Sentence x Sentence Dispatches from the Pursuit of Good Writing

Somehow, it’s been almost 25 years since my undergraduate mentor, a beloved journalism professor, urged our nonfiction writing class out into the world to ask questions: If you go looking for a story, a story will happen. The phrase’s durability stems from its Zen-like acceptance of chance, of discovery. Stated: If you go, it’ll happen. Unstated: “It” might not be what you thought you were looking for.

Here’s an incomplete list of things we don’t typically think about when we think about writing: the doodled-on diner napkins, the hastily-scribbled notes on the backs of receipts, the three cryptic words on a palm: “mulch, apple, Volkswagen.” The scattered moments of potentially promising thought.