In Follow the Story, bestselling author and journalist James B. Stewart teaches you the techniques of compelling narrative writing.
It is the indispensable guide to writing successful nonfiction books, articles, feature stories, or memoirs. Stewart provides concrete directions for conceiving, reporting, structuring, and writing nonfiction -- techniques that he has used in his own successful books and stories. By using examples from his own work, Stewart illustrates systematically a way of thinking about and executing stories, a method that has helped numerous reporters and Columbia students become better writers.
Follow the Story examines in detail:
How an idea is conceived
How to "sell" ideas to editors and publishers
How to report the nonfiction story
Six models that can be used for any nonfiction story
How to structure the narrative story
How to write introductions, endings, dialogue, and description
How to introduce and develop characters
How to use literary devices
Pitfalls to avoid
Learn from this book a clear way of looking at the world with the alert curiosity that is the first indispensable step toward good writing.
Forget everything you thought you knew about journalism. James B. Stewart shuns pyramid style and all its accoutrements for a more creative type of nonfiction, nonfiction that tells a compelling story. Stewart's ideas about nonfiction stem directly from his experience as a writer and editor of The Wall Street Journal's lengthy page-1 feature stories, which explore subjects, as Stewart says, "in depth, with style, and often ... with wit." "Good writing," Stewart says in Follow the Story, "is rooted not in knowledge, but in curiosity." Curiosity too, says Stewart, "is what make readers read the stories that result." Using examples from his own writing (for the Journal, The New Yorker, and SmartMoney, and also from his books Blood Sport and Den of Thieves), the Pulitzer Prize-winning Stewart shows how to turn your curiosity into ideas, story proposals, and then the stories themselves. Each part of the writing process-- cultivating sources, gathering information, writing the lead and the transition, structuring your piece, and then concluding it--is discussed with authority and demonstrated masterfully. Stewart also includes chapters on how to use (but not overuse) description, dialogue, anecdotes, humor, and pathos to strengthen your work. --Jane Steinberg
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
A Very Special Journalist:
Mr. Stewart is a wonderful writer and a great teacher. I was looking for a book to send my friend who is a journalism professor at the University of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. I have had a hard time finding journalism text books for my friend. I picked up Mr. Stewart's book and he explains that journalism is not and cannot be taught from text books. To be a good journalist, you simply have to learn to write well. His journalism classes at Columbia are writing classes. He tells his students to practice their... more info
Recommended Reading for Nonfiction Narrative Writers:
FOLLOW THE STORY is a joy to read. Any experienced nonfiction writer of features or narrative books will appreciate Stewart's personal stories because we are reassured that our ups-and-downs have been shared by a Pulitzer Prize recipient and Wall Street Journal editor. I re-read FOLLOW THE STORY while I was writing NIGHTMARE IN WICHITA: The Hunt for the BTK Strangler. Stewart's book helped keep me going in the right direction. In addition to James B. Stewart's FOLLOW THE STORY, I recommend Jon... more info
Read this one more than once!:
This book offers engaging insight into the mind of a true journalistic instructor. It contains helpful chapters on properly formatting dialogue and laying out plot and developing structure. I read this book twice and plan to read it again and also introduce this book to my writing club.
"Follow the story" -- but why bother?:
When a moderately talented writer convinces himself he's a virtuoso, it's bad enough. But what happens when he takes it on himself to bestow the "secrets of his craft" on aspirants? "Follow the Story," it seems. Its author, James B. Stewart, is hardly a nobody in American journalism. The book jacket reels off all his impressive credentials: a winner of the Pulitzer prize, a former feature editor at the Wall Street Journal, a best-selling author of nonfiction, and a journalism writing coach at Columbia... more info
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