Can extremophiles save the cat? Using “story grid”

Structuring stories Telling science stories can take the basic form of a “why / how / what” presentation, or the more ambitious form of a “story grid”, like the kind that bestselling writers use in nonfiction books, thrillers, and Hollywood films—one popular version is the “Save the Cat” technique of gridding out a story from…

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Storytelling or spinning narratives—what’s the difference?

Coming up in March 2025, NeuWrite Nordic will meet with the University of Helsinki branch of the international ReproducibiliTea journal club to discuss the downside of narratives in science. Bias and the spinning of results have become endemic, especially in medical research. What, actually, are the differences between justified storytelling to convey robust scientific findings…

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Going deep—getting the writer and reader immersed

What happens when, as we research and write, we take a really deep dive—especially into subject matter that might be outside our expertise, or into a complicated real-world situation, or even into the minds of the people we’re writing about? What ethical problems arise for us as writers? What writing techniques can we use? How…

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Using dramatic stories to teach

How to get readers interested in the nuances of complex debates over climate policy? Yawn. Unless, maybe, you start your story like this: A typhoon has hit Manila during a UN climate summit, and world leaders are stuck in the basement of a Manila hotel. The American president has a psychological meltdown after a tree…

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