Most of my career I’ve focused on finding ways to support and elevate what people around me have written. But sometimes fun ideas come to me that I want to write about. The following two examples were topics I pitched and helped produce. I collaborated with editors, reporters, illustrators, developers and people from video, photo and data teams to make each an engaging, memorable experience.
The rat game
Idea generator, reporter, rat namer, print designer, visual editor
When I moved to D.C. during the pandemic, I expected to see rats. But what interested me was how people of the city interacted with them, almost like rats were part of the culture. When a video went viral of rats scurrying up the walls of a Popeye’s in the middle of the night, I wanted to know more about how rats survived in the city.
I pitched making a game about this to my editors and linked up with a reporter on the Metro desk to tell this very D.C. story. In helping report out the story, I observed a rat hunt with D.C. Health department and attended a city-sponsored educational event known as Rat Academy. And then I helped bridge the gap between the words and the visuals. I set up goals for everyone to work toward and when we combined the efforts, the result was four levels explaining how a rat named Cheddar can thrive in different environments within D.C. (Washington Post link, Archive link)
We learned a lot! And we couldn’t work everything into the story, so we scattered fun bits of information about rats throughout and used the facts for a quiz that we cross-linked with the game. (Washington Post link, Archive link)
For the final piece in the package, we wrote about what to do if you find a rat, dead or alive. I worked with the reporter to gather tips from experts at the local level as well as a world famous rodentologist. I was even able to contribute footage from my Ring doorbell camera, which showed rats coming and going in front of my door. (Washington Post link, Archive link)
Nieman Lab (2022): You are a rat. You are an umpire. You are an engaged news consumer.
SND Week (2023): A play on news: Storytelling through games at The Washington Post speaker session
The Taylor Swift project
Idea generator, reporter, data analyst, Swiftie, workflow creator
The story explains it in detail, but I was “late” to joining the Taylor Swift fandom. After a while, bits of her lyrics would get lodged in my head and I idly wondered if lines on different albums might be related to each other, how her songwriting had changed over the years and genres, and whether any of this could be told through data.
I pitched writing a very unscientific corpus analysis that examined her language choices and, once green-lit, paired up with the data team to chart out her lyrics. I spent a long time counting words and connecting dots, eventually weaving it all with my own narrative at the encouragement of my editor. This analysis of her music was ahead of its time, and nowadays can be found in college courses and all over TikTok as people try to decipher her famous Easter eggs. (Tampa Bay Times link, Archive link)
I worked with a crazy amount of people in the newsroom to produce this story. I wanted to try all kinds of storytelling methods to attract every kind of Taylor Swift fan I could: charts, videos, concert photos and social media. In the end, it became the blueprint that I used to project manage all major stories that came after it.
A few days after the story was published online, I was preparing to go to her show in Tampa and we got a call from her publicist. It turns out Taylor had read the story (in print, after all) and wanted to meet me before the show. Obviously, I had to write about that experience as well. (Tampa Bay Times link, Archive link)
Tampa Bay Times (2019): Tara and Taylor: WriteLane podcast (Spotify link)
Tampa Bay Times (2019): Taylor Swift’s ‘Lover’ is out. Here’s an analysis of the lyrics. (Archive link)
Society for News Design (2023): Taylor Swift’s electric touch (Creative Conference Call panel description), What local newsrooms learned from covering Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour (video playback with log-in)