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How to write about sex or boredom
Few writing tasks are as risky as describing sex. The task itself is easy and can be fun—but even celebrated writers make fools of themselves doing it, revealing their own ...
Half a career, one story, four lives saved
Brian Patrick O’Donoghue spent half his career covering one news story, about four young Alaska Native men convicted of a 1997 murder. In 2015, thanks to his work, they were ...
Is ghost-writing dishonest?
Alaska founding father Vic Fischer inscribed the book Charles helped him write. Eyes widen at parties when I tell people I am a ghostwriter, as if I’ve admitted I do ...
The skill and ethics of a great investigative journalist
Recently I used a computer shortcut Rich Mauer taught me 35 years ago. A little later, I got news he had died at 76. I want to share some of ...
How to detect exaggerations and lies
A journalist pulled out a notebook in a bar in a tiny town in Alaska and started to write down the stories the bullshitter on the next stool was feeding ...
Hopeful shoots grow amid the stumps of dead newspapers
Michael Armstrong. Photo by Janet Shook Michael Armstrong dedicated 22 years to the small-town weekly Homer News before he retired. When it blew up over a Charlie Kirk article last ...
Throw away your list of questions
Studs Terkel was one of the great interviewers of all time. Kathleen Ballard, Los Angeles Times. https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz0002w418 Here are some of the rules I’ve learned from doing thousands of interviews ...
One Jersey Shore weatherman’s fight for integrity
The cheerful weather forecaster in front of a green screen—if you can’t trust that guy, who can you trust? But the temptation to seek clicks has infected even the weather ...
Charles Wohlforth has written many of his own books, has ghost-written others, and helps many writers find their own way into print. Learn how to work with Charles.
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