Brady Dennis discusses his creation of the "300 Words" short story series he wrote while working as a night cops reporter. The series featured ordinary people in 300 words or less. Dennis wanted to highlight people who would not normally be in the newspaper and focus on universal themes that readers could relate to on a human level. He found that relying primarily on observation rather than interviews made him a better reporter. The short word limit forced economical writing and focus on only the most important details. He hopes others will be willing to take risks and try new approaches to storytelling.

1. Rethinking
Our Writing
Tell More Compelling Stories and
Write Less Articles

2. Words Are an Investment
Every word should be strategically
placed and thought out

3. 300
Word
Stories
Our goal for
story telling

4. Brady Dennis
Brady Dennis was a night cops reporter in the Tampa
bureau of Poynter’s St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times when he
started writing “300 Words,” a series of short stories
about ordinary people, in 2004.

5. Brady Dennis
I first dreamed up “300 Words” while working as a night cops
reporter in Tampa. For starters, I wanted a project that offered
a break from the usual murder and mayhem that I typically
covered (and enjoyed covering). But more importantly, I
wanted to take a chance and offer something in the metro
section that readers weren’t used to seeing, something different
that would make them slow down and take a breath and view
the people they passed each day a little differently. I knew I
wanted the pieces to be short and to highlight people that
otherwise never would make the newspaper. Luckily, I [worked
with] a photographer who shared this vision and a brave editor
willing to try new approaches and fend off the skeptics.

6. Brady Dennis
The easiest thing was my complete confidence in the
people we would find. I believe that each person not
only has a story to tell, but that each person has a story
that matters. I’ve always felt humbled in the presence of
everyday, “ordinary” people who are willing to share
their lives with us. Give me them any day over
politicians and celebrities.

7. Brady Dennis
The hardest thing, I suppose, was finding a theme in
each piece that was universal — love, loss, death,
change, new beginnings. Something everyone could
relate to on a human level. I didn’t think it was enough
to say, “Look, here’s an interesting person.” I wanted to
capture that person in a moment when readers could
say, “I understand. I’ve been there.”

8. Brady Dennis
“300 Words” made me a better reporter by forcing me
to rely primarily on observation. Notice that most pieces
contain almost no quotes. I didn’t interview people as
much as I simply shut my mouth and watched and
listened. We don’t do that enough.
It also made me a more economical writer. With only
300 words to spare, each word had to matter. I’ve
tried to apply that rule to the other stories I do, even the
long ones. The idea is to cut away the fat and leave only
the muscle. “Less is more:” It’s true for most stories we
write.

9. What do we change?
• Focus on a story. A universal theme.
• Don’t interview. Observe.
• Find the thing about the person everyone can
connect to.
• Quotes define the person to the core.
• Short is better. Web readers don’t want long.
Neither do yearbook readers.
• Observe. Listen. Write. Edit. Write.

10. What does this mean for me?
• 3C story a six weeks
• CCC=300 in roman numerals
• Concise. Core. Compelling.
• Not a maestro project
• Top three each six-weeks wins gift cards
• Can be written or in video form

11. Samples
• Look for the personal connection
• Look at the word choice
• Look at the quote – Does it define the person?
• Look for the theme

12. After the Sky Fell
Tampa Bay Times photo: Chris Zuppa
The loneliness of the overnight shift at a Suncoast
Parkway toll booth: Lloyd Blair, 71, sits back and waits for
the next driver to come by his station.

13. After the Sky Fell
The few drivers on this dark, lonely stretch of the Suncoast Parkway in Pasco County
pull up to the toll booth, hand their dollars to Lloyd Blair and then speed away. None of
them knows why the old man sits here, night after night, working the graveyard shift.
Well, here's why:
Because years ago, on a freezing winter night at a party in Queens, N.Y., he met a woman
named Millie.
Because he fell in love with her brown hair and wide eyes and 100-watt smile.
Because they got married, moved to Staten Island, had a son and worked for decades in
Manhattan; she as an accountant, he as a banker.
Because it had been their dream to retire to Florida, and so they saved all their lives to
make it possible.
Because, just as they began to talk of leaving New York and heading south, she was
diagnosed with breast cancer, and they spent their time and money traveling to New
Jersey, San Diego and Mexico in search of a cure.

14. Because, in the end, they came to Florida anyway.
Because they finally bought a house in Spring Hill, although she was too weak that day
to get out of the car.
Because she died nine days later on Jan. 5, 2002, a day "the whole sky fell," he says.
Because, after she was gone, he found himself alone and $100,000 in debt.
And so he took a job collecting tolls. The drivers who pass by see a smiling 71-year-old
man with blue eyes and a gray mustache who tells each of them, "Have a great night!"
They don't know the rest of Lloyd Blair's story, or that he keeps Millie's picture in his
shirt pocket, just under his name tag, just over his heart.
After the Sky Fell

15. One Hour At A Time
[Times photo: Chris Zuppa]
Thomas Herold kisses his daughter Cheyenne through
the glass at the Orient Road Jail in Tampa on
Wednesday. His mother, Janet, watches.

16. One Hour At A Time
He missed Cheyenne's first steps.
Missed her first Thanksgiving. First Christmas. First tooth.
Just the other day, he missed her learning how to slurp spaghetti.
He hasn't held her in six months, hasn't watched her play with her favorite toy
shopping cart. He hasn't heard her cry in the middle of the night or giggle in her
crib beside the bed he shared with his wife, Cheyenne's mother.
"I've missed everything," he says.
He has measured his daughter's life in hourlong visits, twice a week. They meet
in this drab concrete block room, separated always by a thick sheet of glass. She
usually wears pink; he always wears orange.
Looking at her feels like looking through the window at a pot of gold, he says.
Beautiful and priceless, but always out of reach.

17. One Hour At A Time
Thomas Herold, 29, has only himself to blame.
He has tangled with the law for years - burglary, marijuana, weapons charges. In
October, a year after a massive raid in Pasco County, he was convicted in federal
court of conspiring to distribute cocaine.
The world will forever know him as a criminal. But when Cheyenne looks through
the window, she sees the man who makes her laugh with his funny faces. She sees
the man who presses his lips against the glass, trying in vain to kiss hers.
This morning, at 8:30, the father will stand before a judge and learn his fate. At best,
he thinks, he'll get 10 years in prison. At worse, he could get life.
Either way, he'll wake up three weeks from now in some distant federal penitentiary,
far from home and far from Cheyenne's deep brown eyes. It will be March 31.
Her first birthday.

18. The Man in the Mirror
[Times photo: Chris Zuppa]
The big night: Rick Waddell, left, shares "a classic
moment" with his son Josh King. Little brother, Allen
Waddell, watches.

19. He's standing there in front of the mirror, dressed in more pink than he's ever worn
in his life. He's 17, a senior at Lakewood High School in St. Petersburg.
Josh King can't stop staring into that mirror. The seconds pass. He poses. He
pauses.
The boy stares out at the man. The man stares back at the boy.
And there they are.
The man in him paid for this tuxedo - pink shirt, pink socks, pink shoes - with the
money he earned mowing lawns. The man paid for his haircut and the tickets to
tonight's prom. The man is paying for dinner.
The man in him helps look after his younger brothers. The man will graduate later
this month and yearns to escape Florida. He's the one who will head to college in
Virginia. He's the one who will study business, then find a job, find a wife, find his
way in the world.
The Man in the Mirror

20. And then there is the boy in Josh King.
He's the one who still has baseball trophies on his dresser and a Porsche poster on
his wall.
He's the one who feels nervous tonight, the one who will feel a shiver creep down
his neck when he picks up his date - a girl he thought was out of his league.
The boy in him will forget to open the car door for her. He will play his music too
loud and be too shy to say much during dinner.
The boy in him still doesn't know how to tie a tie. So his father shows him. And as
the father slips the tie from his neck and puts it on his son's, he smiles and says,
"This is a classic moment."
They both look at the mirror, knowing how soon the boy will disappear.
The Man in The Mirror

21. Brady Dennis
One thing I would offer is my opinion that, now, more
than ever, we should be willing to take risks and
make reading the paper an unpredictable and
interesting exercise. “300 Words” was an effort at that.
But there are a million other possibilities, and
journalists are pretty bright folks. All it takes is the
willingness to risk something new.

22. Steve Hartman
A reporter for CBS News, Hartman wanted to tell the
stories never told on the nightly news cast. He wanted
to prove that “Everyone Has A Story.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6083691n
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y5UEGLWKdw

23. What About Boring People
Without A Story to Tell?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku0gCFI0V9Q

24. Notice The Ending Themed
Tag Line
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIC4v2rJjdY

25. Your Name
What story will you tell? Will it make your reader
laugh, cry, think, want? Will the story be something
you’re proud of and will want to show off?