How To: Create A Story From Scratch
Photo courtesy Erin Ben-Moche
In the wide world of journalism, podcasts, content and more, developing a story from the ground up is an important part of the job. But if you’ve never done it before, where do you start? Here, News Editor and Podcast Host Erin Ben-Moche walks us through her process.
Step 1: Leave Your Home
You can't just be on your computer. Yes, there's a lot of information that you can access from being on a computer: you can look at all the wires, you can go to AP, you can go to NBC News. You can see what people have already done. But, you have to walk around [to find your own story].
Step 2: Pay Attention
My favorite example [is from] when I was an intern in Chicago. I was walking down Michigan Avenue to get coffee and I saw these two kids begging their dad to go inside Dylan's Candy Bar. They were like, “Please, Dad, we need candy.” The dad was like, “Fine, you each get $5. Go crazy.” They thought they had just conned their dad. But the truth was, $5 in Dylan’s Candy Bar is not going to get you far. So I thought, well, how much candy can you get at any major candy store in Chicago? So I ran upstairs [and] said, hey, have we ever done any story like this before? Our editor said no. And I ended up going to ten or eight, iconic, diverse candy stores in all the major neighborhoods of Chicago. And I took five [dollars] and tried to go as far as I could.
In some places you could get a chocolate-covered strawberry, and in some places an entire bag of candy. It became a visual story. It became a story about inflation. It became a feel good story about wanting candy and a break and also getting to highlight different types of candy stores in the city. It became this whole thing just because I took a walk instead of going to get coffee in the kitchen, So if you have an idea and you think it's interesting, pursue it. Don't wait for a story to be assigned to you. Think about what would make you excited. What's something you would want to run home and tell your friends or your parents that you did today? That is always a compelling story.
Step 3: Differentiate Your Story
How has this story been done before? Inflation stories happen all the time. “The cost of your groceries are going up”–that's been done. How can I do something similar but different? If an entire classroom is going on a field trip, what's the pitch? All of you have to go to the zoo to write about the zoo. How are you going to write about the zoo so it's different from 14 other people who are writing about the same thing? What's your angle gonna be, and how is your angle more compelling than someone else’s?
Step 4: Do Your Research and Be Thorough
Then you get to do the work. Don't just go to one. I went to eight different candy stores in eight different neighborhoods. One was this very bougie chain, Kilwins. Dylan's Candy Bar, also a chain, very touristy. But then I went to small, off the beaten path places that were really important to the Latino community, that were important to older ‘40s soda shop communities that had iconic history. Different price points, different demographics. You don't just want to go and do the thing that [is] familiar. Always do your research and try to be thorough, because then it's easy when you put it all together. I have a notebook of just candy.
Step 5: Step Up The Visual Interest
Then you get to make it colorful and fun and visually aesthetic, because, when it's aesthetic, people will read it, and then it'll get clicks, and then you're boosting your SEO, blah, blah, blah…
Step 6: Develop and Nurture Connections
You're always thinking about the next thing, and who knows from doing that work what other connections you're making. I could have just done the story, and that could have been it. But I ended up partnering with a digital editor and a photographer, and then I had relationships with them to work on another project with them later.
Step 7: Tap Into Your Interests and Keep Going
It's all these steps. Yes, have an idea and pursue it, but just keep going. Keep doing the work to make it the best it can be. The more excited you are about it, the better it's gonna be. Don't try and make something that you think you have to do, don't speak in a way where you [switch] out every word with [a] thesaurus. Your voice is what will [make it], perspective is what will make the story interesting, too.
Step 8: Widen Your Scope
For Father's Day, we did a roundup of movies to watch for Father's Day. It's really easy to sit down and name a lot of straight white guy relationship movies. But your audience is more than the straight white guy. So, expand your research, see more movies, talk to more people, and really be thorough. I think in the last ten years, we have seen journalism reflect the community [by] highlighting people of color and women's voices and LGBTQ+ voices. It's not just the Black voices in February, LGBTQ voices in June. It's more ingrained in society now. That's really important too, because you don't want to come off dated when you're reporting something.
Step 9: Writing and Editing Time
Then you write the story, and work with your editor. Your editor will edit it down. A lot of people have love-hate relationships with their editor because sometimes they work on this story, and it's their baby. I've always [thought], do what you need to make the story better, just make sure it sounds like something I would say. Your editor is not trying to shit on you. When the writer wins, the editor wins: they want the best product. Hopefully you get an editor that you trust and care about that will make you sound better and get your message out there the best way.
Step 10: Save Your Clips
When you're done, the editor [sends] it off, and then you get to take a picture because it's in the paper. Save the clip. Download it into a PDF or put it on your portfolio, because you never know what's gonna happen. It's always good to save your clips after you're done, especially if they [are] stories you love. That [candy] story is six years old, and it's still one of my favorite stories to this day. I can't believe they let me run around the city writing about candy!
Thank you so much for sharing these steps with us, Erin! And readers, you can see her fantastic candy shop story in The Chicago Tribune here.