{"id":15689,"date":"2025-06-27T13:04:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T13:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/?p=15689"},"modified":"2025-06-27T13:19:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T13:19:14","slug":"putting-the-i-in-storytelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2025\/06\/27\/putting-the-i-in-storytelling\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting the \u2018I\u2019 in storytelling"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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Sign up for the Nieman Storyboard newsletter,<\/em><\/a> delivered every Friday in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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***<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Dear Storyboard community, <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Long before I started Longreads<\/a> \u2014 and got a decade-plus education in narrative journalism \u2014 my traditional J-school and newspaper training taught me that I should never make myself part of the story. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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But what I hadn’t yet grasped about journalism is that that’s an impossible task. We insert ourselves into every story we touch. Stories are built on top of a human connection with our subjects, and that includes our biases and our own lived experiences.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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On top of that, the best narrative nonfiction is guided by a strong voice and perspective \u2014 we as writers have the power to decide how a story begins and ends. Our fingerprints are all over our work, even if we never write the word “I.” <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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As a reader, I appreciate the different ways first-person can show up \u2014 in memoir, essays, and feature writing. As Erika Hayasaki shared with me during our Nieman Storyboard podcast conversation<\/a>, she even named her newsletter “The Reported Essay”<\/a> as a way to spotlight and celebrate reporting that includes context from our own lives. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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One recent example comes from Robert Sanchez of 5280 magazine<\/a> in Denver. In reporting his latest feature story<\/a> \u2014 about scientists, doctors, and entrepreneurs who are experimenting with psilocybin (aka magic mushrooms) to treat cancer patients and people suffering from trauma \u2014\u00a0Sanchez embarked on his own experiment with microdosing. As he told me<\/a>:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I\u2019m known around my magazine for abstaining from alcohol and drugs. Early in my reporting, my editor, Spencer Campbell, made a joke about me doing a macro psilocybin dose. He made it clear that he was joking, and I had no interest in using psilocybin as part of the story. But as I spent a month or so reporting, I was meeting all these doctors and researchers and in-home healers who talked so highly about the drug that I figured I could baby-step my way into this with microdosing. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n \n

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I\u2019d come off a really bad 12-month stretch of my life: my wife lost her job, my childhood best friend died by suicide, one of my closest friends (and my former editor) was laid off from our magazine, and the magazine was sold. I\u2019m generally a happy and grateful person, but I felt rudderless and angry. I was lashing out at people who were important in my life, and I didn\u2019t want to live in that bitterness. In a lot of ways, from a very selfish perspective, I didn\u2019t have anything to lose with microdosing. At the very least, I could report and write about my experience, which I knew would be interesting to readers, regardless of how psilocybin worked (or didn\u2019t work) in my life. As a journalist, I want to inform readers and demystify subjects for them. Using psilocybin as part of the story seemed like a good spot to do that. In the end, it turned out to be a win-win for me and for readers.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I’ve followed Robert and his work on Twitter\/X for many years, and I’m grateful for his openness in sharing his journey. It added more clarity to his reporting on people like Teresa Anne Volgenau, who was battling Stage 3 cancer and took part in a clinical study on the use of psilocybin to treat pain and anxiety in cancer patients. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Sanchez, who also teaches journalism at the University of Denver, still urges his own students to think carefully about how and when to use first person \u2014 when it deepens a story, and when it distracts: <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I see so many young journalists who want to write just first person. [They’re] very capable writers who are so deathly afraid to do real reporting that they focus entirely on first person. \u2026 They’re nervous. For my students, I’m like, \u201cfirst person is off limits.\u201d Because you need to know how to report. You need to know how to write about someone else’s life, you need to know how to ask questions.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Read more from my conversation with Robert here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Links of note <\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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