Organizing your stories

1) Jot down a brief outline before you start to write the story. It shouldn’t take you longer than a few minutes. This becomes your writing map.

2) Tell yourself what your story is about in a few words. Wrapping it up this way helps you develop and stick to a theme.

3) Write – or at least think about – your story in sections, chapters, blocks, sub- themes. Again, it helps to keep you on track and forces you to toss out the material you don’t need. Yes … as hard as that is … we all have to do it.

4) Bring interview subjects into your story to have their say … then say goodbye to them. (A reminder: This isn’t a “rule,” it’s a suggestion, especially in stories with a lot of interviewees.)

5) Don’t allow people to say the same thing as someone else in your story – unless there is a reason to add weight to a statement or fact. Such repetition is often needless and done for one reason – someone was kind enough to give you an hour of his or her time, so maybe you should give that person a few paragraphs in your story. Poor reason!

6) Try writing without your notes. The story, one writing coach says, is in your head. Only refer to your notes when you need to.

7) Use transitions to move your story from one person to the next, one location to the next, one theme to the next, one time element to the next. Such indications of movement help readers follow the story.

8) Justify everything you use. Ask yourself questions: Is this advancing the story? Why is this important? What happens to the story if I leave it out? As William Zinsser says (On Writing Well): Are you hanging on to something useless just because you think it’s beautiful?

9) Ask your interview subjects “story-ending questions” as a way to wrap up your story. Where do you go from here? What have you learned from your experience? What message do you want to pass on to readers?

10) Know how you want to end your story before you start. It makes it easier to write when you know where you want to end. So when you are thinking of your opening, think, too, of your ending.