Storycraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)

by Jack R. Hart

Cynthia Gorney, a veteran narrative journalist who got her start at the Washington Post, has developed a kit bag of immersion reporting techniques. Gorney, who now teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, journalism school, says she approaches her reporting by asking questions such as what it’s like to actually be her subjects and looking for the most interesting or surprising aspects of their worlds. She says she answers those questions by: 1. “Breathing their air.” 2. “Quietly observing, hanging around.” 3. “Understanding the rhythm of their typical work.” 4. “Learning their vocabulary.” 5. “Reading their literature”—texts, guidebooks, professional publications. 6. “Finding their gurus.”