1) Change is constant. After a year and a half and more than 250 posts, The Protojournalist storytelling project has reached its finish line. This will be the last Protojournalist post — under my aegis.
2) Exploration is good. The experiment began on June 14, 2013. It was my idea — to explore new ways of storytelling in the midst of all the variegated and fast-morphing forms available nowadays. The project, as I wrote in that initial post, was "dedicated to the exploration of story — auditory, interactive, visual, written. Story as instant conversation , as chart, as poetry, as song , as movie , as photo , as sound, as widget , as something we've yet to imagine." My editor says we built up a sizable audience.
3) There's more than one way to tell a story. Because of the open-mindedness of NPR, I was able to check most of the above challenges off the list. And I was allowed to delve into different storytelling forms in ways few others ever get to. I videoed the story of a blind man who had worked in the White House and was hoping to adopt three blind sons; typed an email-memo story to the National Security Agency; concocted an interactive Do-It-Yourself All Purpose Presidential Scandal Story; offered up the story of chef Paula Deen in a four-course menu ; pasted together a political story as a personality test ; explored Speed-Writing in a story about speed-reading; list-storied a number of things, including a 6-Pack Of Beer Summits, 5 Odd Things Named After Presidents, 4 Strange Sports In America's Past and 3 Cities With Freeways Going Nowhere. Through it all, I tried to reflect the eclectic and electric nature of America, with its many strong voices. The one constant: the story.
4) Sometimes a story wants to be told a certain way. I ranted against rants and delivered a cliche-riddled defense of cliches . I provided forecasts — and pastcasts — of American weather. And I raised a queue of questions: Can Adhesive Bandages Be Racist? and Can Only The Rich Be President? and Should There Be A University Of Politics? and Is There Such A Thing As A 'Good Psychopath'?
5) We are all storytellers. Whenever possible, I asked for help from NPR's amazing community of LURVers — Listeners, Users, Readers and Viewers — to tell the story. And LURVers really responded. Projects within the project included recording How It Sounds To Be 28 , or 31 or 9 and telling A Life Story in 6 Songs and puzzling Art In A Jar and wondering What Your Junk Drawer Reveals About You and contemplating the life of Americans abroad in Project Xpat and distilling the news into haiku .
6) Space wants to be shared. Other original voices joined me to create stories as a map , a Wikipedia entry , a Culture War Cookbook with soup recipes; a grocery list . LURVers like lists.
7) It's not about me. One of my favorite experiments was A Story About YOU in which YOU were both the co-writer and the main subject. Only at NPR, with its amazing team of developers, could I — and you — have gotten away with such a strange venture.
8) There are new worlds to discover. The Protojournalist unveiled Google Frecking — an info-gathering game we devised (at the suggestion of Scott, my supportive and creative editor) for drilling a little deeper into a subject that intrigues us.
9) Permanence is temporary. Along the way I was reminded that what you write on the Internet is forever — and fleeting at the same time. Some of my more experimental stories have disappeared because of link rot or some other digital disease.
10) ... with a little help from my friends. For my next space exploration, I will be launching NPR History Dept., a blog about America's past. NPR History Dept. was unknowingly suggested by several dear, and brilliant, friends of mine — Jamie, Mac, George and Jan — who teach, or have taught, history.
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