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ASU Paw Print

Ted Conover: The Art Behind Being a Journalist

Updated: Apr 19, 2023

Paw Print Editor: Brianna Robles

The American author and journalist Ted Conover explored the land of the San Luis Valley as he went on a journey to be able to tell the story of the American west. He explored the rural way of life in Colorado and discussed in his recent book “Cheap Land Colorado: Off-Gridders at American’s Edge”, has a prairie of five -acres that can be purchased for a cheap price.

After spending some time reassuring, interviewing, and meeting different people who live as off girders on this land Conover shared with us what the process is like when writing an experience-based barrette story.


As a journalist Conover has become notable for his immersion work and talks about how the best way to be able to develop content that can help the readers engage is by putting himself in unsustainable situations. Conover discusses how as a writer he has “been attracted to subjects that are off beat, which includes railroad tracks, prisons, and of land in Colorado”. Through this joinery Conover has allowed himself to be placed in the positions to be able to meet many people and put himself in their situation.


Although, like every writer it is common to sometimes come across experiencing writers block which is a difficult situation to overcome, but it’s a phase we all must work through to overcome. Conover discussed how “writing is all about overcoming trouble and that trouble is interesting to write about as it it’s a personal challenge and as a writer it is all about getting out of trouble”. There is art in the struggle as the struggle itself unravels a story to be told and it all becomes part of the process of drafting new ideas especially when writing experience-based narratives of nonfiction.


In Ted Conover’s most recent work “Cheap Land Colorado: Off-Gridders at American’s Edge” he discusses the failed subdivision of the San Luis Valley and discussed that in order to be able put his book tighter he had to do plenty of readership to be able to be very descriptive. Conover said the key is “to write about things from a first-hand experiment and that comes from being in a place and spending time there”. It is a long process to be able to gather information through experience, but Conover emphasizes that he felt there was an important story to be told. The five-acres of land he discusses in his book is to shine a light on “People living on the edge can teach us things about ourselves. We are able to learn about society, seeing who isn’t comfortable living a normal life”. Writing is a long joinery and is a craft that will always have room for improvement and growth. A word of advice that Ted Conover shared about perusing the path of journalism is to “Pay attention to what interests you and see how far you can get with writing about that and get to know yourself and what keeps you interested. It’s all about learning from people around you”.

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