Finding the Longform Idea (Part Two)
Almost 10 years ago, when I was a freelancer who had not quite broken into magazines, I wrote a Medium post for students and other writers, Finding the Longform Idea. In it, I discussed elements to look for when searching for a narrative story, along with tips for finding them.
This advice, which I relied upon in my previous newspaper feature writing career, still stands. But I continue to refine my process of finding, crafting, and pitching ideas, which can vary depending on what kind of longform story you are trying to tell, especially for magazines or books.
So here is a follow up post, which offers some additional insights: Finding the Longform Idea, Part Two. (*Note: I will follow up in this newsletter in coming weeks with more tips from a few of my favorite longform writers, talking about how they find ideas.)
Also, thank you to Kim Cross at The Nieman Storyboard, for annotating my recent New York Times piece on Maui fire victim, Edralina Diezon. The annotation discusses how I encountered the story, and why I cared so much to get it into print, even after receiving rejections. The story is a “micro narrative,” under 2,000 words.
For another example of a micro narrative, earlier this year I assigned my students Kim’s own lovely 900-word New York Times story on Freedom, Wyoming, and its Nieman Storyboard annotation by Chip Scanlan, How to turn a theme and 900 words into sense-of-place poetry. After discussing it, the students went off to report and write their own micro-narratives. They came back with some gems.
Kim’s insightful annotation of my Maui story reiterates a few lessons from that initial Medium post on Finding the Longform Idea:
“Immersion = world + character + plot.” On Maui, I immersed with people, including the main subject of that story. I did not know where it would lead. I got to know Edralina, following her journey over time. I was heartbroken when I discovered what eventually happened to her.
This story also drew from narrative reconstruction techniques mentioned in that post:
“Look for events that have happened and “go back to re-examine them.” I returned to Maui to follow up, and to reconstruct what happened to Edralina. I talked to her coworkers, and I retraced her final steps.
One reason I pushed all year to tell narrative stories about Maui—like Edralina’s, or “A Merciless Sun,” for Men’s Health, about an unlikely hero, or “A Maui Love Story,” for New York Magazine—is because Maui’s victims were largely working class—Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, Asian Americans, immigrants—living on an island that was colonized by the U.S., and working in an industry that caters to tourists. I wanted readers to see and feel the Maui survivors’ stories, understand them as people, as deeply and viscerally as they did the victims of say, the Camp Fire, in Paradise, Calif. (see stories below).
Narrative, I believe, is most effective when it illuminates macro meaning through micro details. When it comes to finding the longform idea, trust your instincts.
Rethinking Character
