Finishing the story

Finishing the story

Mary [email protected]

Thinking about your story

• What is your hook (anecdote, quote, event, person, place)?

• What is your focus? (This should be in the nut graf.)

• What is the most interesting thing in your story?

• Check for Who, What, When, Where, Why, How

Feedback on stories

1) Exchange story with partner. Read their story, pen in hand. Make marks on it. (5 minutes)

2) Discuss the marks you made, your questions, and suggestions (10 minutes)

(If you haven’t written a story yet, you can still give feedback.)

Stakeholders

• What stakeholders have you talked to?• What stakeholder input do you still need?• How can you get more input?

Making connections

• What kind of action will readers want to take after reading the story?

• What kind of action do you want readers to take? (Are you an advocate or not?)

• Does the story help readers to connect to others (stakeholders, organizations, public officials)?

• Do you have links in the story?

Finding facts / Checking facts

• Where will you look for more information?• Who can you ask?• What facts need checking?

A picture is worth a thousand words

• Copyright rules, asking permission, giving credit

• Creative Commons• Stock photos • Taking photos — courtesy, respect, children,

permission and public places, good/bad photos

• Graphics, charts, etc.

Photo by Greg Gjerdingen, published under Creative

Commons license.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Good story, bad story

• Reader interest: Is this story interesting?• Accuracy: Does this story get facts right? How

can you tell?• Balance: Does this story include multiple POV?• Fairness: Have people been given opportunity

to respond?• Independence/transparency: What is the

reporter’s interest?

Maximizing readership

• Social media – your Facebook, Twitter, etc.• Other people’s social media• Email• Repetition• ICYMI

Dear Mary: Thank you again for a wonderful book review. I have been sharing the article with my press release materials. I also recently served as a TEDx speaker. As your schedule permits, would you please also consider sharing about my talk? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5QHAhMYwoA