Five Keys to a Great Story about a Complex Idea

What is the idea or research topic?
After first boning up on the field, I spend some time with the source of the idea. Usually that source is a person, though sometimes, the idea may be expressed in a research paper, book, or website. Either way, I try to talk to the researcher or another expert in the field who can explain it in the clearest way possible.

When interviewing experts, it’s important to underline the fact that the written product will be for an audience of nonspecialists. I prefer to meet with people in person if I can, but if geographical distance is a barrier, a phone conversation can work well.

Even if I feel silly asking a very basic question about the topic, I don’t hesitate to do this if there’s something I don’t fully understand. Since the writer has a fresh perspective on a topic that may be very familiar to the researcher, new questions can lead to new approaches to the subject—ones even the specialist may never have thought of before. Once I asked a researcher who’d created a computer model for walking whether changing the dynamics of the model’s gait would make the walker move faster. He replied he hadn’t considered it before, but that it would be a good idea for future research.

Why now, and why does it matter?
The “why now” question is essential to any good journalism or promotional writing because it explains the idea’s urgency and news value. In other words, it gives busy people a reason to care—and therefore, to keep reading.

Explaining why a topic matters is vital even if the subject has a technical nature. If it’s research that could lead to curing a deadly disease, there’s very little to explain here. Or the subject may be highly topical. For instance, people are more interested in renewable energy now that gas has topped $4 a gallon. If it’s a topic that’s more esoteric—like the politics of ancient Greece—the writer has a bit more work to do. But most good research bears some important relation to today’s world and people’s needs. For example, ancient politics can shed light on today’s political struggles by showing the limits of empire or the dangers of dictatorship.

Who is behind it?
Here’s the writer’s chance to portray the researcher(s) or inventor(s) with a human face. Everyone wants to know how smart people work. Maybe the person’s work methods or style will inspire the next discovery, or maybe the person’s quirks are just interesting because they’re odd.

We’ve all read the clichés about the brilliant academic working in isolation in some far-flung archive, or the genius scientist laboring alone in a lab at 2 a.m.—and just happening upon the discovery of the century. These notions may sometimes have a grain of truth, but I try to look beyond them to find the source of the person’s passion. Did she get interested in the topic or field because of her parents, a teacher, or a book or even a movie? What lengths did she go to to gain her expertise? What sparked her discovery?

Who disagrees or offers a competing point of view?
In most cases, it’s important to present the other side of the story—are there other researchers who disagree? Or is there a competing theory out there? The venue for the writing and the topic itself dictate how much time one should spend on this. Among scientists, there’s a feeling that often, too much time is spent trying to show both sides of a controversial issue such a global warming, when enough evidence exists on one side to make the answer clear.

What is the future of this idea?
Before ending the piece, I try to add some thoughts about where this idea or research area is headed. Most experts will be glad to share their predictions about the direction of their field or what they plan to do to further their research. This opens the story up for a broad conclusion that may pique readers’ interest for my next endeavor in communicating complexity.