{"id":2021,"date":"2020-07-10T10:00:01","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T10:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/10\/four-questions-mine-for-bottomless-wisdom\/"},"modified":"2024-03-07T17:14:47","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T17:14:47","slug":"four-questions-mine-for-bottomless-wisdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/10\/four-questions-mine-for-bottomless-wisdom\/","title":{"rendered":"Four questions mine for bottomless wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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\n D<\/span>uring the 15 years that Chip Scanlan taught writing workshops at the Poynter Institute<\/a>, he wrote a popular column called “Chip on Your Shoulder.” Searching Poynter’s archives takes some work, but you can find a lot of that wisdom stored there.

Scanlan came to that wisdom the hard way: by learning it on the job<\/a>. Before joining Poynter, he spent 22 years as a reporter. A significant stop on his career train was at the Providence Journal in Rhode Island, during the era that it was a pioneer in the use of narrative in newspaper work. Along the way, he came under the wing of Don Murray<\/a>, whom many consider the godfather of journalistic writing coaches. (This tribute from Scanlan’s former Poynter colleague, writing guru Roy Peter Clark<\/a>, will tell you why.) It is rare to talk to Scanlan about writing when he doesn’t reference something he learned from Murray.

\"Writing<\/a>
Chip Scanlan<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Scanlan left Poynter in 2009 to freelance, explore fiction, teach workshops and coach other writers. We exchanged Christmas cards and the occasional email, but even those fell off after awhile. I was teaching by then, and I missed his column and our random\u00a0 conversations about craft.

So it has been a joy to have all that back. Scanlan has been a strong contributor to Storyboard in recent months. And he recently resurrected “Chip on Your Shoulder”<\/a> as a blog, which you can access by subscribing to his newsletter, “Chip’s Writing Lessons.”<\/a> (The image above anchors a landing page on his website.) It’s a mix of short essays on craft, musings on things Scanlan is reading, and get-in-gear quotes from name writers. My favorite part is “Four Questions With …” Scanlan digs through his enviable Rolodex and sends out four questions to various journalists he knows. They are the same four questions each time \u2014 an approach I was skeptical of when he first told me about it.

The creative force of strong structure<\/h3>
But as I scanned it each week, I was again reminded how a reliable structure can actually release creativity. I think of it as the blueprint of a building. The foundation needs to be sound, and often is familiar; it informs, to an extent, the building that is erected. But how that building is designed and decorated \u2014 its voice, if you will \u2014 varies greatly. Maybe another way to think about it is as a painter’s blank canvas. The tools don’t vary much: brushes, palette knives, paints. But each artist tells a story on his or her canvas that has never been told before.

I began to look forward to Scanlan’s “Four Questions With…” It reinforced classic lessons in reporting and writing, and introduced new ones. I also felt I got introduced to the personality of writers I had only known by their bylines.

Then Scanlan asked me to answer the Four Questions. I shrugged and said sure. I figured I could riff for 15 minutes and be done. After 45 years in the biz, I’m well practiced \u2014 maybe too practiced \u2014 in talking about my process.

Not so now. I wrote, and deleted, and wrote some more, and deleted some more. Those formatted questions challenged me to think at a level beyond plug-and-play. They were framed in the kind of superlatives \u2014 most important lesson, biggest surprise, best piece of advice \u2014 I often warn against when I teach interviewing. “Most” or “best” or “favorite” are, at one and the same time, too vast and too limiting. Can I name my “favorite” all-time movie? Depends on my age, mood and genre. “Favorite” book or bylined piece? There have been too many. “Favorite” food… OK, I can come close on that one.

Scanlan was on to something when he posed these simple-seeming questions to a range of writers. They serve as prompts to really zero in on something they each considered essential, and thus worth passing on. They probe for the bedrock. Even writers who probably can riff their wisdom in 15 minutes, without my tortured process, get to concretes that teach as well as inspire.

Scanlan posted my answers to his Four Questions in his blog this week. he gave me permission to republish it here. I do that not because I think what I said is worth more attention than what has been offered by other writers, but as an example of how it works, and what you might gain from his blog. I also offer it because I think it’s a worthy exercise for you to try in the safety of your own mind. Better yet: write your answers in a notebook and look back at them time to time. They might return\u00a0 you to a valuable touchstone \u2014 and\/or be markers of your progress.

CHIP ON YOUR SHOULDER<\/a><\/h1>

Craft Lessons from Writing Coach Chip Scanlan<\/h2>

INSECURITY TRAVELS WITH EVERY KEYSTROKE: FOUR QUESTIONS WITH JACQUI BANASZYNSKI<\/a><\/h3>
What\u2019s the most important lesson you\u2019ve learned?<\/strong>
There are no small stories. Every story is important to the people it\u2019s about, and every story should respect the people it\u2019s for.

An extension of that: Don\u2019t confuse the size of the masthead, the circulation or the assignment with the value or quality of the work. People in a small community deserve the same level of journalistic care as those in the big-dog markets \u2014 and they probably need it more. And the only real limit to your aspirations is you.

What\u2019s been the biggest surprise of your writing (or editing) life?<\/strong>