This is the end

"If you want to write about man, write about a man."

 - E.B. White

Defining it

Main difference between News Writing and Feature Writing

Informational vs. Experiential

Pointing you there vs. Putting you there.

Showing vs. Telling -- Details. Details. Details.

The Law of Interesting

A report may point you in a direction. A story puts you there. One is about information. The other is about experience.

People talk about the bird’s-eye school of journalism, more or less The New Yorker, which is professorial and cool in tone, and distant, and the object is above all to explain in the most limpid terms possible what you need to know about a given story. I’m temperamentally different than that. Empathy is the be-all, end-all of my stories, both in terms of what I pick to write about and how I write about them. I want to find very emotional stories and come as close as I can come to recreate the emotional experience for a reader, and that means you want to do it novelistically. — Andrew Corsello

Emotion. Makes you feel something.

Informational/Telling

Accidents on Montgomery Road Kill 2 Teens

By Ian Shapira and Phuong Ly

Washington Post Staff Writers

Sunday, November 14, 2004; Page C01

Two teenagers were killed in separate accidents, about three miles and six hours apart, on a narrow stretch of road in Montgomery County, police said yesterday.

About 1:15 a.m. yesterday, Sarkis George Nazarian Jr., 16, of Potomac was killed when the sport-utility vehicle that he was driving ran off the pavement in the 12500 block of Travilah Road and hit a tree, police said. Police said Sarkis, a junior at Winston Churchill High School, was driving from a party in North Potomac, where they were told by witnesses that he had been drinking.

Experiential/Showing

Twist of Fate:

Where the Road Curved, Their Beloved Son Went Too Fast, and Too Young

By Libby Copeland

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, November 28, 2004; Page D01

This is where it starts and ends, with the red Jeep, which on the passenger side looks completely fine, like something you could drive away, like any other car on the road, except caked in pale mud and pine needles. From this angle, the car doesn't seem to belong here, in a Gaithersburg lot devoted to abandoned vehicles, in a section where the police put all the cars that have been in fatal crashes.

Finding it

Be Curious.

New stories focus on resolutions. Feature stories focus on process.

What is it like to fall short of your dreams in pro baseball?

What happens when a man finds a $1 million bill?

What drives a middle-aged man to be the best kids' magician?

How did Joe Montgomery get home from being KIA in Baghdad?

What is it like to be a parent of a blind child?

What does it feel like to make a mistake that kills your kid?

Look for motivations.

In the cause-and-effect relationship, focus on the cause.

The "why" and "how" over the "who" "what" "where" and "when".

Is there Action?

Is there Access?

Is there a beginning/middle/end?

Is this important or interesting?

Action with purpose/intent.

Reporting it

Report with all of your senses. Not just your ears. Smells. Sights. Feelings.

Write it all down.

Observe.

Characters matter

1. Physical Appearance

2. Movements, Characteristics, Mannerisms

3. Speech

4. Thought

Spend the time. These stories require time.

Writing it

"It is only through style finally -- through language -- that any writer can be original. All the themes are old." - Lee Smith

"Don't say the old lady screamed -- bring her on and let her scream." -Mark Twain

The quote should be afforded a place of honor in a story.

What is the news?

What is the story?

Ladder of Abstraction --- Concrete vs. Abstract.

Zoom in. Wide pan shot.

Tiny details. Big picture.

Vary sentence length.

* Kill your adverbs

* Subject-verb-object.

* Pay attention to use of clauses.

Pacing matters

1. Variety. Long, long, short, short, long, short.

2. Series of short sentences = action. She rounded the corner. She jumped over the dog. She lunged under the table. She jumped in the cab.

3. Series of long sentences = emotion, evocation. You are telling the reader to slow down and pay attention. Like a song building to the chorus. Emotional upswing.

4. Run-on sentences to build drama. Mixing of concrete and abstract.

Jon Franklin's Paradigm

Each focus should be expressed in three-word, subject-verb-object

- Complicating Focus

- Developmental Focus

1

2

3

- Resolving Focus

Doing it

Find the person behind the story and the story behind the person.

  -- Donald Fry and Roy Peter Clark

Stories stick.

Understanding matters.

Emotion matters.

Meaning matters.