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Writing Getting organized Now that you have gathered the material for your story, take a minute to organize it. A minute spent in planning the story will prevent countless problems later on. 1. Look through your notes and background material. Mark the best of it, the key points and strongest quotes. 2. Decide on a focus. What is the core idea for the story? You should be able to express this theme in a sentence or two. 3. What are the main points that will support this theme? Place these main points in a logical sequence. A jot outline is helpful for this. It will help you decide how to tell the story. How will the story begin? What will the middle sections look like? How will it end? 4. It is very tempting to return from an interview and immediately begin writing a lead. But your story will suffer if you do.You will omit material you want to include. Your story will be repetitious. And you run the risk of front-loading the story: good stuff at the start, followed by increasingly weaker material. Take a moment to plan the story from beginning to end. 5. As Jack Hart, writing coach at the (Portland) Oregonian, has said, "Writing is thinking. That's all there is to it. Simple as it is, it still works wonders. The act of writing a theme statement and a few main topics imposes order on the chaos of detail you often face when reporting ends."	Before touching the keyboard: Decide on a theme Order your key points
Writing The writing process Getting organized Story structure The news lead—part 1 The news lead—part 2 The rest of the story The tools of the trade
A Web site created by Jim Hall for beginning reporters, those studying the craft and their teachers.