann, McKenna, Pitches, Public Health, Superbug, Wired, Writer Interview 
2 Comments »Cramming for the Slam
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann on October 24th, 2012
Few tasks bring more stress and anxiety to freelancers than pitching a story, except coming face-to-face with an editor at a meeting and pitching a story on the spot — in front of an audience. With ScienceWriters2012 and the Pitch Slam in just a few days, we decided to help freelancers prepare by offering up [...]
Posted in Elements of Craft Tags: Ask TON, Elements-of-Craft, Erdmann, Ferber, Maher, McKenna, Pitches, Pitching, ScienceWriters 2 Comments »Yudhijit Bhattacharjee weaves a tale of scientific rivalry and Nobel celebration
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann on May 1st, 2012
The three cosmologists who shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics for the 1998 discovery of the accelerating universe were only a few of the dozens of scientists, working on two competing teams, who contributed to the discovery. In a show of team-spirited solidarity, those fortunate enough to be recognized by the Nobel committee invited [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Bhattacharjee, Erdmann, Narrative, Physics, Science, Writer Interview No Comments »Erik Vance scrutinizes a battle over dolphin rights
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann on November 10th, 2011
Reporting from the trenches in the war over dolphin rights, freelance science writer Erik Vance relates the story of Lori Marino and Diana Reiss, dolphin researchers who have spent most of their careers as close colleagues and friends, but whose agendas diverged after Marino moved away from research on captive dolphins and immersed herself in a [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Discover, Drafts, Environment, Erdmann, Narrative, Vance, Writer Interview 2 Comments »John McPhee on characters, structure, titles, and facing the ‘low dread’ of writing
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann and Siri Carpenter on November 8th, 2011
Is there a science writer alive who has not been schooled by John McPhee? Both of us began our writing careers with a collection of McPhee’s books and articles on our shelves, and over the years, we’ve both returned to his works many times, for pleasure and for sustenance. Writing at the excellent blog Last Word [...]
Posted in Other Resources Tags: Carpenter, Environment, Erdmann, Longform, McPhee, Structure, Writer Interview 5 Comments »Maryn McKenna describes life as “Scary-Disease Girl”
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann on August 30th, 2011
For nearly all her career, journalist and author Maryn McKenna has written about public health, from Midwest droughts to bird flu to Gulf War Syndrome. While covering the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, McKenna got the nickname “Scary-Disease Girl,” a moniker that befits the infectious disease beat she has [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Books, Erdmann, Health, Infectious Disease, McKenna, Notes, Pitches, SciAm, Soundslides, Superbug, Tools, Writer Interview 3 Comments »Meredith Wadman probes the aftermath of a shooting
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann on August 15th, 2011
On Friday, February 12, 2010, biologist Amy Bishop stood up in a conference room at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and shot six of her colleagues; three died. Nature correspondent Meredith Wadman visited the campus to recount the horror of those moments and efforts to rebuild a shattered department. [Life After Death appeared in [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Drafts, Erdmann, Field Reporting, Narrative, Nature, Wadman, Writer Interview No Comments »David Dobbs deconstructs “My Mother’s Lover”
Posted by Siri Carpenter (text) and Jeanne Erdmann (Soundslides) on July 8th, 2011
When journalist David Dobbs’ mother was dying, she shocked her children by asking that her ashes be spread in the waters off the coast of Hawaii, so that she could be with her former lover, “Angus,” who had been shot down over the Pacific in the last days of World War II. This unexpected request, [...]
Podcast: Play in new window
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Atavist, Carpenter, Dobbs, Drafts, Erdmann, Longform, Narrative, Notes, Soundslides, Structure, Tools, Writer Interview 4 Comments »Robin Marantz Henig explores the biology of anxiety
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann on March 17th, 2011
New York Times Magazine contributing writer Robin Marantz Henig traveled to Harvard and the University of Maryland for a story on the biology of anxiety. Alongside top developmental psychologists, she watched research videos on infant temperament dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, then used the videos to set scenes that would bring to life [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Drafts, Erdmann, Henig, Notes, NYT Mag, Pitches, Psychology, Writer Interview 17 Comments »Brendan Borrell jets to Bolivia for a hot story on chili peppers
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann on November 24th, 2010
For his first major feature, freelancer Brendan Borrell crisscrossed Bolivia for 2 ½ weeks in an old truck with notebook, recorder, and camera, waiting out roadblocks, going a long time between meals, and of course munching hot chili peppers. [What’s So Hot About Chili Peppers? appeared in Smithsonian in April 2009.] Here, Borrell tells the [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Borrell, Drafts, Erdmann, Field Reporting, Narrative, Pitches, Profile, Smithsonian, Writer Interview No Comments »Tina Saey couldn’t sleep, and she wanted to know why
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann on November 1st, 2010
For a special issue of Science News, staff writer Tina Saey explored research on why we sleep—and what happens when we can’t. Here, Saey, who wrote the package along with staff writers Laura Sanders and Susan Milius, relates how she wrestled dozens of interviews and hundreds of scientific papers on wide-ranging questions into a cohesive [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Drafts, Erdmann, Health, Notes, Saey, Science News, Writer Interview 1 Comment »