Campbell Wood: How finding story ideas developed my passion for learning others’ stories

While on an audio walking tour in Savannah, Georgia, I pull off my headphones and fall behind the rest of the group. The monotonous audio explaining the city’s layout was overpowered by a deep soulful voice singing familiar, yet unknown songs for those exploring the city gardens.

Singing on a bench is a 40-something-year-old man whose massive hands delicately weave pieces of palm leaves into bracelets — he has a basket full of them. 

My mind jumps — he has a story.

The locals know him and say hi to him as if routine. He sells his bracelets to tourists like me. I learned his name. It’s James. He then tells me about his childhood. 

Finding story ideas is routine on Harbinger. Every two weeks every staffer is required to write down three story ideas on a 35-plus-page Google Doc containing the observations we’ve made about our community and our advocations for why they need to be told. I’ve discovered countless stories over the past four years — some ideas I jumped on immediately, some I watched others fly with, some weren’t ready to be told and some remain on the Doc, waiting to be told. 

Three years ago, I would walk past someone who seemed interesting without a second thought. Three years ago, I was too timid to hold a conversation with a stranger. Three years ago, three ideas felt like a heavy task, but now I can’t stop finding them.

As Head Copy Editor this year, I was the ringleader of all things story ideas, emphasizing the fact that story ideas aren’t something you “come up with” the night they are due, but something you search for, investigate and deliver.

I preached it so much during my time on staff, finding stories is now my autopilot — I’m constantly searching and drawing connections whether I realize it or not. Journalism gave me the opportunity to see the layers of a person and cultivate trust to tell their story, or simply hear it. I’ve learned the key to a good story idea comes from a place of empathy and consideration of others. 

My strengthened empathy has allowed me to grow closer to friends, family and strangers as I learn the stories of their lives. Now my grandma telling me about her Christmases on the farm or the new kid in my class sharing their ‘about me’ presentation at the beginning of the year piques an instant reaction to ask more about it — building deeper connections and making new friends.

Storytelling is part of who I am. I want to build a life out of traveling around the world and finding niche stories.

James’s bracelet still sits in my room and serves as a reminder that everyone has a story, if I have the courage to ask and the empathy to listen. Someday I hope to go back to Savannah, skip the audio walking tour and go to James’s corner of the city to learn the rest of his story. Until then, the fragment of his story I do know reminds me to look for meaning behind every hello and tune sung.

To my Harbie family — keep finding those stories, keep asking the hard questions, keep listening to our community and pretty please, for me, get your story ideas done every other Sunday night. You never know where a story might take you.