Your memory sucks

Great advice about documenting your reporting from @williams_paige. My addition: Not only do I not trust people who don’t take notes; I don’t extend much more trust to people who take only notes. There are narrative nonfiction writers who claim to accurately capture long exchanges of detailed dialogue via handwritten notes alone. Until I get to see them take shorthand in real time, I’m not buying it.

thestoryofastory:

The great war reporter Ernie Pyle supposedly rarely took notes. Truman Capote professed to have a memory so flawless he could recall entire conversations whole. (Sorry, TC, not buying it, and neither does Joshua Foer.) Even in intense, fast-moving situations some journalists take zero…

Source: thestoryofastory