Stanford’s Narrative Journalism course teaches aspiring writers the tools of storytelling

Hannah Bassett (MA 2023) was part of a team which uncovered one of the largest Medicaid fraud schemes in modern U.S. history for the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting. To illustrate the impacts on the state’s Indigenous communities, Bassett knew she needed to go beyond the numbers.

As part of her reporting, she spent six hours riding in a van learning the stories of Courtney Altaha and James Cody Jr. The couple, members of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, came to Phoenix to seek help for their addiction, only to find themselves as unknowing victims of fraudulent providers.   

Bassett said the story had many layers, but it was critical to take a narrative approach. Focusing on the numbers "didn't seem like it was going to do justice to the amount of suffering that was central to what happened in Arizona," she said.

Her piece chronicled the couple's history, their experiences with addiction, and the inadequate services they received at facilities that were supposed to be treating them. Bassett combined details about the couple's life with scenes on the road as the two made their way back to their reservation. 

"Looking for the human experience and centering that in a narrative piece ….  felt like an appropriate strategy," she said.

Bassett said in writing and reporting the story, she thought back to the Narrative Journalism course taught by Lecturer R.B. Brenner at Stanford. 

In the course, students learn the core principles of narrative journalism — how to utilize ingredients often found in fiction, such as complex characters, vivid scenes and story arcs, and apply them to nonfiction. At the end of the course, students turn in a magazine-length story. 

"You enter the class, perhaps, thinking this is mostly about writing,” Brenner said, “but nonfiction narrative really rises and falls on two things. One is that you've done the hard work of pre-reporting and research to select a subject that has the ingredients that fit the form. The second is when those ingredients exist, you have significant access to people and the places they inhabit. This type of reporting requires immersion. You're inside the story.”

Brenner said students also learn the techniques of narrative reconstruction — the event has happened and a reporter must conduct interviews with a level of detail and specificity to recreate it accurately. 

"It's a big reporting challenge," he said.

The course also introduces students to examples of award-winning narrative stories and encourages them to dissect the pieces. Students are sometimes able to talk to the reporters themselves when they appear as guest speakers.

"The students are working on their narrative story with me coaching and editing along the way. We follow a process from story discovery to a detailed outline to multiple drafts," Brenner said. 

Brenner said he wants his students to understand what makes a great narrative story — one that features compelling characters and takes readers on a journey of discovery, and sometimes transformation, alongside them.

"I think the most important thing is to be able to recognize what a narrative is and what it isn't," he said. "Then later, when you're out in the field as a reporter, you’ll say to yourself … Ah, there’s a narrative right in front of me, and I know how to report and write it."

Kate Selig (BA 2024) said she continues to use all of the tools she learned from Brenner's class even years after finishing the course as an undergraduate. She recently wrapped up a fellowship with The New York Times' National Desk. While in the program, Selig wrote a narrative piece about Dr. Bryant Lin, a Stanford University School of Medicine professor who was diagnosed with lung disease. For one quarter, Lin taught medical students a class titled "MED 275: From Diagnosis to Dialogue: A Doctor's Real-Time Battle with Cancer" to share his experience as a patient with aspiring doctors. 

Selig said when she heard about Lin's class, she immediately saw the narrative potential — a 10-week course she could drop in on and an environment where she could foresee changes in both Lin and his students in meaningful ways. 

"I think before [Brenner’s] class, I didn't know how to identify a narrative, how to possibly talk a source into letting you spend not just one hour with them, but maybe multiple days,” Selig said. “I didn't know what to do when you were actually with the person that you're writing about, how to not only get information through questions, but also just your observation, what to look out for."  

Beyond the mechanics of narrative journalism, Selig said Brenner's mentorship and ability to sit down with students and have in-depth conversations — from making difficult judgment calls about structure to getting ideas on how to frame an opening scene — was invaluable for an aspiring journalist.

"[Brenner] did a line edit of the story, which was helpful. [But] he was also there for a lot of conversations about what structurally the piece would look like or whether the piece was even good," Selig said. "He gave off the impression that he was very invested in each piece and was giving us the treatment that I imagined he … would've given to a reporter."

One highlight for many students is the opportunity to hear prominent journalists speak about their work, including Eli Saslow from The New York Times and Lane DeGregory from the Tampa Bay Times. Erin Edwards (MA 2024) called the opportunity to ask questions of distinguished writers "incredible."

" I just remember [DeGregory] saying that when she's struggling … she keeps fiction books behind her desk, and she'll pick one up, and it'll give her inspiration," Edwards said. "[That] really stood out to me, and that's something that I think about if I'm struggling." 

During her time at Stanford, Edwards, a Navy veteran who served as a Helicopter Aircraft Commander, covered stories about issues surrounding reproductive health for women in the military. Edwards developed several stories around the issue as a student, including an investigative piece that also incorporated narrative elements. The story, eventually published by ProPublica, looked into how federal restrictions and the overturning of Roe v. Wade impacted reproductive health care for women in the military. That piece was part of a series that received a Pulitzer Prize. 

Edwards said she couldn't have imagined being able to produce the pieces that she did without the Stanford Journalism courses. 

"You know you kind of can write; you know you're interested in people, and you're curious, but how do I actually make that [into] something that's effective?" she said. 

Edwards said Brenner's class taught her to focus on characters, action, scenes and themes.

" I think it was really helpful in thinking about the story through characters in action and scenes," she said. "It was so helpful in being able to take all of this reporting, all of these hours of interviews and just sit with that … what was the action that I could put a story behind." 

Edwards is currently freelancing and has published pieces with The Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle. Edwards said she is also grateful to the program's professors for teaching the art of pitching and even making introductions to editors. 

"[Freelancing] requires that foot in the door," she said. "There was no way that I would ever be in the position to do this without the program."