How I Write Patrick Radden Keefe: How to Write Captivating Stories | How I Write
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Apr 8, 2026 
Patrick Radden Keefe, a New Yorker writer and bestselling nonfiction author, talks about reporting on powerful people who refuse access. He gets into write-around reporting, building mystery, and finding the detail or scene that pulls a story forward. Plus: seductive openings, nonlinear structure, careful risk-taking, and why endings should leave room for ambiguity.
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Open With A Question The Reader Must Solve
- Readers keep going when a story opens a question they need answered, not when it merely dumps facts.
- Patrick Radden Keefe began a Chapo story in Amsterdam with a cartel assassin who loved European travel, forcing readers to ask how they got there.
Make Early Down Payments On Reader Attention
- Earn attention immediately by making down payments that promise surprise, texture, and movement from the first paragraphs.
- In the Bourdain piece, Patrick Radden Keefe opens with Obama's armored limo in Hanoi and the line that he might as well have watched Vietnam on TV.
Outline The Beats Before Reporting Sprawls
- Build structure during reporting by sketching major beats early, then let that roadmap constrain research and character sprawl.
- Patrick Radden Keefe now lists eight or nine narrative moments on an envelope and cuts even fascinating people who do not fit.
