In addressing locale, the reporter tries to sketch out the extent of the field on which the development is being played out.

If this is a sin, however, there is a graver one: Failure to get off the mountaintop and mix with the actors in a drama when the nature of the story idea cries out for on-the-ground reporting.

My own favorites are Joan Didion, Gay Talese, Truman Capote (for In Cold Blood) and Tom Wolfe.

It’s important to remember that many stories unroll in stages over a period of time, roughly in this fashion: • • • 1. Central development. Something begins to happen. It may be a single concrete event, a more subtle trend or societal development, whatever. 2. Impacts. As the development advances, it begins to affect people, places and/or

Readers love action, any kind of action, and the story that does not move, that just sits there stalled while people declaim,

whether they are actors or observers, and, if actors, their distance from the action.

When reading, make quick notations of possible stories that the material suggests and file these with the clips;

Later, when the reporting is done, I’ll recast the main theme statement in light of what I’ve actually found, and use it then to guide the writing of the body of the story. Frequently, it’s the basis for my lead.

When a reporter addresses quantity, he tries to give the reader some idea of the proportion of the development, sometimes