Building Story Ideas

John CouperJanuary, 2012

1. We have many ways to get a strong story:

a) intuitionb) followup or “borrow” another storyc) wait for a strong story to come your wayd) discussion with colleagues or reader exemplar

2. We can also “build” one in a more methodical waythis takes longer time at first,but will quickly become natural and soon save a lot of time as you write better stories

My example: Safeway and gravity

3. Of course, follow the desires of the editor, publication, and kind of story as much as possible.

4. Never be clever or creative only because you can or because it’s fun

Creativity

• Why be creative?– To be more memorable and persuasive– To stand out from competing stories– To make the reader want to read you again– To enjoy the writing process

• What is creativity?– “connecting two familiar things in an unfamilar

way”

Engage the Audience

• Decide what readers… – know on the topic– Want to know about it

• Get concrete:– Imagine how it would look– This improves language and angle

Five Steps to Better Stories

1. Decide on a) the topic and main aspects of the story so far, and b) the audience, including its main interests

2. Identify secondary connections froma) sourcesb) angles: the aspect to focus onc) observation, experience, “what if..?”d) what is missing

Five Steps b)

3. Decide an impact you want on the audience:surprise, knowledge,laughter,understanding, action, etc.

This will help you decide on the right tone (direct and serious, playful, demanding, etc.)

Five Steps c)

4. Decide on the central connectionUse this for the

lead, open and close: attractive/informative/bothstructure

Review sample story, connection, development

Five Steps d)

5. Decide on the final “take-home” idea:topic, angle/focus, tone. * create a thread of information and ideas

to take the reader to the end* be ready to sometimes break the thread* edit out whatever does not strengthen this idea and thread.