Day 1-What is a story?

Good stories start with good ideas. So what makes a good story?

Breaking news – Some stories are obvious. Your high school library burns down. A group of teachers win $100 million in the lottery.

Other newsy pieces – Your school makes you wear ID tags.

Sports stories – You’ve got your regular gamers, but you also should look for the features, the stories behind the stories. Look for the student who holds down a 30 hour a week job while quarterbacking the school football team. Or find the equipment manager who is a special education student. Look for those old guys who always come back to watch the games and some practices even though their kids graduated a million years ago.

Quirky stories – The little oddities of life can make great stories. Five sets of twins pack one first grade class, a statistical improbability. A high school buys suspenders for its marching band drumline because the drummers like to droop the pants – as if you could look cool in a marching band uniform.

Guided by your instincts – Not everyone sees the world the same way. So begin developing your instincts and looking for stories that you want to tell.

A subject is not a story – This is, by far, the biggest problem I see from young writers. Learn the difference between a story and a subject. Golf is a subject. The high school golf team of non-golfers who could care less about the sport is the story.

How do I know it's a story? -

Stories make us laugh and cry. They inspire us to action. Sometimes they make us mad.

Great stories have a beginning, middle and end.

Good stories take us on a journey, introducing us to characters and conflict.

Stories entertain.

The example

The idea: A couple years ago, I started with a story idea. A press release said an area teacher would be honored.

Initial reporting: It isn’t all that unusual for a teacher to receive such an honor, so I make a phone call to the principal to get a feel for the story. I learn there’s a deeper story to find.

Here's how the story began: The cake said “Congratulations Megan,” but Tuesday was Josh Greene’s day, too.

The 12-year-old isn’t the sort of kid one would expect to love school and adore a teacher so much he would nominate her for a national teaching award.

He’s the kid who quickly went through three schools – one in just a few weeks. He’s the kid who struggled every time his mom, Cindy, who adopted him two years ago, would leave him at school. He’s the kid who was abused and spent part of his childhood in foster care and a group home.

But there was Josh on Tuesday morning, his silver, red and blue tie knotted under the collar of his blue shirt. And there was Megan Taylor – the teacher who didn’t give up on him and made him feel safe – picking up accolades that Josh set in motion.

“He was a tough kid,” Taylor said of teaching Josh last year when he was in fifth grade at Capital City School, which works with kids who have behavior and emotional troubles.