I’ve been a freelance writer for nearly two decades, specializing in science and medicine. Most of my living comes from editors who like my work and farm out stories to me. That’s healthy for my cash flow, but it comes with a drawback: I rarely get to choose what I write. I doubt I’m alone [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Finding Ideas’
Ask TON: Finding international stories
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann and Siri Carpenter on March 7th, 2012
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: I’d like to do more international travel as part of my work. I don’t really know how to begin finding stories in [...]
Posted in Ask TON 
Tags: Ask TON, Borrell, Field Reporting, Finding Ideas, Fox, Graber, International, Pitches, Rosner, Sohn, Stone 
1 Comment »Ask TON: Saving string
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann and Siri Carpenter on January 26th, 2012
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: I’m a freelancer, and I want to move from doing straight news stories to features, but I don’t really know how to start [...]
Posted in Ask TON Tags: Ask TON, Features, Finding Ideas, Frederick, Greene, Maher, Pitching, Story Development 2 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 »