Does your story need structure?
And some thoughts for the last month of the year
Last month, while at the ScienceWriters 2024 conference in Raleigh, N.C., I sat in on a discussion about building structure into your story. The panelists — John Thomason, features editor at Grist; Ashley Smart, associate director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT and senior editor at Undark Magazine; and Erika Hayasaki, a professor at the University of California, Irvine — spent the hour discussing the structures they used in pieces of long-form narrative journalism that they had written and edited or just admired.
I find these discussions fascinating because I don’t do this type of journalism. My publication is aimed at middle and high school students, and we keep our stories under 2,500 words and tend to have simple story structures. We know that our readers will struggle with the science, and we don’t want them to struggle with the writing more than they have to. (Also, I had one memorable conversation with an editor after I turned in a feature and they asked me to talk about the structure of my story. I didn’t have one, so, AWKWARD.)
After the session, Ms. Hayasaki published on her Substack a great roundup of the resources discussed by the panel. She also describes seven different story structures and provides examples of stories for each. (This is such a great resource.)
But after the session, I was talking with one of my writers, and they said that they never considered structure as they were writing. This person was an award-winning long-form journalist, exactly the type of person who could have been on that panel. And this started me thinking: Was structure really necessary?
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Now, that writer’s stories did have structure. It was just something that came naturally to them so that they didn’t have to think about it. And even our simpler, shorter stories at my publication have structure — it helps keep the writer going where you want them to.
But do you need to use one of those seven structures? Or can you experiment or just go with what feels right to you? It’s going to depend on the writer. Some of us need that structure to keep moving. Or maybe we write better when there’s some established scaffolding. But if you’re a writer who can figure it out without any of that, just go with it. Those established structures, though, might be something to experiment with.
January approaches. (Credit: Bich Tran from Pexels/Canva)
Some ideas for year-end
I’m toying with the idea of recommending some quarterly organizational tasks. So let’s start with the end of the year:
Take a census of the apps you’re using for organizing. What do you like? What’s not working for you? (If you’re looking for a new to do list, check out these recommendations from Wirecutter.)
Set up your systems for 2025. (This is a great time to move to Airtable.)
Buy your 2025 calendar or planner. If you wait till after Christmas, you’ll get a better deal. If you are picky about what you want, buy now.
Invoice your clients, preferable at the beginning of December. Getting invoices through accounting at the end of the year can be troublesome.
Get ready to make that last tax payment for 2025; it’s due January 15.
Clean off your desk so you can start fresh in the new year.
What’s your end-of-year routine?
Till next time!
— Sarah
P.S. If you’ve got a question, comment or idea for a future newsletter, please email me at sciwriter.sarah@gmail.com. If you have a problem you’d like help with or have advice to share with your fellow writers, you can submit this through this Google Form.
And if someone forwarded this to you (hint, hint), check out the archive to see what you can expect from The Systematic Scribe. Plus, this post has my FREE Airtable template for running a freelance writing/editing business.