{"id":15829,"date":"2025-07-18T13:11:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T13:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/?p=15829"},"modified":"2025-07-18T13:11:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T13:11:48","slug":"two-evergreen-lessons-in-writing-and-reporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2025\/07\/18\/two-evergreen-lessons-in-writing-and-reporting\/","title":{"rendered":"Two evergreen lessons in writing and reporting"},"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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I’m now seven months into writing this newsletter<\/a>, and producing the Nieman Storyboard podcast<\/a>, and it\u2019s been a wonderful education so far.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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We’re a growing community of journalists, writers, producers, filmmakers, teachers, students, and readers. If there’s an overarching mission, it’s to better understand how journalism and storytelling help us connect with each other \u2014 and to provide tools and inspiration to go forth and practice journalism in our own communities, in our own ways. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Author Dana A. Williams is giving us some of that knowledge. This week’s Nieman Storyboard podcast guest shared two important lessons in writing and reporting, which served her well as she wrote her new book, \u201cToni at Random: The Iconic Writer\u2019s Legendary Editorship,\u201d<\/a> about Toni Morrison\u2019s influential work as an editor at Random House:<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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  1. Libraries are full of stories, if you know where to look.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. When in doubt, construct a timeline.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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    Storyboard contributor Christina M. Tapper<\/a> sits down with Williams<\/a>, professor of African American Literature and dean of the Graduate School at Howard University, to talk about what we can learn from Morrison about editing and editor-writer relationships. Morrison edited more than 50 books, including works by Toni Cade Bambara, Lucille Clifton, Huey P. Newton, Leon Forrest, Gayl Jones, Angela Davis, and Muhammad Ali. They also discuss how Williams navigated through source material across multiple libraries, including Morrison’s archives at Princeton University and Random House’s archives at Columbia University. As Williams told Tapper: <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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    I’ll probably teach this in future seminars where I talk about working in the archive: I wish I had known that my first task should have been a timeline. I would have determined what kind of metadata I wanted to be able to search. If she had in correspondence that she met with James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Angela Davis, and let’s say, Stokely Carmichael \u2014 \u201cwe had a conversation about blank over lunch\u201d \u2014 I wanted to go to her expense receipts to see where they went, to see where that restaurant was. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n \n

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    So in most instances, you would see her copy of the letter that she wrote, and then you would see the letter that whoever responded. The way the archive is now at Columbia, it’s not in chronological order. It’s just all there, and there are so many boxes.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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    Williams shares so much more about her own process, including the conversations she had with Toni Morrison herself, on this week’s episode. Read the full show notes here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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    Author Dana A. Williams on what Toni Morrison can teach us about editing<\/a><\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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    \"Dana<\/a>
    Dana A. Williams. (Photo by Rhonisha Franklin.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
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    [ Get the show notes<\/a> ]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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    <\/div>