EVERY WRITER NEEDS AN EDITOR. Some are fortunate to have good ones; others have bad ones, and many have none at all. If you are in the latter two categories, Dick Weiss can help.
Dick offers workshops and provides one-on-one coaching in person or by e-mail for journalists, freelance writers, students, communications professionals, and those who have simply got a story to tell.
Dick has 30 years experience as an award winning reporter, editor and writing coach, most of them at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Visit "About WeissWrite" for a bio and writing samples.
High School Journalists Speak Out Against Drug And Alcohol Abuse
For the last few years I've been working with Healthy Communiites of St. Charles County on a program that encourages student journalists to write compelling stories about ways to prevent drug and alcohol abuse and to foster healthy lifestyles. Each year students have risen to the challenge with stories that both touch the heart and the mind.
And each year we present awards for the very best stories. This year's winner is Megan Ogar (left) of Fort Zumwalt West High School for her story about a fellow student who lost her father in a drunk driving accident. You can read that piece by clicking here: Drunken Disaster. Zach Vicars of Francis Howell High School took second place with his story about two smokers, one a high school student, and the other an adult who paid the consequences for his inability to kick the habit. Follow this link to read that story: From First Light To Haunted Night. Megan won tickets to a Cardinals game and Zach won tickets to a Rams game for their efforts. Thanks to the Lowenbaum Partnership and the St. Louis Rams for donating the prizes.
-- Dick Weiss
Making Your Story Sing -- A Special Concert and Workshop on June 11
A sampler from the Making Your Story Sing workshop (9 minutes)
Listen to Phoebe sing (3 minutes)
Join writing coach Dick Weiss and singer-songwriter Phoebe Claggett for a St. Louis Press Club event that you'll find useful and entertaining -- a concert and a workshop all rolled into one.
Date: 5:30 pm, Monday, June 11, 2007
Place: Seven Gables Inn, 26 North Meramec Avenue, Clayton, MO 63105.
Admission: $20; $18 for Press Club members
Reservations: Send an e-mail to info@stlpressclub.org
Admission: $20; $18 for Press Club members
In a song-filled session, spiced with readings, Weiss and Claggett demonstrate the techniques that songwriters use to tell their tales and how they might be applied to the stories you write.
Songwriters use metaphors. They say a lot using very few words. They build stories with their lyrics that keep listeners listening and hanging on each word. They also are personal, close to the bone, intimate and yet universal. How do they do that?
Weiss and Claggett supply some of the answers. But then you will as well. You’ll be asked to write lyrics to a song. Phoebe will choose a few to put to music and within minutes sing them back to you. Bring a hanky.
Proceeds benefit the Press Club’s scholarship fund.
The Best Stories You've nEver Read -- Second in a Series
From time to time, I'll post links to gripping stories here that are meaningful and relevant to our times. Today I recommend S.L. Price's "Dark Times for a Baseball Man" in the recent edition of Sports Illustrated. It's a fascinating character study of Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa.
Covering Tony LaRussa & A-Rod
Why can't the local paper do a profile as penetrating as the one Sports Illustrated did on Tony LaRussa? Click on this link to listen to or download the podcast.
Sports Illustrated's penetrating profile of Tony LaRussa raises a question. Why can't the reporters who cover the Cardinals get the manager to be as frank and candid with them as he is with the national media. Dick Weiss and McGraw Milhaven discuss this on the McGraw Show on KTRS (550-AM) Also on the front burner: The New York Post's front page treatment of Alex Rodriguez's after-hours interest in a woman-not-his-wife.
Click here for a list of all podcasts
Blutarsky Strikes Again
Did the Post-Dispatch really say the Germans attacked Pearl Harbor? Well, yes, but columnist Dan O'Neill was merely quoting Animal House's Bluto Blutarsky. Nevertheless, the paper ran a correction. Dick Weiss and McGraw Milhaven discuss this and other topics on the McGraw Show on KTRS (550-AM). Also should the Democratic candidates make FOX more fair and balanced by showing up for a debate the channel sponsors?
Click here for a list of all podcasts
Best High School Column In The State
Here's a great column written by Katharine Weiss, an editor and columnist for the Clayton Globe. She is distantly related to the head of WeissWrite LLC, Dick Weiss. Actually, she lives in his house. This column about Katharine's visit to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem won first place at the Show Me Awards competition at the University of Missouri. Read it and you'll see why. (Scroll down to the second page on the PDF).
The Best Stories You've nEver Read -- First In A Series
From time to time, I'll post links to gripping stories that are meaningful and relevant to our times. Today I recommend Thomas Curwen's: "Attacked by a grizzly" printed April 29 and 30 in the Los Angeles Times. It's the story of Johan Otter and his daughter, Jenna, who were mauled by a 400-pound grizzly and lived to tell the tale. They did so many times to the media in the immediate aftermath, but those renderings were superficial. After some time passed, Curwen went back to the story and got inside Otter's mind in a way that you will find compelling.
I found this story through my association with Writer-L, a listserv for non-fiction writers. It is also posted in the Nieman Narrative Digest, along with some other great examples of narrative journalism.
Features Flap At The Post-Dispatch
On the McGraw Show on KTRS-AM (550), Dick Weiss and McGraw Milhaven discuss the rollout of the new -- and not-so-improved -- feature sections at the Post-Dispatch. Readers responded with hundreds of e-mails and reporters, too, expressed their dismay. Also: Mike Wallace's impertinent question to MItt Romney and coverage of Jerry Falwell's death.
Click here for a list of all podcasts
A New Voice For St. Louis
On the McGraw Show on KTRS-AM (550), Dick and McGraw talk about a new journalism website for St. Louis, the end of Christine Bertelson's tenure as editorial page editor and Rupert Murdoch's bid for the Wall Street Journal.
Click here for a list of all podcasts
Tony Stows The Fungo Bat
On the McGraw Show on KTRS-AM (550), Dick and McGraw discuss how Tony LaRussa seemed to back down from his aggressive posture toward the press after learning Josh Hancock had been driving drunk. They also look at ABC's coverage of the DC Madam which yielded very little.
Click here for a list of all podcasts
