Last Updated: May 20, 1999
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National Writers' Workshop
Writing tips that make a difference in your newsroom:
Highlights from the National Writers’ Workshops
One of the best medicines to fight the twin newsroom ailments of cynicism
and low morale is the encouragement to achieve writing excellence. One
of the easiest ways to fill that prescription is to share tips from great
writers drawn from the National Writers’ Workshop.
Here, we offer a few of these tip sheets, plain advice you can share
with your staff. Feel free to copy them as part of your training efforts,
or to inspire a good conversation with an individual writer. The best news
is that writing tools can be borrowed by a neighbor and, unlike rakes or
ladders, do not have to be returned.
To get the most out of them, however, requires hard work, for tips like
these cannot just be handed on. They must be learned, demonstrated and
exemplified. This takes time and patience on the part of the editor, along
with a desire to create a newsroom culture in which everyone can grow in
the craft.
Writing tipsters exist in your own newsroom. Look around. Who is the
best interviewer in the house? Who is the best deadline writer? Who tells
the best story? Who can take the thorniest issues and make them clear?
These writers are, no doubt, busy with their own work. But, given the opportunity,
they can become your best teaching and coaching resources. Show them these
tip sheets, and then ask them to compile and share some lists of their
own.
The National Writers’ Workshop brings together novelists, memoirists,
playwrights, songwriters, but more often gifted reporters, writers, editors
and coaches. Many speakers provide inspiration — but our favorites often
leave behind magical tip sheets, which get posted on bulletin boards or
next to computer terminals, a booster shot for the inoculated writer.
Over the last five years, more than 15,000 journalists have attended
one of the NWW’s regional sites. The program began in Wilmington, Del.,
and has spread to cities across America. The Poynter Institute provides
national direction, but most of the hard work is done on the ground by
sponsors.
Since 1993, more than 1,200 NWW workshop leaders have donated their
time, energy and experience to help young writers grow. Some speakers could
command a hefty fee, but choose, instead, to give something back to the
craft.
Clark is the writing coach at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg,
Fla.
