Site of the Day Interesting Journalism Links Journalism Links From American Editor to the Journalism Reading Room at the U of Wisconsin Madison. Exploratory should be an expanding stage, opening yourself up to story possibilities you didn't envision originally. We may also discover there isn't a story here. Before moving into a formal focus stage, copies of other newspapers' work on the topic should be read by both reporter and editors. At the same time, this is not an exploratory stage.
Theme is the refinement of the focus.
The theme is what the story is about. This should be viewed as important and perhaps as hard as crafting the perfect lead. In narratives, we'll discuss which scenes to use and which not to. This part of the process is not to constrict the creativity that takes place during the writing. Flashes of insight and connections previously undetected do occur, and the writer should feel free to be creative.