TELL A STORY WORTH

REMEMBERING...

riting in the ye arbook

or tod ay,

or ne xt sum m e r,

or 20 ye ars from now

No one reads our copy.

TELL A STORY WORTH REMEMBERING...

I mean, who likes all those words?

TELL A STORY WORTH REMEMBERING...

Our stories are so boring.

TELL A STORY WORTH REMEMBERING...

We’d rather have pictures than that boring stuff.

TELL A STORY WORTH REMEMBERING...

No one reads our copy.

Our stories are so boring.

I mean, who likes all those words?

We’d rather have pictures than that boring stuff.

TELL A STORY WORTH REMEMBERING...

Art students do pottery, drawing and painting.

“I took art because I like to draw,” art student

Alexis Hernandez revealed.

Some students think art is fun.

“I think art is fun,” Alexis added.

TELL A STORY WORTH REMEMBERING...

Why isn’t this a story?

TELL A STORY WORTH REMEMBERING...

Art students do pottery, drawing and painting.

“I took art because I like to draw,” art student

Alexis Hernandez revealed.

Some students think art is fun.

“I think art is fun,” Alexis added.

Alexis Hernandez tucked the unruly wisp of hair back into place with her mud-caked hands. She had been battling with her bangs for the last 30 minutes as she her bowl took shape on the pottery wheel. “Anybody got like a clippie?” Alexis said to no one in particular in her Art I class third period. Her feet kept the wheel in a steady rotation with alternating tapping as the bowl became rounder and rounder. “My grandmama will love this bowl,” Alexis said. “It has to be like absolutely awesome.”

TELL A STORY WORTH REMEMBERING...

Do you see Alexis at the pottery wheel?

Do you see the hair falling in her eyes?

Do you see her hands?

Do you hear her voice?

Do you see her feet?

So, maybe we like stories, just not boring ones.

Every drafting table in the architectural/engineering graphics classroom was filled. Heads were bent over their work. The earlier laid back atmosphere had dispersed as each student concentrated on the paper before them.

Senior Sam Hood swung the movable protractor and lined up the angle just so. She took her 2H drafting pencil and lightly traced a line. Frowning at the seemingly straight line, she erased it. Then she grabbed a brush to wipe away the bits of rubber left on her paper. “We’ve been drawing this house all month,” Sam said. “It’s a basic floor plan, and it doesn’t look like much, but it’s taken a lot of effort.”

She aligned a three-sided rule and tried again. This time the line came out straighter, and she sighed in relief.” “It’s hard having to be so perfect. If you overdraw even say like a millionth of a centimeter, Mr. Keeton counts off.”

Sam used the drafting machine to help her add another room to her floor plan. She carefully started writing on the page.

“We had to practice lettering a lot,” Sam added. “Drafting has only way to write a letter, so we all need to learn how to do it right. On the first day of school we wrote an entire page of alphabets.” Her floor plan was nearly complete. “Our hands hurt so much when we get to the end of our floor plans. We draw all class, but in the end it’s worth it.” With moments to spend before the bell rang to dismiss them, Sam extracted the paper from its taped position on the page and took it to Mr. Keeton to turn in. “The best part about finishing,” Sam said. “is being able to look back all that detail and know your time was well spent.

WHAT MAKES THAT A STORY?

PEOPLE WATCHING

What is people watching?

How is people watching different from interviewing?

How do you people watch?

Where do you people watch?

Why do you people watch?

What do you find most interesting about it?

Watch.Look.See.

Listen.Examine.Details.Words.

Interactions.Actions.Silence.

PROFESSIONAL PEOPLE WATCHING

People WatchingA Hobby in which you go out and watch people. The way they act, dress and talk. Like bird watching except with people. Very entertaining.

ExampleI went people watching this afternoon.

Observe.

Body motion: gestures, facial expressions, eye movements, posture

ExampleAs the subway rattled along the tracks of the red line to Adams Morgan, Eleanor endured the off-tune playing of the saxophone.

Observe.

Paralanguage: voice qualities, speech habits, inflection, volume, tone, laughing. Not what is said, but how it is said.

Example

Observe.

Space: perception of physical space, how people interact with each other. Seinfeld Close Talker

ExampleShe refused to conform to the slow shuffle of the other students walking in the hallway.

Observe.

Objects: things we surround ourselves with such as jewelry, notebooks, backpacks, eyeglasses -- signs of wealth, poverty, power, age...

ExampleGathering her notes and flashcards with a satisfied expression, Jenelle stood.

Observe.

Touch: Handshakes, embraces, pats on the back, punches, taps

ExampleWith a strong push in the back, the girls fell into the pool with the big sisters chanting “Welcome to varsity.”

Observe.

Time: The way people use time may speak volumes.

ExampleWalking up the steps from the table in the cafeteria, sophomore Lindsay Davenport gasped as she came to abrupt halt.

Observe.

SHOW. DON’T TELL.

SHOW. DON’T TELL. Why is this a story?

What makes this so good?

How can you tell a story in 300 words?

How can “people watching” help you tell a story?

What are your writing strengths? Personal/Staff?

What are your writing weaknesses? Personal/Staff?

EXAMPLES OF GOOD WRITING

“Read Arounds” of Professional Copy.

Read.

Think.

Pass.

Discuss.

Choose.

Defend.

THE POWER OF LEADS

When journalists talk about beginnings of stories the word they use is lead. Sometimes it’s spelled “lede,” a throwback to the precomputer age when the word for first paragraphs had to be distinguished from the word for the molten lead used to print newspapers. Leads are the foundation of every news story, no matter what the medium.

An effective lead makes a promise to the reader or viewer: I have something important, something interesting, to tell you. A good lead beckons and invites. It informs, attracts, and entices. If there’s any poetry in journalism, it’s most often found in the lead, as in the classic opening of what could have been a mundane weather forecast:

Snow, followed by small boys on sleds.

When the subject is leads, there’s no shortage of opinions about their role, their preferred length, the rules they should follow or break. But no one disagrees about this enduring fact about lead writing: It’s hard work.

Jack Cappon of The Associated Press called it, rightly, “the agony of square one.”

“There is no getting around it, although every writer sometimes wishes there were,” Cappon says. “Every story must have a beginning. A lead. Incubating a lead is a cause of great agony. Why is no mystery. Based on the lead, a reader makes a critical decision: Shall I go on?”

Whether you’re a new reporter or a veteran writing for a newspaper, an online news site, radio, or television news, the ability to sum up a story in a single paragraph or draw the reader in with an anecdote or scene has become a daily job requirement.

Given their importance, it’s not surprising that good leads, and a range of passionate beliefs about their importance and composition, abound in the 25-year history of “Best Newspaper Writing,” the annual collection of award-winning writing selected by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

TWO-SENTENCE STORIES. 

The three-action sentence employs one subject and three verbs.

“The fish darted behind the rock, waited for its enemy to pass and swam away quickly.

IMITATING GOOD WRITING

Sentence One (open structure) “The golfer stepped to the tee.”

Sentence Two (three-action sentence) “He studied the shot, fingered his short irons and slipped a seven iron from his bag.”

TWO-SENTENCE STORIES. 

The appositive redescribes or renames.

“Nick, the cashier at Subway, handed back change.”

IMITATING GOOD WRITING

Sentence One (open structure) “Tiger, the reigning champion, stepped to the tee.”

Sentence Two (three-action sentence) “He studied the shot, fingered his short irons and slipped a seven iron from his bag.”

TWO-SENTENCE STORIES. 

The participial phrase uses “ing” words to add specificity, either as an opener to a clause or as a closer.

“Bursting between the guard and tackle, the tailback scored the go-ahead touchdown.”

IMITATING GOOD WRITING

Sentence One (opening participle) “Cupping his hands around the bill of his cap, Tiger studied the putt.”

Sentence Two (three-action) “He stalked to the ball, firmed his stance, and rolled the Nike down his line.”

TWO-SENTENCE STORIES. 

The absolute phrase works just like a participial phrase, but it uses a noun plus a participle—and almost always refers to a physiological part of the noun it’s modifying. “The car chugged up the hill,

wheels wobbling, tailpipes spewing oil into the sky.”

IMITATING GOOD WRITING

Sentence One (absolute phrase) “Hands cupped around the bill of his cap, Tiger studied the putt.”

Sentence Two (three-action) “He stalked to the ball, firmed his stance and rolled the Nike down his line.”

Avoid jumping to conclusions about nonverbals. Report what you see. Don’t interpret.

Be discriminating. Too much description is ridiculous and distracting.

Use both dialog to take us there and quotes to fill in what we can’t see.

Remember

TYPES OF STORIES

Snapshot of a moment

Observation

Personality profile

First person

News-based feature

Creative approach

YOUR ER BACKPACK

Meaningful quotes

Dialog

Sensory descriptions

Strong verbs.

Specific nouns.

Active voice.

Anecdote.