On Tuesday, March 5, that’s tomorrow, I’ll be sharing story research tips during a teleseminar put on by the Association of Ghostwriters.
The teleseminar is at 11 a.m. PT/2 p.m. ET.
I’ll be sharing tips for using social networks, database research and other methods for finding background information and sources for news and feature stories, blog posts, slideshows and more.
Why Research Matters
And don’t think bone structure’s not important. Nobody started to call me Mademoiselle until I was seventeen and getting a little bone structure.
If you’re not familiar with it, that famous line was uttered by comic legend Madeline Kahn playing the floozy Trixie Delight in the movie Paper Moon, a role that earned her an Oscar nomination. That’s Kahn in the picture, on the right, modeling her exquisite bone structure.
Research is like bone structure. Without it, you’ve got no figure, and no story.
In the days before the Internet, researching a story meant digging through musty academic journals in dusty library stacks, reading through old newspaper stories on microfilm, or asking your friendly research librarian for help. It meant walking through the local mall at Christmas time to ask shoppers what they were buying, or standing in the parking lot at the aerospace defense contractor – or on the sidewalk so you didn’t get busted for trespassing – on the day they let laid off 500 employees to ask people how they felt.
The Internet’s changed a lot of that. Today, reporters can find sources on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and other digital nooks and crannies of the wired universe.
In the teleseminar, I’ll share what I know about it all.
What I’ll Cover in the Teleseminar
Here are some of the questions I’ll be answering:
- What exactly does writer research consist of? Or maybe a better question is, what should it consist of?
- How important is research to a story?
- How do you typically approach research for a magazine article or a book? How much do you do in advance of pitching?
- Do you have any advice for how we writers should be organizing our research before we begin conducting it?
The teleseminar is for Association of Ghostwriters members only. The AOG is a professional organization for ghostwriters of books, articles, speeches, blogs and social media content. In addition to monthly teleseminars, members receive a monthly newsletter and have access to a member directory, networking forum, and more. Dues are $99/year. Find out more here: AOG – Why Join?
I’ll also share some of my tips in a future post. Meanwhile, check out the Related posts below to see what else I’ve written about story research.
Here’s one tip you can use right now – if you’ve never seen Paper Moon, rent it from Amazon or Netflicks – you’re in for a treat.