ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the basic anatomy of science stories and story ideas. Every good story idea is connected to a topic and a theme. One way to turn topics into tangible story ideas is choosing a focused angle and a clear message. The article titles are very expressive. Both the title and subtitle hint at the article's story idea and angle. Seasoned editors seemingly make intuitive decisions about which stories they commission and which ones they turn down. The same is true of experienced staff writers and freelancers; most have a gut feeling about which story ideas are worth elaborating and eventually pitching. At the heart of these decisions are hard factors that determine whether a story is news-worthy. Scientists' blogs are another excellent source for finding science story ideas. There is a lot of research and a variety of opinions that scientists express in their blogs.