Tag: writing advice

Tony Messenger: How One Story Snowballed into a Series That Changed Missouri Law

By Suzette Martinez StandringDirector Emeritus Newsroom reporters and columnists may see themselves when NSNC Member and metro columnist Tony Messenger of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch will share how paying attention, listening, and strong storytelling led to a series of columns that won him the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. He will be a featured speaker…

A Talk with David Maraniss

David Maraniss – the two-time Pulitzer Prize Winner and award-winning biographer talked to NSNC Communications Director Bonnie Jean Feldkamp about his writing process.

Man of Many Words Asks Alex

DEAR ALEX, My editor wants me to trim my weekly column word maximum from 650 down to 500. I also run a photo I have taken which sometimes doesn’t get used, except on their website. As a freelancer I have little input on decisions so should I just accept the new number? — MAN OF…

New Book on Writing from Don Fry

Don Fry spoke to our National Society of Newspaper Columnists last  June. You may remember his striking common sense and optimism about  writing. He has just published a book entitled “Writing Your Way,  Creating Your own Writing Process that Works for You” (Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest, 2012). The book is available from local bookstores  and from Amazon…

Looking for Crazy Genius

By Suzette Martinez Standring NSNC Past President                            The best storytellers are like keen-nosed truffle dogs, looking for riches below the surface. It’s what columnists do most days under deadline, usually in 750 words or less. Other writers have a lot more space. Recently, I went to see The New York Times best-selling…

President’s Message

Where’s the Sin in Synchronicity? By Ben S. Pollock NSNC President “How can there be any sin in sincere? “Where is the good in goodbye?” — “Sincere” by Meredith Willson in The Music Man It may be yet another way of stalling the labor of writing, but I’m inspired when I chance upon quotes from…

Give a little to get a lot

By Suzette Martinez Standring NSNC Past President “Give a little to get a lot.” I never forgot this memorable advice from Mary McCarty of the Dayton Daily News, who has won awards for unique insights often revealed in the telling details about, and the quotations from, the people featured in her columns. I work at…