Thread by @andreeball

How storytelling made me a better investigative reporter: A tiny workshop. 🧵

There’s an annoying misconception out there that narrative is just pretty writing.

It’s not. I believe storytelling is the hardest kind of investigative reporting there is. 1/

Storytelling transports us into towns, people and things we know nothing about. You don’t transport people with pretty words.

You do it with details. Facts. History. Documents. Interviews.

You ask questions. Many, many questions of many people. 2/

That’s investigative reporting. But then it gets harder.

You have to build depth of character, understand motivation. You have to get in the heads of people you’ve just met.

You have to ask stupid questions. Questions that seem totally irrelevant until maybe they aren’t. 3/

What were you wearing? It was the jersey your missing son gave you. Did you eat? You were starving but refused to eat the lunch you packed him before he disappeared. Did you cry? No, you wanted to be strong for your son when you found him.

Now we feel something. 4/

Add to this perhaps the toughest part of all. Writing.

You can’t overwrite with metaphors, adjectives, contrived setups. You can’t underwrite.

You can let the story get away from you or you can make choices that keep you in harmony.

Pretty words can’t hide weak reporting. 5/

I’ve been on i-teams (I think) since 2015, with the exception of USAT’s storytelling team for 8 months.

When I got laid off last December, I came back to investigative reporting at the @houstonchronicle.

And I noticed something. 6/

My thinking had changed. I was more logical. One question led to the next. My PIRs were smarter, more relevant. The way I talked to people had changed. I was more curious, more compassionate, more detailed. My reporting was holistic. I thought more about structure. 7/

So I asked a storyteller/investigative editor I deeply admire, “Why? How did this happen?”

His answer was simple.

Storytelling requires knowing every. Damn. Thing.

You may not use all of it.
You may not use half of it. But you have to know it. 8/

The same thing with investigations.

Sometimes you use the “pretty words.” Sometimes you don’t. But the best stories combine both techniques.

I’m no expert. I’m still learning. But now I see the strong connection between investigations/storytelling.

Maybe you do too?

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Special thanks to just a few of my teachers: @dkharmon @BrandiSwic80378 @jsusong @carolemotsinger @kelleybfrench

@dkharmon @BrandiSwic80378 @jsusong @carolemotsinger @KelleyBFrench @brandigrissom