“The tremendous challenge of narrative journalism about subjects that are underreported is, how do you make people care about something they think they already know about, or think they don't need to know about?” PeopleThinkingKnowsNeedsCareChallengesSubjectsJournalismNarrative Author:Sarah Stillman
“Thinking through how you find that intersection between individual, compelling human narratives and structural, systemic injustices - that's the place that's most interesting to me as a reporter.” ThinkingHumansIndividualInterestingInjusticeNarrativeCompellingReportersMost InterestingIntersections Author:Sarah Stillman
“I think the daily challenge for a lot of beat reporters is, how do you get past the regurgitated sound bites of powerful people or evasion masters who are so used to this routine - the theatricality of press conferences and stage-managed interviews and teams of handlers?” PeopleThinkingPastUsedSoundChallengesPowerfulTeamStageMastersBeatsPressesInterviewsRoutineBitesReportersConferencesEvasionPress ConferencesSound BitesDaily Challenges Author:Sarah Stillman
“Often, I'm spending months with a person in a very intimate context, getting to know the ins and outs of what they ate for breakfast, not to mention dredging up the most traumatic experiences of their lives, digging through their documents and photographs from difficult times, all of that. And that process, I think, can be extraordinarily strange for subjects who've never been interviewed before, especially if you don't acquaint them from the get-go with what you're trying to do, what it entails, and why you care.” IfsThinkingKnowsTryingPersonsCareProcessDifficultSubjectsStrangeMonthsPhotographSpendingIntimateBreakfastDocumentsDifficult TimesDiggingTraumatic ExperiencesDredging Author:Sarah Stillman
“I wanted to think about ways to get an American readership concerned with what is happening in Mexico, but also to reframe it as a problem Americans share.” ThinkingWayProblemWantedShareHappeningsConcernedMexicoReadership Author:Sarah Stillman
“One thing I've discovered is that I never think of something that didn't work out as just "something that didn't work out." I think so often with investigative work, things that initially look like failures wind up leading to your biggest stories.” ThinkingLooksStoriesOne ThingWindWork Out Author:Sarah Stillman
“I tend to gravitate toward the "act two," or "act three," or "act four" stories - either things that are underreported, where we think we already know the common narrative, or things that are at the margins of an over-reported story, where we're all so focused in one direction that we're missing something crucial that's unfolding off to the side.” ThinkingKnowsTwoStoriesThreeSidesCommonFourMissingFocusedNarrativeCrucialMarginsUnfoldingOne DirectionMissing Something Author:Sarah Stillman
“I think most of us, as writers, have had experiences where you get edited and it doesn't feel like your voice at all. And so it's been nice to go through the experience of having a lot wind up on the cutting-room floor, and yet still feel that your voice is being - not purified, but made more yourself. I think that's a very rare thing.” ThinkingFeelsMadeStillsVoiceRoomsNiceCuttingWindLike YouEditedRare Things Author:Sarah Stillman
“I think when I was doing my very first interviews, I probably brought a notepad and did ask people my first fifteen questions while sitting in a Starbucks or something horrible like that. And I found that, oftentimes, the most important thing at the very first interview is just establishing a personal connection and developing some sort of rapport so that I can go back to them again, and then maybe again, and maybe again after that.” PeopleThinkingImportantHorribleRapport Author:Sarah Stillman
“It's been nice, actually, to keep in touch with a lot of the people and families that I've written about. Like with the kids I was just writing about from Guatemala, who survived being kidnapped and fleeing violence, it was nice to just sit down in their living room and play bingo with them, go to dinner with the family. And sometimes not thinking about it in such a mechanistic "I am now coming to report and get what I need" way, but just spending time, helps you see a more natural version of who they are too.” PeopleThinkingWritingSometimesHelpingKidsNaturalNiceViolenceLiving RoomSpending Time Author:Sarah Stillman
“There’s no such thing as being totally ‘found’…the fun, I think, is in the searching.” ThinkingFoundFun Author:Sarah Stillman
