Category: Jerry Bellune

First responders think creatively By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach This dates me but I remember when Presidents Kennedy and Reagan were shot. Kennedy was riding in an open car in Dallas November 22, 1963, Reagan outside the Washington Hilton March 30, 1981. Reagan survived.We were working on a South Carolina  newspaper...

Are you and your readers easily distracted? By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Every day we face a choice to pursue deep or shallow work, podcast host Srinivas Rao explains. Shallow work gives us the temporary illusion of accomplishment, he writes, but little of significance results from shallow reporting and writing.He could...

Become a better professional By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig writes about classicals and romantics.Romantics, he explains, see the world but don’t question how it works. They just want it to work. When it doesn’t, they don’t look for or repair...

Crime reporting captures readers By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Have you ever considered why readers and writers seem so obsessed with crime and criminals?Many books, novels, movies and other entertainment are about crime. Crime has all of the ingredients of high drama – greed and passion, life and death, murder,...

Always look for the hidden motive By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach “Everybody who talks to a newspaper has a motive,” Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee said. “That’s just a given. Good reporters always, repeat always, probe to find out what that motive is.”Much of what the Post published on the...

How writing by hand can benefit you By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Do you take notes by hand? Do you ever draft  an article by hand?Time and indulgent editors permitting, it’s worth considering.If you’re like most digitally savvy editors and reporters, you rarely write by hand.The laborious process of tracing your...

Build your readers’ expectations By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Almost everybody likes a mystery.Most of us want to be in on secrets or to hear the latest gossip about people we know.Expectations and questions about what happens next engage readers and put power in almost any kind of journalism –...

Do you believe you’re creative? By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Do you think your reporting, research, interviewing, writing, revising and editing are creative?Unlike fiction writers – unhampered by little more than their imaginations – we journalists stick to facts and strive for accuracy.We are creative, too, says University of Connecticut...

Reporting the stories behind the stories By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Public officials and PR people may tell the truth but rarely the whole truth.It may take some digging to find the story behind the story.For example, a high school football coach recently resigned just before the season started.His teams...

Give pace and flow to your writing By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Few sins are worse than pompous, self-important and cluttered thinking and writing.Stick to just the facts, ma’am. Give us the unvarnished detail. Focus on the tense faces or frantic concentration of your characters.Keep quotes and dialogue to the point....

Twenty questions, thousands of answers By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach If you don’t get a readable story from your next interview, it’s probably your fault.What I’m going to share with you are questions we developed for our writers after an interview that looked like it was going no where. A reader...

Creating first class writers and editors By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach All editors, reporters, photographers and designers should become coaches. We are teaching the next generation to practice our craft at a high level. Both coaches and rookies benefit.The two kinds of coaching you can practice: One-on-one coaching. My first coach was...

Why write shorter sentences By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Short, punchy sentences are dynamite.Clear and understandable, too.Long sentences will lull you to sleepHere’s an example of what I mean:If a person lives in a democracy, which thus far we do, you soon learn that politics is not an orderly business...

A warning to all journalists By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Words of caution often come from unlikely places.These words come from Anne Applebaum, a former British and now American journalist.Applebaum is also  an historian who won the Pulitzer Prize 20 years ago for Gulag: A History. The gulag, as most...

Protect your precious credibility By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach What if your police chief came out with what sounds like a controversial statement?What if he said that illegal immigrants, criminals and rapists had invaded your community? Strong charge but is it true? Would you publish this without asking for evidence to...

Why - and why not - record interviews By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Well-known reporter Gay Talese shares my distaste for what we once called tape recorders. Today you can record interviews with your cell phone, even transcribe and edit them electronically.But do you need to?Talese called recorders a “benumbing literary...

Create scenes to attract readers to your story By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach We traditionally think of scene setting as the territory of fiction writers, especially novelists.Novelists have the advantage of writing 100,000 words or more. Most of us journalists have to do what we do in 600 words or...

Fuzzy reporting confuses your readers By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Be specific, my first city editor drummed into my poor rookie brain.I've not forgotten it.Someone needed to remind this reporter. In an international newspaper, he wrote: Hamas released some hostages held in the Gaza Strip and Israel freed some Palestinian prisoners...

Give readers what they’re interested in By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach NewYorker.com editor Michael Luo pays close attention to his readers’ habits. He measured the most popular New Yorker stories of 2023 by “engaged minutes” – the time readers spent reading them.He says he was surprised by what was missing. No...

Your active listening skills By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach The best acting advice I ever heard was to really listen to the actor talking to you instead of waiting to deliver your lines. Your attention will show in your eyes.Career coach Jennifer Herrity advises that active listening  helps you  focus.It...

Tune up your eyes & ears By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach I used to assign rookie reporters to interview mayors and police chiefs and others who might be newsworthy. Before they left, we discussed issues that might make a news story and their questions that needed answers.When they returned, I asked...

Oct. 2023 Compelling Writing What to do when they won’t talk with you By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach A write-around is a reporting technique in which your main subject won’t talk with you. This is often true about people who are caught up in controversy or the subject of a law...

How to interview anybody By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Your guidelines for interviewing anybody are thankfully similar.Your subject may be the President of the United States or the woman who just won best arrangement at the local flower show.1. Do your research, even if it’s only talking with those who...

Touch your readers with sensory words By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach You may remember onomatopoeic words from the 10th grade.These words express sounds such as to squeal or whoosh.There’s a different, more subtle category of words, says writing coach Henneke Duistermaat. Visual words for sight allow you to paint vibrant (or...

Read like a writer By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Sounds simple, doesn’t it. You are already a writer.But think about it. Whenever you read – and it should be daily – think like a writer.Pay attention to what the writers are doing, how they hold your attention and keep you reading....

Keep it simple in sports writing By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Writing about a sport for those who don’t understand the sport is a challenge. Most writers figure they are writing for fans as familiar with the game as they are.John McPhee, author of A Sense of Where You Are and...

Yes, we need white space By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach In a black and white movie, you want shadow and light.In a color movie, you want vibrant colors.Without these, they would be unwatchable movies.The same is true of your own writing – and reading.You want short words, short sentences, short...

Stories within your stories By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach Anecdotes are a vital part of compelling storytelling. These are small stories that may open or close your larger story.They also can appear almost anywhere in the middle.John McPhee used an anecdote in a New Yorker article about environmentalist Edward Abbey.In his book, Abbey wrote...

Writing life stories By Jerry Bellune, Writing Coach To their families, obituaries are final chapters in the lives of those they love.For many, obituaries mark their loved ones’ release from pain.For others, it is the winding down of long and fruitful lives.For the unfortunate, they are wrenching, unwelcome nightmares, whether...