Lascher at Large » Writing and Reporting

Blogathon haiku day: My watched pot of a career

Bill — Wed, 11 May 2011 04:26:30 +0000

Stories now simmer

Words gathered chopped stirred and mixed

Their flavor seeps out

Heart of the Monster: Journey to SEJ 2010, Part 3

Bill — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 21:11:01 +0000

I admit that the story – and this entire series, delayed as it may be – has meandered from its path. Nevertheless, I'm also wrestling with how to respond honestly to my experiences, with what happened in my brain on the journey and whether it's self-indulgent to serve this soup of thought (it's a little too stagnant to call it a stream) to you, instead of a straightforward report of the who and the what I saw where and when. Which approach provides the real, honest reporting? [...]

Roads traveled, stories unraveled

Bill — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:24:22 +0000

For the next week or so, each day I'll recount some element of my October trip to and from the 2010 Society of Environmental Journalists conference. I'll combine my recollection of what I saw, experienced or learned, tweets I made at the time, photographs and links to some of the cool things I learned. Check back each day for new reflections, tales and reports. At the end of my updates I'll post a link to read the story as one narrative (and post a complete photo album as well). Be prepared. This series will include a mix of storytelling styles -- don't expect straight journalism, or complete creativity. In fact, don't expect anything but a journey. More than two months after I've returned from one journey, though, I've yet to trace its path. I still haven't traced my trip from Portland to Missoula and back, and I can't quite express why not. Perhaps I don't feel like the trip's over, like I've truly returned. Perhaps I can't record it until I've described it, until I've wrapped the journey in words and pictures and recollections that I realize are fading with each day. Some of you might not be interested in such ponderings. “Get to the point,” you'll say. “Tell me about the conference. Tell me what you learned, what you saw along the way, what the latest news is. I only have so much time. Don't you know attention spans are ever so slight? Haven't you ever heard of an editor?" Indeed I do, and I have. As I've noted elsewhere, as so many have noted before, though, to truly travel you can't simply move from Point A to Point B. You can't experience this world's multiplicity of dimensions through a straight line. The truth is, of course, I did wait to write this down. I let the story fester. I let it fall away and apart. Like anyone might, I've been making excuses for months now for not chronicling my trip. My terrible cold on the road. Assignments due just upon my return. Job applications. Novel Writing. Story development. Other conferences to attend as a reporter. Holidays. I could think of any number of reasons why you're reading this now, today, this very second, and only now, but this is the moment, this is when these words take shape. [...]

Following a War Correspondent’s Footsteps to the Oil Spill

Bill — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 00:39:47 +0000

Will following the footsteps of Melville Jacoby, a World War II correspondent and my grandmother's cousin, help me cover the gulf oil spill? [...]

Where I’ve been

Bill — Thu, 27 May 2010 07:27:03 +0000

Earlier this month, as quite a few of my most recent readers know, I was diligently participating in the 2010 Blogathon. It has been an interesting experiment for me. I tend to resist writing for frequency. I think writing with intention is so much more meaningful. Part of me also strongly resists writing about writing, [...]

Guest Post – All for one and one for all: why writer communities

Bill — Tue, 18 May 2010 17:57:21 +0000

Michelle Rafter, Blogathon Organizer and Owner of WordCount

One of the more interesting features of the 2010 Blogathon is today’s guest post exchange day. Blogathon participants have wandered about the Internet to post on each other’s blogs. Visiting Lascher at Large today is Michelle Rafter, a freelance business and technology reporter who blogs about [...]

Accounting

Bill — Mon, 17 May 2010 18:00:45 +0000

Some statistics about my participation in the 2010 Blogathon as of May 17, 2010:

Posts that have traveled through time: 4

Story pitches made to outside publications instead of turned into posts: 3

Percentage of posts made after 11 p.m.: 90

Instances of nakedness while composing/posting items: 3

Drafts written in bath tubs: 1

Drafts [...]

The Free(lance)dom to Investigate

Bill — Sat, 08 May 2010 06:15:17 +0000

Like Jen Willis, today I attended an investigative business journalism seminar organized by the Reynolds Center. Unlike Jen, though, I don’t feel as pessimistic about the potential for freelance journalists to do investigative work. Nor do I feel staff writers should lament, at least not for the long term. What I took away more than [...]

Hesitations

Bill — Thu, 06 May 2010 05:48:41 +0000

I’ve been skirting a number of un-publicly-expressed goals of mine during the 2010 Blogathon, or so I’d like to say.

I knew when I agreed to participate in the Blogathon that I’d run headlong into a passion of mine or two. Except when meeting a reporting deadline, I don’t believe in writing in a [...]

In Transit

Bill — Tue, 04 May 2010 06:59:17 +0000

Last Spring, I wrote a commentary about my personal experiences with transit in Los Angeles. An assignment for a class, it was something of a companion to the reporting I’d done for my master’s project, the work that became “R We There Yet.” I was proud of the final piece that emerged, as I [...]