About

The setup: This site went through successive drafts. Yup … I’m a drafter. At first I included every bit of writing, recording, and photographing I’ve ever done. To say the least, the thing was a mess. The website became a scrapbook, static and unimaginative. So I decided to come at it like, well, like a storyteller. Every story needs a beginning. With that in mind, I’ll use a year-long sojourn to South America as the occasion to get things rolling. As of July, 2011, I’ll be based in Medellín, Colombia. I have some wonderful opportunities (friends, projects, dreams) but no affiliations in Medellín. I’ll be using my time to learn as much as I can about Colombia and South America. And along the way I’ll be looking for and pitching content to magazines, radio programs, and websites. Have an idea for a story? Help a guy out.

Me (best light): Greg Nichols, intrepid journalist/writer, embarks on trail of long form story. Sifting narrative from the melee of the day-to-day, this reporter traverses landscapes foreign and familiar to condense time, capture life, and celebrate difference—all while winking at the shared threads that make us human. Through words, images, video, and audio, the scrupulous witness bends genres and creates new ones while maintaining allegiance to the basic principles of story, presentation, and character.

Me (worst light): Frightened wannabe Greg Nichols leaves protective embrace of MFA candidacy to see worst fears realized. Nascent talent proves fleeting and undeveloped. In an attempt to justify baseless claim on a life “getting to the heart of things,” the over-indulged, under-prepared huckster makes anodyne drivel for anyone print-ready and broadcast-capable. Imbibing imagined praise as one of journalism’s “young pioneers,” he embraces consumer technologies that routinely overwhelm him. Need a creative clip for your online dating profile? I’m HD capable.

This blog: Okay, so I have moments believing either extreme. Most of the time, though, I live in that vast territory between loftiest dreams and lowest doubts. That’s the world I hope to capture with this blog. I’ll use this space to document my journey as a storyteller, to exhibit my work, to yell into cyberspace for whatever help people have to offer. I’ll also share tips, mistakes, and lessons that pop up along the way. This is a way for me to trace my ongoing education now that I’ve left school—a way to take account of projects in progress and to make sense of that huge world that jumps up and down in the background of every story. Lofty much?