Youve just put the magazine to bed, and Now What? Some story-planning tips to help make the next one not quite so painful CASE Editors Forum San Diego March 31, 2005 Tina Hay, Editor Mollie A Few Story-Idea Sources You May Have Overlooked (not counting the director of development, of course) Stories We Could Never Do Google Alerts Use Google Alerts to Track faculty athletes artists authors business people Overlooked Sources of Ideas (continued) Lexis-Nexis web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/ Others? What Makes a Good Story? Human themes Love Money Death Sex Other people What Makes a Good Story? (continued) Mystery / intrigue / surprise Tension (conflict, struggle, change) Handles What Makes a Good Story? (continued) Scene Contrarian qualities Art potential Harry Topics vs. Stories (theres a difference) Topics vs. Stories Topics involve things. Stories involve people. Can you sum up the story in a sentence without using the word about? Hannah Kinds of Story Content Profile (student, faculty, or alumnus) Faculty research History / nostalgia Human interest Story Content (continued) Campus / higher education issues Social and political issues Service articles Story Content (continued) Regional interest Student life Fiction (if you dare!) Poetry (ditto) Some Story Formats to Consider Photo essay First-person / essay Quiz Participatory journalism la George Plimpton Dewars Profile Story Formats (continued) Q & A Roundtable discussion Interactive Story Formats (continued) Book excerpt Blog excerpts Two-pager How can you put lipstick on this pig? Pretend to be open to the idea. If theyre proposing a topic, find the story. Turn a story about a thing into a story about a person. Lipstick on the pig (continued) Give it to your best writer. When all else fails, keep it short. (Remember that one mans feature is another mans photo-and-caption.) Maintaining a Master List Scheduling In Case of Emergency Campus photo essay History / nostalgia Book excerpt (faculty or alumnus/a) A faculty talk In Case of Emergency (contd) Faculty Q&A An exhibit Blog excerpts Other ideas? CASE Editors Forum San Diego March 31, 2005