I’m writing this diary ahead of the first Daily Kos Writing Workshop hosted on Zoom by DK Community Content Managing Editor Jessica Sutherland, Content Strategist Cara Zelaya and Trending News Managing Editor Jen Hayden. It’s scheduled for this Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT.
Obviously the first hurdle to overcome in writing a diary is finding a subject. The contents of this diary are based entirely on my own professional experience as writer/editor for 40-plus years as well as my observations of DK content.
From 1998-2004, CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman hosted a segment called “Everybody Has a Story” on the nightly news.
Every two weeks someone would throw a dart at a map of the U.S. Hartman would go wherever the dart hit, flip through the local phone book and pick a name at random. He then did a story on someone at that home, assuming they were willing.
The idea for doing the project came from a newspaper reporter, David Johnson, who worked for the Lewiston, Idaho, who for at least two decades would pick the names of people out of his local phone book and put their stories on the front page.
After interviewing Johnson, Hartman decided to try the idea himself.
“I was doing it more or less as a joke," Hartman said years later. "I never dreamed you could actually find good stories like that. Turns out I couldn't have been more wrong. Like David, I now believe the white pages are chock full of amazing, untold stories."
So I believe that with a little encouragement everybody in the Daily Kos community can if they choose to write a diary. Here are my thoughts on finding a subject. I will also try to use content from today’s trending posts as examples.
MAKE IT PERSONAL
This is a community with eclectic tastes and a curiosity to learn about different subjects. So if you’re passionate about something be it your hobby, historical events, how certain policies impact your own life, issues in the news that concern you, something going on in your community, struggles you’ve dealt with in your own life, etc., you might very well find a receptive audience.
Now there are diarists who have carved out a special niche by writing about topics which they are personally passionate about: Denise Oliver Velez with her “Black Music Sunday,” pieces; Lenny Flank with his diaries about aviation history and photo diaries about parks and museums, and Sally DeLurks with her “Nittens are in the house” diaries about the adventures of the two kittens she adopted in April 2020.
I think that nothing illustrates this better than the day when the top trending community story was a diary titled “This might be the best toaster ever made” in which the author Enoch RoOt waxed enthusiastically over the features of a vintage Sunbeam toaster.
Here are some examples from today’s trending list:
1. “We were gifted tickets to a show in Scottsdale, AZ. Then the Maskholes showed up. This is our story” by Rule of Claw.
2.”I got the shot” by bigjacbigjacbigjac.
3. “I have autism. Why an autocracy scares me” by boofdah.
And remember you can always write a diary about your pootie or woozle.
THINK LOCALLY
In journalism there is a trickle up process. A story might start out being reported in the local news, only to end up days later as a national news story. The Associated Press as a news cooperative has access to stories in member newspapers. It can rewrite and pickup stories for a regional wire going statewide and to other states in the region. Some stories end up being reported on and expanded for the national/international wire.
I think the best example of this is the case of the shooting death of Trayvon Mitchell by George Zimmerman. Martin was killed on Feb. 26, 2012 in a gated community in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman was held for five hours before being released.
The shooting was covered in local news reports. But it wasn’t until March 7 that Reuters reported on the case and the story went national.
So you can be the eyes and ears of this community. Is there a story being covered by the local newspapers or TV news that you think might be of broader interest, then write about it here.
It could be about a law under consideration in your state legislature — the Texas vigilante anti-abortion law was passed in May 2021, and was debated before then. It went into effect on Sept. 1.
There are also stories that begin locally about people that can’t get treatment in ERs or an ICU because hospitals are being inundated by unvaccinated COVID patients. There are anti-mandate protesters disrupting school board or other public meetings.
Here are some examples from today:
1. The number one trending story at midday was Pakalolo’s “George W. Bush called out to his face over his war crimes in Iraq.” The sources for the story were MyNewsLA.com, a website devoted to local Los Angeles news, and two Twitter posts.
2. “New poll shows Abbott’s hard-right turn is unpopular; Matthew McConaughey leads him by 9 points” by Lefty Coaster. The story is based on a report in The Dallas Morning News.
3. “Indiana county rejects $3 million grant after COVID-19 conspiracy theories sway council votes” by Dartagnan. The diary is based on an AP story, and then adds details from the local Goshen News.
CHOOSE AN ISSUE THAT INTERESTS OR CONCERNS YOU
Perhaps there is an issue that interests or concerns you. Maybe it is an issue that you are actively engaged in, or an issue that you have expertise in. If that’s the case you may be reading reports in academic journals, following the topic on Reddit or Facebook, looking at websites of groups dealing with the issue. All of these may be the source for diary topics.
Near the top of today’s trending list is a diary by Slinky Poo for the DK Climate Brief Group titled “Climate Crisis RED ALERT: A Horrifying Stat Just Published.” The author who is obviously concerned about the climate crisis cites a BBC report and also provides links to organizations that are taking action on this issue.
BREAKING NEWS
Obviously breaking news reports can be the subject for a diary. But this can be tricky because other community members or a Daily Kos staffer might be writing on the same topic.
Sometimes the rush to be first to publish something results in a diary that has no content except for a few paragraphs from a story in the Washington Post, CNN or some other news outlet.
There’s nothing wrong with rushing out a story. When I was working for a major news outlet, the procedure was to put out a news alert with just one sentence, e.g. Manhattan prosecutor says Donald Trump has been indicted for tax fraud; then put out a brief story of maybe 150-250 words with key details, and then put out multiple writethrus adding details, reaction, etc. until you have a full story.
So if you’ve written a diary quoting the initial news report, and your diary starts getting recommends and comments, you should think about using the edit or update functions to add to your original diary and make it your own rather than a mere pickup of a story from a news outlet.
Here are some tips on how to do so.
1. Let’s say there is a Washington Post story that you decide is worthy of a digest. The Post story may very well contain links to the source material, for example a press release, a Tweet, a court document, or a report from a think tank or pollster. Once you obtain the source material that is public record then the only thing you need to attribute to the Post story are any excerpts you take from that story with the appropriate links.
2. You can see how other news outlets are reporting the story, and if there is something you think is worth including in your diary add it with the proper attribution. You can mix details from a New York Times story with material from the Post story.
3. Look up the subject on Twitter and see if there are any tweets with reaction that you can use in your diary. Sometimes there are videos posted on Twitter related to the breaking news story.
4. Read comments to your story. Some might contain updates or additional material worth adding to your story.
5. And of course express your own reaction to the news report and its relevance to the community. For examples, just look at how breaking news report are handled by your favorite DK staffers.
Finally, if you just follow what’s happening in your community, nationally or internationally from a variety of sources you can find topics that might interest you enough to write a diary about. I could just look through the comments on the daily Good News Roundup on DK and find topics that are worth turning into a diary.
And of course nobody has to write a diary. You can get your feet wet by just commenting if you read something that interests you. Even the simple act of recommending a diary or clicking on the tip jar contributes to this community by encouraging those that do write something.
Feel free to comment or send me a kosmail if you have more specific questions about anything I wrote.