I tend to gravitate toward the "act two," or "act three," or "act four" stories - either things that are underreported, where we think we already know the common narrative, or things that are at the margins of an over-reported story, where we're all so focused in one direction that we're missing something crucial that's unfolding off to the side.
Sarah StillmanWhat narrative journalism does is create a language or open up a space where someone can say, "Oh, this happened to me, too."
Sarah StillmanThereโs no such thing as being totally โfoundโโฆthe fun, I think, is in the searching.
Sarah StillmanOne thing I've discovered is that I never think of something that didn't work out as just "something that didn't work out." I think so often with investigative work, things that initially look like failures wind up leading to your biggest stories.
Sarah StillmanI wanted to think about ways to get an American readership concerned with what is happening in Mexico, but also to reframe it as a problem Americans share.
Sarah Stillman