How Do You Come Up With a Story Idea?
When should you give a dangerous story another iteration?
Fearless reporting, a behind-the-curtains look at how journalism is made — and an unabashed point of view. Welcome to Chills.
For many years, I felt I was in an absolute stranglehold with no story ideas. The oxygen that fed my writing felt thin. I’d come up with a single strong story and then mire for what felt like an eternity in nothingness until, slowly but finally, I’d find the next. I greatly envied my colleagues who were prolific.
It took a lot of time for this to shift, but, fortunately, it did. Somewhat and sometimes. And I’ll tell you how.
Even so, I occasionally look at my colleagues and wonder how they write as much as they do, but then I remind myself that I’ve also had my moments, like the time I came back from the Syrian border and wrote eight 2,000-word stories in 10 days (trauma release, anyone?).
In normal times, I keep in touch with contacts in the topic areas and geographical places in which I usually report — for me, that’s mainly migration, women’s rights/human rights and war crimes.
That’s all part of having a beat (mine I call the “trauma beat,” and while it’s not a so-called recognized one — outlets aren’t advertising for someone to cover the trauma beat, unlike, say, courts and cops, etc. — I can’t think of any other way to describe what I do).
Hopefully, even without my inquiries, my sources let me know if anything comes up. That’s about building trusting relationships. I also read a huge number of news outlets and NGO reports to get some ideas from others’ work. I look for any way my expertise could take a story in a new direction.
The basic question I ask myself when approaching a story is, Can I bring something new to this story in a way others can’t? That’s part of asking whether a story even needs another iteration. This especially applies to dangerous assignments.
I learned a long time ago that reporting from my desk vs. out in the field is a game-changer/breaker. As I always told my students at NYU’s graduate school of journalism, I want to be able to smell a story. And, without being on the ground, you can only rely on others for that smell. Which is secondhand information, and smells degrade and may hit differently for different people. There is no substitute for being there. As a freelancer, however, I fund my own trips and rarely get anything close to the money I spend back. I’ve spent more than $15,000 of my own money in my career to report the stories I felt were critical. And that was okay when I had a side job that paid me regularly and gave me health insurance, but I was laid off from that more than a month ago.
Where would I even go if I could? Last night, I had visions of Gaza. How are women holding up? What about children? What do they do each day, living amid the ongoing destruction? Could I glean some information about potential war crimes that could become important in future trials?
There is no way I’m going to Gaza, this morning told me, as appealing as it is to find the stories that need to be told. With nearly 100 journalists killed so far in the conflict, I’m not looking to be one of them.
So here I am, at my desk in Seattle, looking out upon the various greens of the budding trees and ready to dig in from afar. A Christian-Palestinian-Israeli friend sent me a few ideas, and I’m going to see what I can do from here.
Being a journalist who covers war means assessing your safety at all times and deciding what risks are worth taking. It seems easy to say that, of course, I won’t go to Israel/Gaza. But the alternative is the drier reporting you get from me and other journalists sitting at our desks looking at our safe views. Sometimes “safe” is the only option. Other times, if a story that only you can tell merits it and you have the proper security training, then I say go.
For now, I will not.
Chills is self-funded, without ads. If you want to be a part of this effort, of revealing how difficult reporting is made — of sending me to places like Ukraine to report for you — I hope you will consider subscribing for $50/year or $7/month.
Sadly, there are other locations on the "trauma beat" to report. Ukraine, Sudan, and Israel are all still under daily attack by hostile forces.
Let me be among the first to say we are glad you aren't considering going to Gaza. Even if later you reconsider, I'm very glad you are safe.