In an article for Writer’s Digest, Erica Plouffe Lazure says that a good newspaper offers both ideas and craft techniques for fiction writers. “Any writer in search of authentic details to build their characters, or to write about a particular era or region, would find what they need in a local newspaper,” Lazure says.
Of course, the headline news provides great fodder for fiction, but other sections are also rife with inspiration, Lazure writes. They include:
- The classifieds. “Consider what kind of character might post (or respond to!) this job listing: AUTOMOTIVE SALESPERSON WANTED, Must have neat appearance and be aggressive.”
- Advice columns. “Mostly it’s people in crisis who write to advice columnists like Dear Abby and Ann Landers, and inadvertently offer any writer a near-ready made story,” Lazure writes.
- Obituaries. “As a fiction writer, combing through the obituaries helps you think meaningfully about the arc of a life story, how one life event leads to and shapes the next, and provides a window into the larger world and the generation in which this person lived, the choices they made, the places they worked and activities they loved, and those they left in their wake,” Lazure says.
- News in brief. “Local newspapers often teem with ‘good news’ tidbits that a fiction writer could co-opt for creative purposes,” Lazure notes.
- The comics. With only 3-4 panels per day, comics can teach you a lot about pacing and brevity. “Writers have lots to learn from graphic novels and the ‘funny pages,’ as far as selecting key scenes, crafting succinct dialog, and accounting for our characters’ surroundings, physical attributes, and personalities,” Lazure says.
