The Author’s Checklist

the first time, I began inserting myself into my writing as first-person narrator.

This experimentation in narrative form served me well as I began a new stage of my career: metropolitan columnist.

a, other reporters wrote the breaking stories. I came in later and spent weeks piecing together the story behind the story.

But increasingly I badgered my editors to let me try my hand at longer-form narrative reads, the kind of stories they called “Sunday takeouts.”

From that point forward, my two inner writers merged into one: narrative nonfiction writer by day and by night. I

This
single class opened my eyes and blew my mind. It is not hyperbole to say it changed my life.

This literary schizophrenia dated back to high school and was the reason I ended up with double majors in English and journalism.

Journalist by day. Creative writer by nigh

I had two distinct and separate impulses roiling inside me, not unlike an engineer by day who plays cello by nig

That was me, a young man with two distinct and contrary writers battling for dominance