Lessons Learned

So I don't forget. . . I want to write down the two most important things learned from this workshop. (How is it that we forget such basic things? These are things I KNEW already, just one needs to be reminded regularly. )

1) The Lede is all. I say this to others again and again -- the first paragraph is where the reader decides the value of the whole piece. That first paragraph decides what grade you'll get, whether you get out of the ticket, how much they'll pay you for the book, whether they'll accept your pitch. And yet, I haven't put in enough time really pulling together scintillating, grab-you-by-the-throat ledes. I got some great feedback from my workgroup on how to work on ledes both on my current pitch to Smithsonian, and on my book proposal on alchemy and so that is on the top of my to do list.

2) You can't put anything good out if you're not getting lots in. Every story takes gathering three to four times as much information as you end up putting into the final piece. Some of that is dedicated research, but a lot of it --the best metaphors, the connection to real life, the good ledes -- is just the stuff you already know. And you're not going to know it if you're not reading constantly. Trust me, I read constantly, but it's mostly fiction. I have set up reminders on my outlook to read the Science Times every Tuesday, as well as a handful of other great sites. And I'm resubscribing to all the magazines I want to write for -- you can't write for them if you're not reading them regularly.