How to Cultivate Narrative in Stories of All Lengths

We often reserve storytelling’s basic elements—characters, plot, scene, theme, and dialogue—for long-form work, where they can take root and bloom through intensive research, reporting, and editing. News writing’s speed and rhythm can simply feel incompatible with narrative’s transportive qualities. But we can, and should, propagate storytelling shoots in short-form journalism too. This might involve—in a few precious words or sentences—painting expressive characters, quickly casting immersive scenes, or injecting key action sequences.
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Where to Get Started at The Open Notebook

We’ve published more than 500 articles on the craft of science journalism, and we also offer courses and other training opportunities, Spanish translations, DEI resources, a huge database of successful pitch letters, tip sheets, and more. Here are some starting points for digging in.

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Master Classes

Sharpen your skills with our free online courses, delivered to your inbox starting as soon as you sign up.

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Learn about The Open Notebook‘s mentoring programs, including our early-career fellowship, international students Slack community, and more.

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Sign up for one of our upcoming workshops, host a private webinar or workshop for your team or event, or schedule a private consultation.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Resources

We’ve published dozens of articles and resource guides that center diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in science journalism. Browse this page to find articles on topics such as covering Indigenous communities, reporting and writing with trans-inclusion in mind, navigating bias in newsrooms, finding diverse sources, tracking source diversity, using alt-text to make stories more accessible, freelancing on a student visa, and much, much more.

Find DEI Resources
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Pitch Database

 

Find more than 250 successful story pitches to a wide range of publications—or share your pitches with us!

Getting Started in Science Journalism

Are you a newcomer to the field? This collection of articles focuses on what you need to know to get started.

On the Origin of Science Writers

 There’s no one “right” path into science journalism. Hear from dozens of science writers about how they got started.

Resources (Elsewhere) That We Like 

Find university degree programs, workshops and trainings, science writing news, membership organizations, awards, and more.

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The Open Notebook is an incredibly generous project, a gift to the science writer community. Everyone involved—the TON creators, the interviewers, the writers who reveal their methods—is helping teach the rest of us a master class in science writing.
Laura HelmuthEditor-in-chief, Scientific American, and past president of the National Association of Science Writers
Writing is a lonely art. The vast majority of the process, from coming up with ideas to structuring a piece, is carried out in solitude. When you start out, you barely have a clue about what you’re doing, let alone what seasoned professionals get up to. Getting those pros to deconstruct their own methods for all to see is a massive boon to aspiring science writers.
Ed YongScience writer at The Atlantic
I consider myself lucky that The Open Notebook launched right as I started to pursue a career in science writing. Its pitch database, Storygrams, interviews and in-depth articles on the craft of science writing proved invaluable as I tried to break into the field, and I continue to rely on these resources for help and encouragement.
Sandeep RavindranFreelance science journalist and treasurer of the National Association of Science Writers
The Open Notebook offers not only a wealth of resources, it provides community to science writers at every stage of their career. TON embodies generosity. By reading the site’s expert and timely articles, we can become better storytellers together.
Tiên NguyễnIndependent science journalist and video producer
I recommend The Open Notebook to every writer, not just science journalists. Their story dissections are amazing, their pitch database is a goldmine, and their profiles of other writers are the best way to score insider tips and/or feel less alone in the struggle.
Nicola Twilley Co-host of the Gastropod podcast, co-author of Until Proven Safe: The History & Future of Quarantine, and frequent contributor to The New Yorker
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