The Otaku Journalist guide to:
Generating story ideas How to brainstorm hundreds of quality concepts without breaking a sweat
By Lauren Orsini Table of Contents Click on the titles to jump to any page or worksheet.
Textbook:
(4) Introduction (6) Generating ideas: Four case studies (8) What makes a good story idea? (9) Types of story ideas (14) Ways to generate story ideas (16) Four case studies revisited (19) Conclusion
Worksheets:
(20) Answer the right questions (21) Brainstorming exercise About the author
I’m Lauren Orsini, a professional journalist and avid student of fan culture. I love reading and writing about the geeky things that make people tick.
I’ve been published in CNN and Forbes, but most of my reporting can be found at the Daily Dot—all 500+ articles of it.
I created this guide because I love my job so much that I want to recruit other people to find their passion for journalism, too.
You see, ever since I first started writing about being both a geek and a reporter, I’ve gotten email. Lots of it. After working with one person after another, I realized I could help a LOT more people if I decided to compile my advice into a guide.
Thank you so much for putting your trust in me by purchasing this guide. I hope you get something awesome out of it.
Good luck!
P.S. Need anything? Write to: [email protected]
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 3 Generating story ideas How to brainstorm hundreds of quality concepts without breaking a sweat
“A news sense is really a sense of what is important, what is vital, what has color and life—what people are interested in. That’s journalism.”
—American journalist Burton Rascoe
When my editor first asked me to write about Homestuck, I thought he was kidding.
Homestuck is a cult-hit webcomic with an interminable length, hundred-count cast of characters, and complicated plot—all which make it endlessly difficult for outsiders to grasp.
“No way,” I wanted to tell my editor, “I write about fandom news that a mainstream audience might actually have a chance of understanding.”
“Plus,” I added internally, “If Homestuck were so important, wouldn’t the mainstream media be covering it already? None
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 4 of the big news outlets had even touched it. A few niche comics news sites and Wired’s blog have already written their two cents about it. End of story.”
It’s a good thing that my objections went unspoken, because my Homestuck coverage has been the biggest hit of my journalism career so far. We got thousands of hits, I got invited to write about it for CNN, and I am currently Wikipedia’s most quoted authority on Homestuck despite not finishing the comic (this is why you should take Wikipedia with a grain of salt).
Homestuck didn’t look like a story topic to me. But the fact that it had been ignored as too big or too complex to cover—even as its reputation grew—meant audiences were curious to be informed about it.
It goes to show that story ideas are all around us, we just haven’t identified them as ideas yet.
There is always, I repeat ALWAYS, something newsworthy happening that’s worth writing about.
You might say that the reason you don’t have any ideas is because of “writer’s block.” It’s a condition so cliche to creative work that it’s almost expected that writers will come down with it from time to time.
However, the news runs on a 24 hour cycle. When you’re a journalist, you need to constantly be churning out new articles. Writer’s block is not an ailment any journalist can afford to have.
Fortunately, you don’t hear about journalists falling prey to the condition very often. My theory is that journalism is more of a craft than an art. And like any good craft, we’ve got tried and true practices in place to help us quickly and regularly generate story ideas.
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 5 Generating ideas: Four case studies
The first thing to remember is that the odds are always in your favor.
Case in point: when I was at Otakon 2012, a Baltimore, Maryland fandom convention, I researched and wrote six different stories in just three days. They all came to me very differently, and I wrote about them in very different ways. I think it’s easier to show than to tell how I did it. Read about them here first, and we’ll revisit them later in the chapter.
Story A: Memes in meatspace: Costumes inspired by the Internet
This is a gallery of photos with short quotes and descriptions that I compiled in Storify, a tool for journalists that makes it easy to format social media elements into articles.
Every year at Otakon, people engage in cosplay. That is, the practice of creating and wearing fantastic costumes inspired by TV shows, video games, and Internet memes. As a repeat Otakon attendee and all-around geek, this was something I knew about the convention and could expect in advance. I made sure to pack my camera so I could photograph people wearing costumes inspired by Tumblr, Old Spice Guy, and Nyan Cat, and quote them.
Story B: The changing face of brony fandom
This article follows several individuals I met at Otakon, and also quotes an expert in the field.
I knew I wanted to write about bronies—adult fans of the children’s show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic—but
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 6 before I got to Otakon, I didn’t have a story in mind. I found out there was a meetup for fans, attended it, and got to talking to teenage fans who had just discovered the TV show.
After finding a common thread in all of their quotes, I decided to write about the latest generation of young adults to discover My Little Pony. When I got home, I called up Dr. Patrick Edwards, the nation’s leading brony subculture researcher, and asked him to add his two cents.
Story C: Inside the strange, brave new world of Homestuck
If you didn’t skip the introduction, you knew this one was coming! This article profiles two fans and one fan contributor about why people should care about Homestuck.
I worked on this story for months before I got to the Otakon. By its nature, Homestuck is a lot of material. I read parts of the comic, talked to fans online, browsed forum discussions of Homestuck and Know Your Meme articles about fans’ inside jokes, and generally tried to make myself familiar with what was a brand new topic of coverage for me. I kept in mind that most of my readers would be even less familiar with the subject than I was.
At the convention, it was a matter of filling in the blanks from my prior observation with quotes, adding color through visual descriptions of the Homestuck meetup, and correcting any misconceptions I might have picked up in my solo research. I wanted to reader to be able to use me as an avatar as I navigated the close-knit Homestuck community for the first time.
Story D: Cosplaying While Latino: Capturing a community in costume
This story only profiles and quotes one person. I followed cosplayer Frances Delgado around for about an hour to write
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 7 the bulk of this article. In between my interview questions, other attendees would ask Delgado for photos while I’d observe and take notes.
I’m interested in covering diversity in fandom, so I discovered Delgado’s Tumblr on my own time before I even realized she’d be attending the convention. When she made the announcement on her blog that she’d be attending Otakon, I wrote to her to make plans to meet up. Online, we picked a time for her interview and I wrote up questions tailored specifically for her in advance of our meeting.
Keep these case studies in mind over the next couple sections. We’ll return to them later in more detail.
What makes a good story idea?
As you can see, these story ideas all came from separate origins. However, they’re more similar to one another than not. (The main thread you’ve probably picked up on: preparation is KEY.) Before I even considered writing any of them, I asked myself three questions to make sure they constituted ideas worth writing about.
When it comes to fandom stories, I think every reader—whether an outsider or a fan herself—comes into the story with three questions. If the story doesn’t answer all three, it’s not a good fandom story. So before I go any further, I ask myself these questions, from the point of view of my intended reader or audience:
• What is going on? • Why do fans care? • Why should I care?
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 8 Those are the prompts that work for me, but to be more specific, let’s define them:
• What is going on? Basically, what is this phenomenon or trend? Who are the primary players, where is this taking place, and what’s a good summary of the situation?
• Why do fans care? Now I see what’s going on, but I’m still not sure what this means for the people involved. What makes them interested in this particular phenomenon?
• Why should I care? Given that I’m not a part of this • fandom, community, or event, why is this newsworthy enough to be written about?
Just three questions—that’s it. If you’re guessing that a LOT of kinds of story ideas can fit under this extremely broad umbrella, you’d be right. Let’s go over a few of them now.
Types of story ideas
So now that we’ve gone over the possibly mind-boggling facts that:
1. Story ideas are everywhere, and 2. Any story idea that can lead to an article that answers the three questions is a good one,
the real question now is how you get from one to the other.
For example, you’ve got an idea and you think it’s a good one, (for example, “I’ll write about the increasingly popularity of K- Pop in the West,”) it’s still pretty abstract and not all that helpful. It doesn’t give you much of a blueprint to form a story out of it, and it doesn’t help you draft out how you’re going to
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 9 answer the story’s three most important questions.
Have you ever heard the maxim that goes something like, “there are only seven stories ever told” or “all movies can fit into one of ten basic plots?” Something similar can be said about journalism, too. When you’re writing an article, it helps to fall back on one of these tried-and-true templates for story ideas.
I’ll review six of the most common article themes, along with examples:
Hard News
This is the kind of news you’d read on the front page of the paper or the top of the news blog—the most important news the outlet has to offer that day. However, don’t underestimate its opposite: Soft News. That’s a blanket term for every other article theme I’m going to talk about.
The first characteristic of hard news is intensity—these stories are about serious events with high stakes consequences. Of course, intensity scales: it means something entirely different for the New York Times than it does the local paper.
The second is timeliness—hard news is only worth reading within a short time frame until it becomes “old news.” It must be written soon after the event it is based at occurs.
Examples of hard news ideas (obviously not timely anymore!):
• President Obama holds a Q&A on social network Reddit • Disney buys the Star Wars franchise
“Breaking news! [Person/Place/Thing] just became relevant due to an unexpected, very recent event and here’s what you need to know. This story will be updated as it develops.”
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 10 Trend
Trend stories examine a person, place, or thing that is currently having an impact on our society. Usually a trend story will go over at least three examples of a fad in order to demonstrate how widespread it has become.
Of course, just because a journalist can find three people who like to eat ice cream with bacon sprinkled on top doesn’t mean it’s a huge social trend. That’s why trend stories often get a bad rap as lazy, bogus, or simply “fake” reporting. If you’re going for a trend angle, it’s important to have expert sources, cold hard statistics, or other empirical evidence to back you up.
Examples of trend story ideas:
• People using Kickstarter to fund indie video game projects • More people turning to Reddit’s r/loseit to help them get fit
“There’s a new fad sweeping the nation, and here are at least three people who are at the forefront of the phenomenon.”
Backgrounder
Backgrounders are stories that analyze and current events. They’re often found in the wake of hard news stories as a way to put their narrow-minded focus in a societal context.
To use a recent example (at the time that I’m writing this workbook, at least!), Vice President Joe Biden held a meeting with video game industry officials to talk about gun safety. The hard news story is just that—the who, what, when, why, and how of his meeting.
But after journalists had conveyed the most basic and urgent
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 11 facts of what happened, the backgrounders started surfacing. Stories like, What Biden’s Meeting With the Video Game Industry Really Meant. Stories analyzing the problematic perceived relationship between video games and gun violence. How the meeting may have helped to blame or exonerate video games as the cause of the tragic Sandy Hook shooting.
Backgrounders help us process the news and see how current events will have lasting effects.
Examples of backgrounder ideas:
• How the rising price of Magic: The Gathering cards may increase theft at tournaments • What Japan’s stricter copyright laws will mean for fan artists
“Something happened, and it’s affecting the nation’s [children/ pets/morality]. Here’s how it will [corrupt your child/make you rich/restore your faith in society].”
News you can use
This is the catchy, rhyming name we give to stories that educate readers. These articles offer tutorials on everything from comprehending a recent current event to learning a new skill. These stories are usually on the lighter side.
News you can use stories are especially “sticky” or shareable because they offer immediately gratifying information that is at once relevant to readers’ own lives.
Examples of news you can use ideas:
• How to make your own Japanese snack foods at home • The best places to read manga for free online
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 12 “There’s a new fad sweeping the nation, and here’s how to [spot it in the wild/do it yourself].”
Profile
We read and write profiles in order to zoom in on an individual in the news. The goal of any good profile article is to cover enough different personality facets as to make the reader feel like she knows the person when she’s finished reading.
A profile is very different from a Q&A, which usually publishes the reporter’s interview questions and the source’s answers verbatim. In fact, a good profile piece interviews more people than just the profile subject, for example, her family, friends, colleagues, and fans.
A profile does not to be a sunny piece of pure positivity, but is in fact most effective as an objective take on both the ups and downs, both the criticism and praise, in that individual’s life and career. This is one of the many reasons that it’s important that the journalist does not get too close to the profile subject.
Examples of profile ideas:
• An interview with an up-and-coming webcomic artist • A recap of a day spent with the founder of the country’s largest furry convention
“John Smith is at the center of a new fad sweeping the nation, which is why you want to read about him. Here’s how his [life/ work] fits into a larger cultural story.”
List
Exactly what it says on the tin. Lists have become a hallmark of Internet writing, with Buzzfeed and Thought Catalog in
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 13 particular leading the charge. (20 Things We Miss About the ‘90s, anyone or 50 Adorable Cats Eating Sandwiches, anyone??)
Sometimes lists can be very similar to news you can use pieces, especially when it’s a list of resources or suggestions like “One hundred free blog themes for download.”
Lists often depend on the author’s opinions, especially when a ranking is involved. For this reason, lists are often dismissed as lazy reporting. However, there’s no way to deny that people love reading, sharing, and linking to list articles, so reporters keep writing them. My suggestion is, since they’re inevitable, have fun with them and keep things light.
Examples of list ideas:
• The 25 best Star Trek episodes of all time • The 50 most inspiring fan-artists on Tumblr
“There’s a new fad sweeping the nation, and here’s [10/20/100] ways to join in.”
Now that we’ve gone over these six story types, can you guess which of these each of my four case studies are? Click here to skip to the answers.
Ways to generate story ideas
Now we’re getting to the most useful (news you can use?) section of this chapter. Here are my four tried-and-true story generating techniques. When I’m trying to come up with something to write on short notice, I try each of these four avenues until an idea pops into my head:
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 14 Inspired by a current event
Not every article has to be a brand new scoop. If everybody’s already talking about something in the media, it’s ripe for a new angle. Likewise, if an event (like a fandom convention) is coming up, you can write a preview, review, or guide to this event.
Examples:
• Anime shows to marathon during the upcoming hurricane • What each presidential candidate has to say about your Internet privacy
Inspired by a person
People love to read about people. I challenge you to find a person who doesn’t have a compelling story. It’s easy to find well-known creators and write yet more coverage about them, but even “ordinary” people have incredible stories.
Examples:
• An interview with a blind gamer • A profile of an anime blogger
Inspired by a previous story
Never let an old story go cold. You wrote a story on the upcoming local comics convention? Great, you’re now on the local comics convention beat. Follow up your preview with a review, an interview with the founder, and a list of ten things for attendees to do at the con.
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 15 Examples:
• Follow a story on local My Little Pony fans with a profile on one brony fan-artist. • Follow a story on changes in online copyright law with a list of webcomics that could be affected.
Inspired by your own experience
It’s still controversial in some circles when journalists get personal, but there’s no doubt the events that have shaped you— examined under a journalistic lens—make good reading. Start with something you’ve personally experienced and then take it outside of yourself with research and interviews. Readers will find the experience more relatable with you as their avatar.
Examples:
• A profile of the How Games Saved My Life blog, tied to your own story about how games got you through a hard time. • What teaching a grandparent how to play Wii U taught you about the game industry.
Now that we’ve gone over these four story generating techniques, can you guess how I thought up each of my four case studies? Click here to skip to the answers.
Four case studies revisited
Remember the four articles I linked at the beginning of the workbook? I only mentioned them in every section since then. Now it’s finally time to look back at these, armed with new knowledge, and work them backwards from articles to ideas.
Have your guesses ready? The next page is the answer sheet:
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 16 Story A
Idea type: List
There’s not much I can say to elaborate on this one. Otakon cosplay is historically creative, so when I set out to write this story I thought the pictures and quotes could speak for themselves. I simply organized my content list-fashion, one cosplay after another.
Generation technique: Inspired by a current event
Otakon may be a predictable convention that happens every summer, but while it is occurring, it is a current event. Ordinarily, people aren’t interested in reading about Otakon in October (unless they’re announcing an amazing guest for next year or something), but while it’s happening it’s ripe for story ideas. What to pack to make the most of your trip to Otakon. How it’ll affect traffic in Baltimore. And of course, coverage of the sights, sounds, and people.
Story B
Idea type: Trend
Brony fandom, like most fandom, is fascinating right now to insiders and outsiders alike. It’s a cultural movement that is currently having an impact on society in an unusual way— in this case, the fandom crushes expectations about gender roles and demonstrates an unprecedented level of cooperation between fans and the show’s professional creators as they collaborate on documentaries, and charities together.
Generation technique: Inspired by a previous story.
When I first wrote about bronies, I didn’t expect it to generate
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 17 so much traffic. But once I knew that it was a story people were interested in hearing more about, I began to look for follow ups. This one interviews different fans, but still one of the same experts as my first brony story, continuing the narrative thread.
Story C
Idea type: Trend
Sorry to have two trend stories in a row, but I’ve found that most of the time when I write about fandom, it fits most easily into a trend narrative. Homestuck is, once again, a fandom that fascinates both insiders and outsiders because of the impact it is having on popular culture at the moment. I’d say this story also has a bit of News you can use to it since it shows you how to identify Homestuck fans, but that’s not the main purpose of the piece.
Generation technique: Inspired by my own experience
This article couldn’t have been written over the Internet alone. It’s a topic that is very niche and hard for outsiders to grasp, so just putting the facts out there isn’t enough. By going in person to a Homestuck meetup and sharing my experience, I was able to give the reader somebody to identify with while navigating this brave new world.
Story D
Idea type: Profile
Race has always been a topic in the cosplay community, which has participants changing their eye, hair, and sometimes even skin color to get into character. So I began looking for somebody who embodied cosplay’s race debate. For most story ideas, I try to get a variety of people to talk to, usually three or four. But
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 18 in this case, Jackie’s involvement in the community was so in depth that I felt her story alone could introduce readers to the experiences faced by Latino cosplayers.
Generation technique: Inspired by a person
This story couldn’t have happened without Jackie to inspire it. I found her Tumblr online, and reached out to her. If I had found another person to profile for this story, the article would have been totally different. The idea came from who she is.
Conclusion
Rascoe, whom I quoted at the beginning of this chapter, believes that good news sense is having a studied knowledge of what people are interested in reading about.
Nobody develops a sense for engaging news overnight, but this workbook’s generation ideas are designed to shortcut the process a bit. It’s a lot easier to know what people are looking for if you’ve already familiarized yourself with the most popular scripts for news articles and the techniques to think them up.
I sometimes get asked questions along the lines of, “How do I write an article that goes viral?” As in, something that millions of people will read and share. I don’t think anybody knows the answer to this, but I do know where viral stories start—with a good news sense for sniffing out what people are interested in learning more about.
Sometimes, as I was with Homestuck, you’ll be shocked to discover which stories people care about the most. But with practice, both you and I will be able to look outside of ourselves and instantly see what is our communities care about most.
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 19 Worksheet A: Answer the right questions
A good fandom story objectively and clearly answers three questions, as outlined in What makes a good story idea? Use this chart to wittle down each of your story ideas from Worksheet A.
What is going on? Why do fans care? Why should I care?
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 20 Worksheet B: Brainstorming exercise
As outlined in Ways to generate story ideas, I brainstorm by asking myself four questions. This worksheet gives you a space to try it out.
Inspired by a current event
Getting started: What’s on Page One? What are people talking about in your community? What just blipped onto your radar?
Inspired by a person
Getting started: Whose name keeps popping up in the news? Who has been a valuable source to you? Who founded that interesting new blog?
Inspired by a previous story
Getting started: What’s a topic or even the media covered but seems to have forgotten about? Could it use an update?
Inspired by your own experience
Getting started: What makes your interpretation of current events unique? How can you tie the news to a personal level?
OtakuJournalist.com Generating story ideas | 21