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Dick Weiss trains with humor and creativity
The first thing I noticed about Dick Weiss was his sense of humor.
I can't remember what he did or said, but Dick captured my attention right away when he presided over the 1999 National Writers' Workshop in St. Louis, one of four NWW's Dick has organized as writing coach for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He didn't lead any workshops there, at least none that I attended. He was just the ringmaster, but he was witty enough that that was the impression I came away with.
Over the next few years, we became casual friends through online discussions about training and occasional meetings at other journalism events. I also visited his web site ( www.weisswrite.com ) and was particularly touched with "Dad's Write Stuff" ( http://www.weisswrite.com/about/PersonalEssayDadsWriteStuff.htm ), in which Dick tells about his father's incessant optimism in writing articles on a Smith-Corona SuperSpeed typewriter and submitting them to magazines such as the New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly and Reader's Digest. "Weeks later," Dick tells us, "the responses came back. Nope, nope and nope."
Dick took heart from the letter's assurances that the editors had given Mr. Weiss's articles "careful consideration," but Dad responded, "That's what you call a form letter, son."
I could identify with Dick and his father. I have a folder of my own father's submissions to Reader's Digest, though he pounded them out on an old Royal typewriter, which I still have. Dick rehabbed his father's Smith-Corona and still uses it.
I like watching other trainers work, but I kept missing opportunities to watch Dick. Three times we were discussion leaders for the same API seminar, but our schedules didn't overlap enough that I got to watch him. He stuck around once to watch me, but I didn't get to see Dick really lead a training session until about a year ago.
Dick was on the faculty for the Nieman Seminar for Narrative Editors last March. I saw that his creativity enhanced his training in serious ways, too. Dick led a session on the impact narrative has on readers. I don't use PowerPoint a lot because I've seen too many ineffective PowerPoint presentations and because I'm not really good at working in PowerPoint. Dick is. He put together a slide show that flashed along to music, laying out the premise for narrative projects, giving the highlights and summarizing the reader response. When it finished, I felt charged up and ready to write some narrative, and Dick hadn't even said a word yet.
Dick also helped wrap up the seminar the closing day with a comical PowerPoint tribute to Nieman's Mark Kramer, something he obviously had developed the night before, spoofing things Kramer had done and said in the conference.
I got to watch Dick work again last month when I followed him at an American Press Institute seminar for city and metro editors. Again, he showed wit in the presentation and adeptness in using PowerPoint and music to capture the group's attention and drive home points.
After the conference, I asked Dick some questions about his approach to training:
When and how did you get started in training?
I attended worshops at Poynter, API and IRE and learned from the masters. I learned so much from the speakers there that I was inspired to pass it on to others.
How much of your work at the P-D is coaching? What sort of training do you do for the P-D staff?
I'd say that I spend roughly 20 percent of my time on training -- planning and holding workshops, working one-on-one with reporters, and creating handouts. At one point, I was writing coach full time. Different editor, different priorities. I prefer it this way. I like doing journalism too much to simply teach it.
Along with being a writing coach, I organize the metro staff's contributions to the Sunday paper, edit stories and write some stories myself. I'm a hybrid.
You use humor well in your training and in leading NWW's. What is the best use you've made of humor? What attempt at humor bombed the worst? How do you think humor helps drive home the points of training?
I have a short attention span. Others may as well. Humor holds your attention, leads you to expect the unexpected. It creates a mood that writers need -- informality, fun.You have to have a sense of play to unleash your creativity.
Humor also helps when you want to make a serious point, which I try to do at least once or twice in a workshop particularly at the end. If you try to make too many serious points, no one remembers them. But if you've been having fun along the way, then suddenly switch to the slow music, it can be arresting.
The big point I try to make at many workshops is this: Storytelling is huge. We are in charge of building a culture of hope and promise. Think of the stories that terrorists hear and tell each other. What are the stories that the peacemakers have heard? We can make such a tremendous difference in the lives of people on our planet.
I think the best use I've made of humor is to make fun of myself. As a writing coach you're supposed to be a master of the written word. This can be intimidating to people in your audience. They're afraid to send you an e-mail for fear it will contain a grammatical error; they don't want to read their stuff aloud at workshops. So I do a schtick (which is true) about what a lousy student (and writer I was). It features my third grade report card, pictures of my dweeby self and my mom. And then there's my dad, who wrote for the finest journals in the land (New Yorker, Harpers, Atlantic… I tell people he wrote for them, but never got one thing published). The great thing about my dad is that he never quit trying out of sheer love for writing and perhaps to set an example for his wayward son.
My biggest faux pas: I wrote a series of stories for Newspapers in Education Week for middle school kids. It was called How To Be A World Famous, Fabulously Successful Writer. It was quite irreverent and funny. The lede started this way:
Parents lie.
You know that by now don't you?
They told you your medicine tasted good, that there was a Santa Claus and now you're just beginning to discover they've told you another big fat one. Each parent tells this lie in a different way, but it goes something like this:
You can become anything you want to be so long as you work hard and never give up your dream.
Well the point was that you'll probably never become a sports star even if you never give up the dream of being one. But you can become a writer.
A few readers got fixated on Santa. They were the parents of a few vicious siblings who found the lede so hilarious that they read it to their little brothers and sisters. And so the phones began ringing. I had destroyed Christmas for Susie or for Johnny. I regretted that especially given that I'm Jewish. I gave some thought to running a correction saying there really was a Santa. But I didn't because then I'd have to run a correction on the correction saying there really wasn't a Santa. I think this whole incident is what led to Mel Gibson.
Of all the NWW's you've organized and attended, whose session did you enjoy the most and why?
Walt Harrington is probably the best teacher and lecturer. He gave a terrific talk on narrative ethics at our last NWW. Lane DeGregory is the best feature writer I know and packs an incredible amount of useful material into her 60 minutes. She has inspired so many others to take similar paths in their writing and reporting. Chip Scanlan is probably the most eloquent. Roy Peter Clark is my role model. Jacqui Banasynzski always draws a crowd and delivers. Mark Bowden is my hero. As you know, he wrote about the tragic circumstances in Somalia, a series of stories that led to a book and movie. His editors had no interest in the piece at first, but he loved the story enough and had enough confidence in himself to push ahead. As a result, he not only made a small fortune, but he can now damn well work on any story he pleases.
How did you get started using music and PowerPoint and how have they enhanced your training programs?
I'm a visual learner. I just can't pay attention very long when people talk at me. So, of course, I think the rest of the world operates that way. PPT was a natural draw. I first added music when Mark Kramer of the Harvard Nieman Narrative Program asked me to look around the country for the narrative stories that were most appealing to readers. I got more than a dozen great examples and I set up a PowerPoint that described the stories, and what kind of results they got in terms of readership, e-mails, phone calls, prizes and so forth. Rather than talk at people about these examples, I figured I'd just have them watch and read. But it needed something extra, and so I added Pachelbel's canon as a sound track. Several people have told me they cried as they watched the PowerPoint unfold. I'm sure it was the music that took them over the top. I always regret when someone in the audience has a wedding coming up and she had planned to use Pachelbel. I'm sure as the bride walks down the aisle she's thinking about her next narrative instead of the groom.
What topics do you do workshops on? Which one is your favorite?
My most popular:
7.5 habits of effective journalists -- good professional practices, from writing to collegiality, that I had to learn the hard way. (.5? Don't go off half-cocked; go off fully-cocked.)
A starter kit for narrative writers: Basics for people who haven't tried the form or are just getting started with it.
Profile writing. This is probably my favorite and seems to get people the most charged up. Newspapers just don't do enough of them and readers love them.
Writing Aerobics: Lots of hands on exercises in which writers learn to edit themselves.
Master the Story: How to find and write compelling stories on your beat.
What's the coolest gig you've had?
Putting on the NWW in St. Louis. People always say that it must be a burden putting on such a huge show over a weekend, getting 30 speakers lined up and dealing with 450-600 writers. I never want it to end. It's like a wedding, only you get to have the people you really like instead of , well, you know … and of course you pay for it with other people's money.
How have other trainers helped you learn effective ways of teaching journalists?
Roy Peter Clark and Chip Scanlan demonstrate effectively how to use humor. Walt Harrington is always exquisitely prepared. A guy named Allan Weiss spoke at Train the Trainer at API and passed along useful presentation techniques. (summarize your points at the beginning and end; don't scratch while you're talking).
I was touched after reading "Dad's Write Stuff." Beyond what you said in that essay, does your Dad show up in any of your coaching (humorous lines, organization techniques, etc.)?
My dad is responsible for my irreverence. You want to know how irreverent? Once I was asked in religious school to provide information on my family tree as part of a class project. My dad thought my teachers were too damn nosy. So he told me to put Vidkun Quisling on my tree. If you know your history, Quisling was a Nazi sympathizer. "When your teacher points out who Quisling is, act shocked, then insulted,'' my dad told me. It stopped the lesson right in its tracks.
He was in broadcasting, a producer who spent most of his life behind the camera. He always encouraged me to get in front. Be the performer; it pays better. I didn't care for television, but I took speech classes and built my self-confidence in public speaking.
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I start work soon for the American Press Institute as director of tailored programs. I will continue writing "Training Tracks" and continue to welcome your suggestions for topics to address.
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