Stories from the field offer an opportunity to share your knowledge, thoughts, and experiences with others. Before sitting down to write your story, review the Story Guidelines below to help structure your writing. Make sure you include your names, your e-mail, your phone number.

Criteria

Title: Select a title that captures the essence of what you want to convey

Language: English, French or Spanish

Style: Concise and simple.

Originality: All stories must be originated by the author submitting the piece.

Length: 700 - 1 000 words
 

Composing your story

 When composing your story, try to:

•  Tell a story about an event or series of event(s) that had a profound positive or negative impact on you or on the person(s) you are writing about.
•  Good stories use straightforward language, and incorporate the human interest of a project. They should sound like an individual recounting a story about a project.
•  Show, don't tell. Make the reader experience the events and emotions portrayed through the eyes of the participants.
•  Remember the “five Ws” (who? what? when? where?and why?): Stories should include a summary of an event or activity as well as challenges faced, lessons learned, successes, etc. Readers should come away with a clear idea of what worked or didn’t work in certain contexts - and some ideas they might use themselves. Begin with a strong lead that hooks the reader and that clearly and creatively introduces the main character(s), the central theme of the story.
•  Wherever possible, stories should include a photograph (jpeg format), preferably of people engaged in an activity or event.
•  Digital photos should be shot with at least a 3-megapixel resolution. Please do not paste photographs into an MS Word document and do not alter or compress photographs, as this reduces the quality. (Not applicable if you are sending it by post). Please include a caption to explain what it shows and the name of the photographer.
•  Stories should also incorporate a quote or two from beneficiaries or anyone else involved in the project to add context and credibility. Give their full names.
•  Write from the heart. Tell your story honestly, fully, and succinctly.
•  End with a conclusion that resolves the conflict/challenge in a positive way, leaves readers with an Aha! or Wow! or Yes! moment.
•  Avoid acronyms and if they are included explain them the first time.

Six steps

 Mind these three steps:

1.  Present the issue, challenge, and/or opportunity: By the end of the first paragraph, readers should have a clear understanding of the main issue.
2.  Response: After introducing the issue, lead right into the response. The intent to address the challenge is the main idea of the story, and most of the detail of the story will be here. What did the programme or initiative do, and who or what did it aim to help? How did it operate or function?
3.  Results, and/or impact, lessons learned: Results and impact tie the story together, and allow the reader to understand how the response to the challenge met the opportunity described in the beginning.

 And watch out for:

•  Ensure your story is mainly about people rather than organisations. This should not be an advertisement for your NGO.
•  Beware of unrealistic claims – everything was terrible before we did this, and everything is wonderful after we did it. We are looking for lessons, not miracles!
•  Beware of implying that people knew nothing before the intervention – if people were not acting in the best way, they probably had their reasons.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Contact E-Source editors

Please send your stories to the Source editors:

•  Dick de Jong (English), e-mail storycontest@irc.nl

•  Caridad Camacho (French and Spanish), e-mail camacho@irc.nl