Sourcing: Google and research your subject thoroughly (check Facebook and MySpace, too, along with person’s Web site or blog if he/she has one)  and interview at least five people – including your subject. Also give me a list of sources and contact info.

“Do something with them other than sit in an office,” Brown says.

Brown says he fills note pads with seemingly random and meaningless details when he’s interviewing people for profiles. When his subject goes off on a tangent, Brown plays a common reporter trick: He makes it appear as if he’s totally engaged but he’s really writing down the color of the spot on the guy’s tie. You can’t gather too many details or too much information when writing a profile. As you’re sitting down to write, you’ll have your choice of juicy narrative details that can make your story.

“It’s the little tiny things that make all the difference,” Brown says.

Brown recalls reading a piece by Maureen Dowd on Rush Limbaugh. She wrote about having lunch with him and included a telling detail – Limbaugh blew his nose on the restaurant napkin mid-meal.

Brown highlights the importance of asking open-ended questions as a way to get your subject to expound upon something. Sometimes, he’ll ask more reluctant or quiet sources to just “tell me what you know about this.” Before long, the subject is talking and talking – and forgetting you’re a reporter gobbling up every word.

Brown talks about his “Start to Finish” series in the Post. He’s written about grassfed beef beginning with a rambunctious tan steer and ending with choice beef cuts on a local grill, and goat cheese that began with some goats tended by prisoners in Canon City. When he wrote about the life of a steer on a Wyoming ranch run by Native American cowboys, he got the most comments he’s ever gotten from readers. And he had the most access a reporter has probably ever had to a meat processing plant. The description was a little gory – but that’s life if you eat meat.

For the steer story, he estimates he spent about 10 days total reporting and writing it. Of course, he had other editorial tasks to do for the Post during that time.

For writers, the most important thing is getting the good clips, Brown says. The name of the publication doesn’t matter nearly as much as the quality of the single story. So, he urges new writers to write good stories and use them to land even better assignments. Of course, it helps being a creative thinker. For years, it puzzled Brown when he’d encounter male friends and confusion erupted about whether a hug, a back pat or handshake was in order. Once, he collided with a buddy when he went for the hug and the friend went for the shake. So, he wrote a story about it.

Final social issues: 11 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 19

Third re-write of business, science/enviro or social issues story  to boost the grade: 11 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 3

Profile draft (only if you want feedback): 9 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 9

Final profile story: 11:59 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12

Godspeed.

Just Do it/MSNBC

profile tips

Lindsay walked into her new homeroom. Nervous because she didn’t know anyone.  A little pissed because she knew all her friends from middle school were probably happily enjoying their first day of high school together and she wasn’t there.

Instead, she was here, in homeroom at Archbishop Mitty High School, a school her parents had chosen for her because of its better track record. Wearing her new navy blue Abercrombie & Fitch shirt, (apparently this was the store of choice for students at Archbishop), Lindsay joined the pow-wow circle on the floor with the other freshmen as they prepared to do those silly ice-breaker games that began to elicit groans from the too cool teenagers.

The girl sitting next to Lindsey was wearing the same shirt only in light blue.  She didn’t know anyone else, either, but Lindsay recognized her from one of the other public middle schools in the area.  They went through the typical, “Didn’t you go to so and so?” and “Weren’t you friends with what’s her face?” and an immediate bond was formed.

Lindsay sighed an internal breath of relief.  She knew she wouldn’t have to go through the process of meeting new people alone.