The best writing reads as if it was performed effortlessly, as if it sprang from a well of inspiration that never runs dry.
Anyone who has worked at an alternative newsweekly knows better. The panic, the tears, the outbursts of temper, the sleepless nights. The stories that can barely be eked out; the ones that flow too copiously, begging for butchery. The sources discovered to be liars just before deadline. Sometimes it’s a wonder that a paper appears each week, full of articles.
What is even more remarkable is when writers, in spite of all the obstacles, manage to produce work that ranks at the top of the form.
In this series, "How I Got That Story," the winners of the 2005 AltWeekly Awards unveil the process they went through to create their first-place articles, photography, cartoons and design. The series sheds light on the work found in the book “Best AltWeekly Writing and Design 2005.”
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Nick Goodenough, Ventura County Reporter, Photography
I shoot upwards of 300 to 1,000 pictures at one show if it’s a good show. And then I might have an okay picture out of every hundred…. I usually don’t even really remember a show after I do it because I’m looking through a little square viewfinder and trying to block out all the music. More…
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Donna Ladd, Jackson Free Press, Feature Story
I told the family right off the bat that the only way I would do this story is if they didn’t hide anything from me. I told them I wanted to paint an honest portrait of them, that they couldn’t just tell me the parts to make them look good. That made them trust me more than anything else. More…
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Jennifer Loviglio, City Newspaper, Column
If I’m not working on a column in my head, I’m miserable. If I’m not cramming some topical science thing, in with a sex thing, in with something political, and I’m not carrying around that whole basket of titillating material in my head, then I’m miserable. So in a way, I’m always writing a column. More…
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Melissa Maerz, City Pages, Music Criticism
Ideally music writing helps to tease the meaning that someone might have not seen there before out of an album or song…. I don’t know if I believe that music can save your life, or anything like that, but finding art meaningful is an important part of life. Music journalism at its best can help people do that. More…
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Susan Clark Armstrong, Folio Weekly, Investigative Reporting
The sheriff’s public information officer…was trying to stall and was not at all being cooperative and at times was a little testy with me. So I waited until she was on vacation and I went in. I had already asked where the credit card information was so I knew exactly which drawer it was in and how long it would take to retrieve the records… More…
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Renee Downing, Tucson Weekly, News Story—Long Form
I think a lot of people who end up in journalism tend to have short but intense attention spans, and they find something and really get into it, and then they just move on to the next thing. And that’s how I am: I love to get into a new topic and dig in. And then move on to a whole new subject. More…
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Nigel Jaquiss, Willamette Week, Investigative Reporting
After every story, there’s a letdown…. After I publish what I think is a good story, I’ll think, “God, now my notebook’s empty. Will I ever get anything good again?” Inevitably, because people do things they shouldn’t, I’ll find another story. More…
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Jen Sorensen, Cartoon
Ideas tend to occur while you’re walking around going about your daily business, so it’s important to keep a notebook and write ideas down as you get them…. I tend to think of ideas while I’m driving or shampooing my dog—any activity that does not lend itself to grabbing a pen and paper. More…
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Michael Little, Washington City Paper, Arts Feature
I like the fact that if you’re working for an alt-weekly, you can come up with crazy ideas for long articles that I don’t think a daily would ever publish. And the alt-weeklies let you go where other papers can’t go, which is into someone’s mind. More…
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Tara Servatius, Creative Loafing (Charlotte), Education Reporting
I really think it’s fun to use Excel spreadsheets. I’m at the point where if I stumble upon something that has numbers I can put in a spreadsheet, I’m more inclined to do the story. I know it’s nuts. I can’t explain it. More…
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Rick Sealock, Reno News & Review, Sacramento News & Review, Illustration
Sometimes I’ve had to repaint over certain things, where it’s like, “No, we can’t have that steaming dog poo happening on the guy’s foot,” or whatever, like, “That statement is out.” There are certainly things that visually are not acceptable. But you keep pushing and you keep trying. More…
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Lisa Sorg, San Antonio Current, Media Reporting/Criticism
A lot of people don’t realize the machinations that are going on and the puppeteering that takes place in the mainstream media before information gets to the consumer. I think people still need to know a lot more about who owns what, and who’s controlling their information, and what the agenda is. More…
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Ann Mullen, Metro Times, News—Long Form
The main detective involved in the case agreed to be interviewed, and I thought he was being pretty cagey with me. With Antoine, it was hard to get his attorney to agree to let him talk to me, and in fact his attorney never really did agree, but I did anyway. More…
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Harvey A. Silverglate, The Boston Phoenix, Column—Political
What I find particularly galling is the extent to which reporters are taken in by prosecutors, to which they’re taken in by courts. A court writes an extremely dishonest opinion where it mischaracterizes the facts of what happened, and the reporters never go to the record. More…
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Ayana Taylor, Jackson Free Press, News Story–Short Form
I interviewed a white supremacist. At first he would not talk to me. He felt that nothing good ever came out of the media. I just kept telling him, “You should make your voice heard,” and “People need to see your side of the story.” I just wouldn’t let go. More…
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Steve Bogira, Chicago Reader, Column
There is an awful lot of lying in courts; it seems ironic. People take oaths to tell the truth, the whole truth, and yet I know from my experience covering the courts that most everybody lies. Cops lie in their reports and in their testimony; judges lie in their rulings. More…
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Betty Brink, Fort Worth Weekly, News Story–Short Form
The stories that speak to me more than any others are the ones that have impacted an individual or a family, that have a human element that is compelling, that pay attention to someone who would otherwise be lost in the greater scheme of things. More…
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Andrew Wheat, The Texas Observer, Column–Political
The officials we deal with…seem to have two constituencies — the voter/general public and their donor constituencies. Unfortunately, we’ve found that the officials’ relationship with the donors is stronger and more intimate than their relationship with the general public. More…
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Steve Billings, Metro Santa Cruz, Food Writing/Criticism
Writing…is like making a stock — starting off with all these big robust elements and all the big chunks of raw vegetables and just simmering and simmering. Starting off with the largest quantity of water and raw ingredients possible and reducing that to get that really pithy, strong, subtle good stuff. More…
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Susan Cooper Eastman, Folio Weekly, Arts Feature
I think a lot of reporters don’t get to the story because they put a wall up between them and the people that they’re writing about — whether that’s through class or race or other things. They cling to the world that they come from, and they’re not willing to let that go to enter into other people’s worlds. More…
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Eric Celeste, Dallas Observer, Media Reporting/Criticism
If you’re going to cover the media right, you have to use anonymous sources, and you’ve got to be careful and not be spun. You can’t be the guy who just picks up the phone and takes the latest bitch from whoever calls you for your story. You lose credibility. More…
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Godfrey Cheshire, The Independent Weekly, Arts Criticism
Except for reading the production notes the studios give out, I consciously make an effort to know as little as possible about a movie beforehand. I don’t read any other reviews and try not to hear what people have to say. Because if people rave about it — it’s really hard for a movie to live up to that. More…
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Terje Langeland, Colorado Springs Independent, Education
So I thought, “Who is this guy? Where did he come from? Does he have an interesting past?” Just Googling, I found out easily that he had run for office once before in his home state, Oregon. I thought if anybody has dirt on this guy, it would probably be the guy he ran against. More…
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Kent Williams, Isthmus, Arts Criticism
I’m very interested in the essay form, and I do think that it’s different from the standard review. And, although this is an overstatement, daily newspapers tend to engage in checklists: how was the scenery; how was the acting. I’m more interested in feeling my way through an argument. More…
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Derf, Cartoon
A comic strip is something that stands out on the gray page; it’s an attention grabber; but you still need something to say at the end of the day. If you don’t have something to say, you’re just drawing pretty pictures. At least make a damn joke. More…
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Rene Spencer Saller, Illinois Times, Music Criticism
The Ying Yang Twins was a weird review because when I heard “The Whisper Song” on the radio, it sounded cool. But I hadn’t really examined it. When I did, I got angry. Why do I go through these elaborate hoops to try and celebrate, or defend, some guys who think I’m a piece of meat? More…
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Ben Joravsky, Chicago Reader, Column–Political
There are some segments of city government that show me some hostility. Some city publicists don’t return my phone calls. But that stuff largely doesn’t matter to me. I operate outside the city’s power structure….My stories come from people who call me up and say, “You won’t believe what happened to me.” More…
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Michael Shavalier, Miami New Times, Editorial Layout
I try to design in a way that can open up a story to different sorts of readers. We have to try to stay hip but at the same time not scare off the older readers. You can’t grunge everything up because they’re not going to want to read it. Trying to find the balance is sometimes hard. More…
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Ted S. McGregor Jr., Pacific Northwest Inlander, Special Section
A lot of editors struggle with how to make these kinds of sections not only interesting for the readers but interesting for their staff. It’s a real challenge. My attitude is, it’s one of our best-read papers of the year. The return rate is under two percent. Let’s have some fun with it. More…
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  | Chris Street and Shannon Cornman, Oklahoma Gazette, Cover Design I totally believe the less complex the cover the better…. A cover works really well if you can recognize it from 20 feet away, and the picture interests you and makes you walk over and pick it up. More… |
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David Butow, Los Angeles Citybeat, Photography
I don’t consider myself an artist. Ultimately, I want people to be interested in the subjects of my pictures and not in me. I can’t disappear completely, because I want to use my sense of composition, and I interpret things the way I see them, but it’s really about the people and the situations. More…
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Tom Christie, L.A. Weekly, Format Buster
The best part is stirring it up and seeing the mix in the end. I appreciate the political things — they’re important — but I have more fun with the creative ones, some of which seem to come out of nowhere. More…
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Jeff Billman, Orlando Weekly, Format Buster
This was a way to say, “Here’s what the mayor isn’t telling you. Here’s the context.” A lot of the media around here will just carry his water. They won’t break down his speech and say, “Here, he’s full of shit.” That’s where I saw our role coming in. More…
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Mara Shalhoup, Creative Loafing (Atlanta), Feature Story
I wanted it to be a very straightforward Truman-Capote-esque story. My feeling about voice is that if you’re reading about a subject, you want to hear that person’s voice, not the writer’s voice. Commenting on it is almost editorializing it in a way. More…
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J.J. Marley, Orlando Weekly, Cover Design
You want something that’s going to catch the reader’s eye, and at the same time it’s got to be attractive to sell more retail ads and Web sites, since it’s a free paper. To get a bigger readership is the first and foremost goal of any group of cover designers — to make sure there are none left on the stands at the end of the week. More…
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Jonathan Gold, L.A. Weekly, Food Writing/Criticism
Being a restaurant critic, you’re writing mostly about small business. … I had a taste for blood at the time that I started doing this, but when I shut down a restaurant — it’s just a horrible thing. I mean, they may be putting out bad food but they don’t deserve to die. More…
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Laurie Ochoa, L.A. Weekly, Special Section
Some years we do a classic “Best Of,” … But we find that you can start writing about the same place over and over again — so we make the issue also be about living in the city and finding the secrets about surviving here and having fun here.More…
