Time for another goodbye . . .  and some words to carry on

Another Friday and another person leaving The Seattle Times. This one was especially close to me, and not posting what Kathy Triesch Saul had to say here would probably make home life very difficult. Especially since her retirement means she will be home more and I happen to live in that home, too.

Kathy worked at The Seattle Times for 38 years, filling more jobs than I ever did there: copy editor, slot person, assistant city editor, politics editor, investigative team editor, food writer, magazine editor. I probably missed a few, but this gives you an idea of what a talented person she is.

It's been great fun and an honor to work in a newspaper newsroom for so many years, and Kathy expresses her gratitude from top to bottom. Then she reminds journalists to use their time wisely: Think more, worry less.

All this on Halloween, no less.

Click here to see and hear what Kathy had to say

 "News organizations need to stay alive"

Yesterday I went to a "cake torture," which is what the The Seattle Times staff calls a farewell party for a departing employee. This one was for Carol Ostrom, a reporter at The Times since 1980. 

The cake torture went as they usually do: Embarrassing stories about the departing person, gag gifts and finally, cake.

Right before the cake, Carol got a chance to talk to those who will carry on. I found her words inspiring and worth passing along. 

I especially address this to those former students who may now be wondering why I encouraged them to go into a field with fewer and fewer jobs and lower and lower pay, not to mention a changing technological landscape that has them working harder to tell their stories in blogs, tweets, in video and audio. And there are undoubtedly more changes on the way. More disruptions and more financial upheaval for the industry.

To those former students, I say, "Listen to Carol." She gives good reasons for why it is worth carrying on -- and why it's still a fun way to spend your life.

(I left it as Carol wrote it. As a retired reporter, she deserves to be free of editors.)

Carol's goodbye address to The Seattle Times

Carol Ostrom

They say if you’re nervous, you should just imagine your audience naked.

thank god some of you are standing in the back.

There are some people here who have secret instructions to yell out EMBARRASSING things if I start to lose it, which I most certainly will. they might have to do with youthful indiscretions at a journalism convention, a hot tub, hotel security police at 2 a.m. Possibly.

2. I STUMBLED INTO JOURNALISM in the 1970s, like oh so many english majors who WANTED TO get out into the real world. 

Ross Anderson

THE IRE CONVENTION IN 1975 OR SO WAS IN a big, crowded, noisy room, heavy with the smell of booze and cigarettes. Most people were dressed a bit like my former colleague, the more-than-slightly rumpled Ross Anderson.

They were all the I-words -- INTELLIGENT, irreverent, iconoclastic, idealistic -- and sacred-cow free. They wanted answers to life’s persistent questions, they believed in the people’s right to know stuff, in the importance of newspapers in maintaining Democracy and that we should all be wary of the Military Industrial Complex. 

I said to myself then: These are my people. I’ll do what it takes to walk among them.

3. I came to The Seattle Times in 1980 after working at two weekly papers -- where a shy kid from Bothell learned to ask strangers a lot of impertinent questions.

In my application clips, I included a story I’d written criticizing The Times -- and they still hired me. Later, when something I wrote had advertisers threatening to boycott the Times, the executive editor backed me up. Publisher Frank Blethen, even when he was running the anti-death-tax campaign from his office, didn’t mess with my news story that found evidence contrary to his point of view.

When i came to The Times, the air in the newsroom was thick with smoke from cigs cigars pipes. and at first, women were very scarce. but from the beginning, there was a sense of purpose and being able to make a difference. I was hooked.

4. Ross, busy taking prostitutes to dinner to help investigate rampant corruption and bribery in the police department, became my sartorial mentor.

I learned from everything -- every encounter, every story, every source, every mistake. And most of all, from every colleague.

 5. There were -- and are now -- so many brains in this room, so much talent and skill. We have one big advantage -- we know so much more -- collectively -- than that solitary guy in the basement blogging away in his boxer shorts with the little doggies on them.

Together, we know the history and twists of politics, health care, education, science, culture and just about everything in our region. 

i know we’ve all been focused on creating the future medium for news, which is very important. But to take advantage of our collective knowledge -- to offer something that no other media enterprise can -- we have to learn from one another. 

Together, we are big, smart and unstoppable. Separated, not so much. 

Now that we’re so small, we each work so hard, such long hours, so fast, so much to do, it’s hard to take time to connect -- ESPECIALLY FOR REPORTERS. But even though I rarely had time to do it, I do believe it’s crucial for survival -- of us personally and professionally -- and also for survival of The Times. 

5. News organizations need to stay alive because what we do is the key to democracy. I personally need the Seattle Times to stay alive because my pension will pay for that one weekly latte.

6. Now I have to get out of here before I have to learn something even more awful than Methode. I have used up my lifetime quota of mouse clicks.

I hope I’m not closing the door forever -- I will miss you too much, dammit. All of you here are the best, hardest working, funniest, most principled and just plain swell colleagues a working girl could ever have. 

And now, Andrisevic, you can take my fucking desk chair.

Simon Winchester's necessities for non-fiction books

Simon Winchester read from his new book at Seattle's Central Library last Wednesday night, and as part of his talk he discussed the three needed elements for a successful non-fiction book.

First of all, he said there has to be a good idea. As a newly naturalized citizen of the United States, he sorted through several ideas until he struck "on the word 'united' in the United States." How did that come to be? How had it managed to last?

You might think the next necessity would be decent writing. He said no, the next important thing is structure, some way of organizing the book that makes sense to the reader.

Once again he sorted through several ways of structuring the book -- chronological, by important people in American history, etc. -- until a relative reminded him of the Chinese system of elements: wood, earth, water, fire and metal (there's a sixth -- air). That seemed to him to be a way to put the book in order, although he worried that following a Chinese system might be off-putting to American readers. In my review of the book for The Seattle Times, I did not mention this organizational structure. I thought it a bit strange, but not off-putting. Had he followed it more strictly, or mentioned it more often, I might have found it intrusive. But it stays in the background, guiding the development of the book but not getting in the way.

Last necessity? That would be decent writing, of course. You'll find lots of that in the book.

Find a new angle and always gather string

Whether you like sports or not, this is a great article that should remind writers of two things: Find a new angle to a well-covered topic and always gather string.

Ken Norton's death meant many writers would be eulogizing the 1970's boxer who fought Muhammed Ali three times. This author found a way to do so that brings a fresh approach and tells us something even the most ardent boxing fan might not know about Norton.

Also notice that Leigh Montville, the author, got the information from an interview he did with Norton in 1995. Like all good hoarders, writers should keep bits of string, roll them in a ball to be unrolled and used who knows when. Save your notebooks, mark them so you can find that bit of information you need to take a new angle or provide background in a new piece you are writing. If you have your notes online, start files to keep it all straight. You might even consider developing a spreadsheet as a master file of where your interview notes or past stories are kept.

Zinsser keeps teaching despite blindness

For the past four years when I have taught the non-fiction writing class at the Professional and Continuing Education program at the University of Washington, I have used William Zinsser's book "On Writing Well." It's my preference probably because I agree with nearly everything he says there: Make sure every word is doing work, etc.

He's right in line with my goal of getting the most meaning out of the fewest number of words -- OK, I'm in line with his purpose in non-fiction writing, not the other way around.

All these many words to introduce a New York Times story on what Zinsser, at age 90, is doing now. Have a look.

This looks like a really good book to have

Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction by Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd Tracy Kidder (The Soul of a New Machine) and his longtime editor, Richard Todd, are rock stars of narrative nonfiction. When they talk about their art and craft, you'd be wise to listen. In Good Prose they share both practical editing advice and general narrative recommendations relating to things like structure, point of view, style and voice. Rather than just collaborating on a single seamless text, however, each intersperses his own thoughts amid the guidelines and examples. The resulting easygoing ramble on good writing is as entertaining as it is useful. It is hard to avoid aphorisms in this sort of book, and Kidder and Todd are not afraid to include several. For example, in discussing where to start a work, they caution that "the heart of the story is a place to arrive at, not a place to begin." In a discussion of authorial voice, they advise "if you can't imagine saying something aloud, then you probably shouldn't write it." Fortunately, they break the schoolhouse rules with pertinent quotations from many nonfiction writers (from Montaigne to David Foster Wallace) and personal commentaries on Kidder's own books. When thousands of books, tweets, 'zines and blogs confront readers every day, perhaps the best advice Kidder and Todd have for writers is to first ask themselves: "Who am I to be writing this? Who asked me? Who cares?" Honest answers here might mercifully cut down the clutter. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan. Discover: An entertaining, useful ramble about good writing by a Pulitzer Prize-winning master and his longtime editor. Random House, $26 hardcover, 9781400069750

The alumni speak

From Steve:

I am working on a project to create concerts in August at the Panama Hotel inspired by history mentioned in the novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.

4Culture provided significant grant funding and I set up a blog at http://holdenontooscar.blogspot.com/ to chronicle my progress. Hope you can attend!

In April I will find out if I was accepted to a Biography Fellowship at CUNY. Even if that doesn't pan out, the process of applying helped focus my book project.

-Steve Griggs
http://stevegriggsmusic.blogspot.com/

From Viv

Along with a friend, I just started a new Meetup: Seattle Social Media Meetup. We are having our first meeting on Wednesday, February 6th. The meeting day will always be the first Wednesday of the month.

This group has been needed for a long time so people are jumping on it pretty quick. We have only had it up 2 days and have not publicized it anywhere yet, but had 10 people join just last night! It will be a collaborative, supportive, informative group. We plan to have a speaker each month. (I know this won't mean much to all of you, but we are modeling this after the Seattle WordPress Meetup which is a phenomenal group.)

Starting this group is directly aligned with my writing. I made the decision to spend this year focussing on building a platform; a following of fans. As part of that, I decided to set the book off to the side while I focus on blogging and social media. The writing and research I am doing on the blog will feed into the book eventually. But I realized I needed to "chunk out" the process and decided to make social media my first focus.

Over the holiday I focussed on getting my blog up and running solidly on self -hosted Wordpress plus invested the time to really learn Twitter. I launched my new plan just a week ago and have been blown away by the increase in traffic - to my blog and Twitter. The numbers may not look impressive yet but that is a big increase in followers and I also had a big leap in subscriptions. It is quite exciting! Twitter: @ejbrowne Blog: DancingUpsideDown.com

Hope to see some of you in February 6th.

Viv Ilo E. Veith
Cell: 206.696.8904
Twitter: @viviloveith
vividlyclear.com

"Don't interrupt motion with map-making"

Some of the best advice on writing I heard this quarter came from Candace in the class when she said, "Don't interrupt motion with map-making,"  a piece of advice I have been given permission to steal.

What she meant -- or what I am going to say she meant -- is that when you have a story rolling along, don't stop to draw a map or give directions to a side road or some other diversion. Give the reader enough information to follow your story but not so much detail to get lost in it. Not every twist and turn or person we meet along the way needs to be explained or introduced.

The advice reminded me of Mark Twain's remarkable demonstration of how far afield "map-making" can lead you. I promised I would put up a link to the story, and here it is. There's a YouTube video of Hal Holbrook reciting it, but I thought he gave it away up top. It's better in the reading.

Enjoy.

Another Fall quarter at the UW comes to a close

I have a few more papers to edit and then the class will be in the hands of Jessica for two quarters. Hope to see everyone at the certificate ceremony in June.

Jessica shared some of her reading list, and it looks very, very interesting. Maybe I should enroll. Here are the articles she will be using that are available online:

“A Home at the End of Google Earth,” by David Kushner http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/11/india-orphan-google-earth-journey

 “The Million Dollar Nose,” by William Langewiesche http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2000/12/langewiesche.htm

"Howling Window Signals Skyscraper’s Fatal Flaw," by Louise Kiernan
http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-danger-1-story,0,464418,full.story                      

At long last, the link to Candace's blog

I'm long overdue on getting a link up here to Candace's blog "In My Binder." So here it is, some thoughtful writing on many issues, but mostly revolving around women who have been inspirational to her.

Check it out at: http://inmybinder.com/

A former student welcomes you to her blog

Hello everyone,

Hope all of you are doing well. I have joined The Borgen Project (a national campaign to advocate for global poverty through the U.S Senate) as their research writer/blogger. Here's one of my recent blogs: http://borgenproject.org/blog/

Please take some time to read what this Non Profit is doing - we have people in 150 cities across the US who are all trying to make the US Senate respond to the global crisis of acute poverty, either through writing, fundraising, meeting/talking to Congressional leaders, and advocating for passing of Bills. 

As a Borgen Project supporter, I want to share this information with my friends. You can read more about it here: http://borgenproject.org/

Please share this information with other friends and family, colleagues and associates. Also, let me know if you are interested to join hands with this national campaign.

Best wishes,

Mantra

Notes from “Write Your Heart Out, Seattle”

These are my notes from “Write Your Heart Out, Seattle,” Nov. 17, 2012, at the Seattle Public Library. Sponsored by The Seattle Times, the Poynter Institute and the Seattle Public Library.


From Roy Peter Clark,senior scholar at the Poynter Institute:

The power of writing is in its parts. You need to slow down the process so you can see the parts, name them and make them more powerful.

Tools are not rules. “Ignore any advice that starts with ‘never’ or ‘avoid.’ ” Like the one that says, “Avoid adverbs.” Maybe in this case: She smiled happily. But not in this one: She smiled sadly.

When you are trying to illustrate something by giving examples:
One is best (actually, he didn’t say that, I did. Find your strongest example, use it and ditch the rest.)
Two divides the world.
Three is the best (he said that).
More than three and it might as well be 10 or 12 and no one will read through all of them. 

The best writing is interesting and important. 

Think about how the reader experiences the text. Where are the “Hot spots,” the places that leave an impression on the reader. There are hot spots before and after a period (or, as the British say, a “full stop”). At the end or beginning of a sentence, with Clark proving with the following sentence, that the end of the sentence is hotter than the beginning:

This was written about a whale that died and people held a funeral for it (and I apologize for not recording the name of the reporter who wrote this):

“The crowd gathered and knelt around the 12-foot creature.”

Clark changed it to:

The crowd gathered around the 12-foot creature and knelt.
Much stronger.

A hotter spot for a word your want to emphasize: At the end of a paragraph.
Even hotter? At the end of a “chapter” or section of a story.
Finding the hot spots and arranging your sentences to get the right words there is work that is done in revising when you have time to find the words you have hidden in the middle of sentences and to move them to the hot spots. 

One more demonstration he made of the importance of word order. Which of these has the most power? 
My Lord, the Queen is dead.
The Queen is dead, my Lord.
Dead is the Queen, my lord.
The Queen, My Lord, is dead.
The last one is how Shakespeare wrote it in “Macbeth,” and when you pause on the commas and end with the word "dead," the only thing you can say is 

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

Note what ends up as the last word. See it live at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZnaXDRwu84

A piece of advice I truly believe in: Set your writing aside when “finished,” and come back to it. Overnight is best. A walk to the water fountain and back if you are on deadline. Try to read it as your audience will, not like it is something you wrote.

(One other trick that I have found that helps me see waywardness in my writing: Read it in a different format. If you wrote it on the computer, print it out and read the hard copy. I don’t know why that helps errors stick out, but it does.)

In journalism there’s much talk about burying the lead, putting a gem or the news down in the story. But Clark cautions about burying the ending. He suggests putting a hand over your last graf to see if you miss it. Maybe your ending was buried by that clumsy last graf.

http://www.poynter.org/author/rclark/

From Jim Lynch,author of three novels and winner of the 2006 Pacific Northwest Bookseller Award.

Advice on the writing process:
1.     Stay in touch with your writing project on a daily basis (write, think about it, etc.)
2.     If you have it in your head long enough, when it comes time, the writing will be more like recording a memory than inventing something.
3.     A first draft should be promising and uninhibited.
4.     Write when you are most alert (Early morning? Late at night? That’s for you to figure out).
5.     Read things connected to your writing.
6.     Listen to other authors at readings, etc.

Time for revision:
1.     Don’t do it when you are in a bad mood. You will look at all your work as bad and whittle away everything.
2.     Share your drafts with similar readers who are not editors.
3.     Watch out for tone-deaf editors.

Selling your work:
“Rejections are the norm for both good and bad work.”
1.     Research agents. Look in books you enjoy, see the acknowledgements authors give to their agents and write to those agents. That also gives you entry: “I saw that you handled X book and thought you might be interested in  . . .”
2.     Proof read your query letter very, very carefully. Don’t let a misspelling be the cause of rejection.
3.     Don’t boast.
4.     Send out query letters in bunches. Don’t wait to hear from one before sending out another one.

http://www.jimlynchbooks.com

From Nancy Rawles,writer and teacher. Latest book is “Miz Sparks is on Fire and This Ain’t No Drill.”

She says she is audio-focused, that she can only remember what she hears. So she writes in a way that distills things to what can be heard and said.

In dialogue, each speaker has to have a different style and rhythm.
Dialogue has to come to a point; there can be no wasted words. It should move the story and/or make a point. When people are speaking next to each other (one after the other in text), the difference between them has to be clear.

“Dialogue reveals my characters,” Rawles said. She regards dialogue as a duel. As part of her writing, she will put characters in a “duel” to see what develops – even if she doesn’t use that dialogue.

Dialogue is not how people speak but evokes how people speak. They may use slang all the time; you use enough to signal that to the reader. They may curse all the time; you use enough to signal that to the reader.

Try to get to the language of before we were reading, the language of the senses. (See more on this from Jacqui below).

Roy Peter Clark added this comment in Rawles’ segment: Dialogue is action. It is overheard in a place. Quotes are not action and they may not have a place; they are not dialogue. Their purpose is to inform, to add emphasis and/or flavor (that last sentence is me talking. Sorry.)

Rawles quoted a speech from Crowfoot, a Blackfeet tribal chief, that I thought wonderful in imagery and message. Here is what Crowfoot said from his death bed:

"A little while and I will be gone from among you.
Whither, I cannot tell. From nowhere we came;
into nowhere we go. What is life? It is the flash of a
firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the
winter time. It is as the little shadow that runs
across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."

http://www.nancyrawles.com

From Ken Armstrong,Seattle Times reporter, co-author of two books and Pulitzer winner

Ken directed us to several websites where public documents are available on the Internet. These are not only essential for research but can be a rich source of story ideas.

Ken also talked about “the power of the slow reveal.” In other words, “slow down and hold back,” don’t give away all the information at the beginning of the story. Plant some questions along the way that the reader will want answered. That will keep them engaged and reading. 

Two more things from Ken: Start writing early, even before your research is finished. You will spot holes in your story, where you need to do more research. You will find out what you know and what you still need to find out.

Also, if you can, write toward an ending. Often you don’t know how your book/article/story will end. But Ken thinks the writing goes easier if you know where you want to end up.

http://www.kenarmstrong.us

From Jess Walter, author of six novels. Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel

Lots of advice from him on the writing process.

First, list 10 books that you admire, that you think have made a difference in your life and re-read them. Dissect how those authors write. Do this down to the sentence level – how do they form them? Update your list often. 

“Read like a writer.”

“Write to a question” Have it hanging out there while you write.

He fills a journal every three months with observations, ideas, thoughts, etc.

Have an inviolate time to write . Even if it is only one hour a week, never miss it. He says he gets up at dawn, writes until 11 o’clock, works out and has lunch, gets a second writing wind later in the day and ends the day with dinner and two – never three – beers.

Give yourself writing assignments, Here are three he suggested:
1.     Write a 300-word short story.
2.     Imagine a person as different from you as possible and write about that person.
3.     Write about something you are embarrassed about or humiliated about and write about it from the view of another person.

And finally, “write the next book you want to read.”

http://www.jesswalter.com

From Jacqui Banaszynski, writer, editor and teacher, winner of a Pulitzer and formerly with The Seattle Times.

“It’s OK to have a Muse, but the Muse should be married to a mechanic.”

Take the story process apart and “write stories that make people tell their stories.”

The process: 
Conceive = Idea

Ask yourself some questions about your idea: Is there a narrative here? Where does this story come from and where is it going? Some events can lead to bigger ideas and movement. Could be a story in it. Some big topics can be grounded in a story or in a person in a story.

Collect = Report/research
            Make a list of the narrative elements – character, scene, emotion, tension, dialogue, revelatory evidence, description (if it does any work in your story) – and check them off as you report for them (Do I have enough to reveal this character? Check.)

            Do sensory reporting, “full body reporting.” What is the smell, touch, sight, taste and sound in the story. Don’t forget your “emotional sense.” What are you feeling as you report? Use that.

            Do cinematic reporting: Make your mind a camera. How would you describe what you are seeing? What is the sound track? What will make the best “power shots,” the closeups?

Focus = Narrow down the topic to a story, the story to something manageable.  
This step happens within all other steps.

Organize = Select from your research and outline.
            What can you use to organize your story? Are you familiar with blueprints? Sewing patterns? Music? Clocks? Calendars? Going from house to house? Math? Numbers? What works for you? What works for your story. 

            Organize in chapters or scenes.

Draft = Vomit (my word). 

Get it out there. Promising and uninhibited.

Revise = Clean up the vomit and make it writing.

http://journalism.missouri.edu/staff/jacqui-banaszynski/

Recommended reading:
‘Richard Nixon’s long journey ends”
By David Von Drehle
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A99301-1994Apr28.html
Also see “How I wrote the story” at http://www.newsu.org/angel/content/nwsu_wawapa07/stories/story_1008.html

“The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson
http://isabelwilkerson.com

“On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction” by Brian Boyd
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674057111

Remember the Elyria NYT stories we looked at? Here’s the author discussing them:
http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/newsgathering-storytelling/writing-tools/191972/live-chat-today-dan-barry-offers-writing-tips-behind-the-scenes-look-at-elyria-series/
 
Final word goes to Roy Peter Clark:
“Running a marathon is no big deal. Anyone can do it in 52 days at a half mile a day. Think of your big writing projects that way. Remember this:
“1 page/day = 1 book/year”

Thank you, Eli Sanders, for your class visit

Eli Sanders, winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, joined us to talk about magazine writing.

His article, “The Bravest Woman in Seattle,” covers a sensitive subject and touches on very personal issues. Eli talked to us about how he handled the interviews and how he decided to frame the story. A very talented reporter and writer, Eli was generous with his time and advice.

Here are some of the class comments about Eli:

Write your stories like Jiro dreams of sushi – be patient; use humility; learn from the best. Do it over and over until (almost) perfect.

Blog writing, says Eli Sander, means being new and different and being prepared to move fast, fail fast, move on and not be remembered. 

Remember to do the most basic thing over and over again 

Find your voice and let it sing. 

And maybe by age 85 you will have your masterpiece. 

Eli generously shared what it takes to be a writer as well as what its like to write about a difficult topic with immediacy and humanity.

Pulitzer prize winner Eli Sanders tells burgeoning journalists to master basic forms like Inverted Pyramid before trying nontraditional forms.

Some guidelines for critiquing non-fiction writing

Good non-fiction writing depends on two things: accurate information and clear writing. Here are some questions to ask yourself when you are critiquing non-fiction writing.

Accurate information

Essentially this comes down to this question: Do you believe the information presented in the article? These might help you determine that:

1.     Are authoritative sources quoted? Is their expertise or credentials given? If the writer is the expert, what are her credentials (academic background, experience in the field, etc.)?

2.     Is there more than one source to confirm accuracy – especially if the source is anonymous?

3.     If anonymous, is the reason for that given?

4.     If material is used from other documents (studies, other articles, books, public documents, etc.) is there enough information given that you could check the accuracy? Not that you will, but it shows the writer’s confidence in her sources and information.

5.     If the information comes from direct observation by the writer is it specific and detailed? Are there reference points (descriptions, locations, times) that help verify that the author observed this event, place or person? Is all the information consistent?

6.     Is the information germane to the topic of the writing, not just “piled up” to impress or snow you? Does the information fit together, not conflict internally? Or, are the contradictions explained?

7.     Does the article give different points of view or at least acknowledge that there are other points of view? (This may not be true for a personal essay or a polemic, an argumentative, piece of writing.)

8.     Does the information ultimately make you believe that the article is accurate as a whole and in its smallest parts? Remember Zinsser’s words here: “If the reader catches (the writer) in just one bogus statement that (the writer) is trying to pass off as true, everything (the writer) writes thereafter will be suspect.”

Clear writing

1.     Are you interested/intrigued from the very first sentence – or at least the first two or three paragraphs?

2.     Is the organization easy to follow from beginning to end?

3.     Does the article have a purpose? Is that purpose clear before you lose interest?

4.     Are you ever left stranded between sentences, paragraphs or even words? Does the writer switch time, place or person referred to without taking you with her? In other words, are there clear transitions?

5.     Are these transitions appropriate to the subject and the tone of the article? (Scientific or technical writing might employ numbered paragraphs or other “signposts,” but in a personal essay, for example, the transitions should be unobtrusive.)

6.     Are the sentences themselves easy to follow? (Subject-verb-object is easiest.)

7.     Is there a variety of sentence structure and length?

8.     Is the writing flabby? Does it stick to the point or go off on unrelated tangents? Are verbs mostly active? Are there qualifying adverbs and adjectives that rob the article of force and clear statement? Are the strongest words at the beginnings and ends of sentences? (What words stand out to you as you read?)

9.     Are specific words used and generalities and jargon avoided?

10. Can you “see” what the writer is describing? Are images original? Again, are they specific things, not generalities?

11. If metaphors are used, are they original and not clichéd? (The no cliché rule applies to all aspects of clear writing.)

12. Is the tone appropriate for the topic?

13. Is there unity of pronoun, tense and tone?

14. Can you recognize the writer’s voice or is it buried in listed details, clunky sentences, etc.?

15. Is there a pace or rhythm to the writing that carries you along? Or do you find yourself stopping after every sentence, or, worse yet, rereading the previous sentence to decipher it?

16. Has the writer built up suspense or drama, dialogue or a well-constructed argument to carry you along?

17. Are there gems along the way that you will remember? These could be something you didn’t know before, an insight, a catchy phrase, a bit of humor, etc.

18. In the end, is the purpose of the article realized or did the writer fail to support her argument (opinion or writing with a point of view) or not give enough information or detail to make her premise believable?

19. Do you feel rewarded at the ending of the story? Does the ending surprise you? Summarize the story for you? Make all that has gone before clear? It’s not just the last paragraph that offers that reward. When you finish reading the article, do you sit back and think to yourself, “I’m glad I took the time to read that?” Or is the thought in your mind, “What a waste of time!”?

What we said about Cheryl's visit

Cheryl Phillips from The Seattle Times once again visits the Non-Fiction Writing class and puts us in awe of all the information that is out there on the web and how adept she is at finding it. Here's what class members had to say about her presentation:

“A stimulating talk from Cheryl: valuable insights for internet searching and the importance of tenacity and curiosity in reporting.”

 “There’s zillions of online resources, but you still have to use them well: think creatively, work hard, search everywhere, love what you do.”

“Cheryl Phillips’ passion for journalism explodes with investigative reporting website recommendations for would be journalists.”

“Cheryl Phillips told us to ask ourselves, ‘what's my main point?’ That sentence was the most important one. It was pure gold.”

“I was impressed by the multitude of sites available for research also the time and dedication it takes to write a well thought out story.”

“If I was not limited I would also speak to the diligence and creative sleuthing required for investigative writing. A few times during Cheryl's presentation I felt like I was listening to someone from CSI. I have done some work with disease investigation which requires a whole different sort of snooping, also very exciting but not nearly as riveting as her account of tainted Jake induced paralysis.” 

Thanks so much for having her come to speak to us.  

A non-fiction writer follows Faulkner style

David Quammen is a science writer, but he told the New York Times last week that his style depends on a very famous fiction writer: William Faulkner.

I also like his explanation of how he started writing non-fiction. From the NYT story on his new book, "Spillover," about the threat of animal diseases jumping over to humans:

"He was having trouble getting published as a novelist, he said, and at a certain point he decided: 'I’m a white, middle-class male who had a happy childhood in Ohio. The world does not need me to be a novelist.' From reading authors like Stephen Jay Gould, Lewis Thomas, Annie Dillard and John McPhee, moreover, he discovered, he said, that 'nonfiction could be wondrous and imaginative, shapely and literary — it didn’t just have to be explanatory.'

"But his greatest influence as a science writer, Mr. Quammen insisted, was the seemingly unscientific William Faulkner, about whom he wrote both undergraduate and graduate school theses. Though few critics have been subtle enough to notice, he said, smiling, the structure of 'Spillover' was as intricate as that of 'Absalom, Absalom' or 'Light in August.'

“ 'There are four levels braided together like cords in a rope, all moving in the same direction,' he explained. 'Or that’s what the author thinks, anyway. "

Here are the notes from Week 2

 Writing Tools No. 1 and 2.

Where are the subjects and verbs of the sentences? Are the strong words at the beginning and ends of the paragraphs?

Let’s look at this story from the Sunday New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/us/this-land-corner-of-hope-and-worry-elyria.html?_r=0

 The subjects and verbs are in yellow. The blue indicates I have a comment about the word order. And if we are lucky, I will remember what it is.

By Dan Barry

New York Times

ELYRIA, OHIO — Another day begins with a sound softer than a finger-snap, in an Ohio place called Elyria. In the central square of this small city, the gushing water fountain applauds the early-morning chorus of sparrows. A car clears its throat. A door slams. And then: click. 

(Note the lengths of the sentences in the opening graf, becoming shorter as you go until it draws down to that one last word.

Subjects and verbs are right next to each other. No search needed to find the verb that goes with the subject. It’s more immediate that way, more impact, especially with the active verbs he uses: begins, applauds, clears and slams. Note the personification of the fountain and the car.

Last of all, that wonderful word order on “an Ohio place called Elyria.” It gets the name of the place to the end of the sentence, but there’s also something about turning the noun Ohio into an adjective. Maia said it made it more like a fairy-tale place, which I thought was a good way of describing the effect. Whatever it is, it’s much more interesting than just saying, “in Elyria, Ohio.”)

The faint sound comes as 7:00 flashes on the clock of the Lorain National Bank building, looming over the square. The pull of a string — click — has sent life pulsing through a neon sign, announcing to all of Elyria that, once more, against the odds, Donna’s Diner is open. 

(What is the effect of all that passes before? Open, that’s what. The last word in the graf.)

Its proprietor, Donna Dove, 57, ignites the grill that she seems to have just turned off, so seamlessly do her workdays blend into one endless shift. She wears her blond hair in a ponytail and frames her hazel eyes with black-rimmed glasses that tend to get smudged with grill grease. She sees the world through the blur of her work.

A dozen years ago, Donna found a scrap of serendipity on the sidewalk: a notice that a local mom-and-pop restaurant was for sale. After cooking for her broken family as a child, after cooking for county inmates at one of her many jobs, she had come to see food as life’s binding agent, and a diner as her calling. She maxed out her credit cards, cashed in her 401(k) and opened a business to call her own.

Donna’s Diner. Donna’s.

You know this place: It is Elyria’s equivalent to that diner, that coffee shop, that McDonald’s. From the vantage point of these booths and Formica countertops, the past improves with distance, the present keeps piling on, and a promising future ispractically willed by the resilient patrons. 

(What is unsaid in the sentence ending with ”McDonald’s? He never defines the place that you all know except by throwing out some nouns. But we do know that place, that neightborhood gathering spot without him having to go into detail.)

It is where the recession and other issues of the day are lived as much as discussed. Where expectationsfor a certain lifestyle have been lowered and hopesfor salvation through education and technology have been raised. Where the presidential nomineesBarack Obama and Mitt Romney each hope that his plan for a way back will resonatewith the Donna Doves, who try to get by in places like Elyria — where the American dream they talk about can sometimes seem like a tease.

But for now, at least, the door to Donna’s is open. So take a seat. Have a cup of coffee. Maybe some eggs. 

(What are the subjects of the last two verbs here. What is the author doing and why is he doing it? Switching to the imperative and talking directly to the reader. Another way of engaging them.)

This morning, as usual, Pete Aldrich is helping Donna through the new-dawn isolation, turning on the coffee and being compensated by food and tips from the occasional delivery. In his early 50s, well-educated and from regional royalty, he has hitsome hard times, and may or may not have slept in his car last night, cocooned by his bundled possessions.

 

(“This morning” starts the graf and keeps the reader with the writer. Now we are talking about this morning, he is saying, just so you will know and stay with me. The reader should never become lost in time or space or person between grafs, sentences or even words. Guide them.)

Pete tries, though, he tries. Heoften leavesstraight from Donna’s for a job interview, hustling out with purpose, no matter that his thick-lensed eyeglasses are missing one arm. Something will turn up.

(Verb repetition. Works here. Don’t overuse it.)

That is the communal hope. Donna, for example, is dogged by the day’s anxieties. Why are her receipts going down? What lunch special can she offer to clean out the refrigerator? Should she buy less perch for her Friday fish fry? Can she slide a month on her electric bill? Since she already doesn’t have health insurance, what else can she cut?

“I’m just going in circles and circles and circles,” Donna says one day, gazing through smudged glasses. “And not getting anyplace.” 

(Note the attribution in the middle of the sentence and not at the end or beginning. What she says is more important than the attribution and deserves to be at the start and end. Exception: When switching in quoted material from one speaker to another. Then move the attribution to the start of the second person’s quote to alert the reader that another person is talking.)

The fresh aroma of coffee face-slaps the air. Soon the Breakfast Club regulars, that gaggle of Elyrian past and present, will be here to renew their continuing discussion of what was, is and isn’t in this city of 55,000. The presidential election sometimes serves as a conversation starter, like a curio placed between the salt and pepper shakers.

 

(Love the imagery of the curio placed between the salt and peper shakers.)

The multi-media presentation of this series is fairly amazing. It might make you think that writing text is not going to be enough to be a published author any more:

http://www.nytimes.com

There’s one other exercise that we could do with this story: Go through it and speculate on how the reporter got each piece of information in it. It looks to me that he used every method of research we discussed last week: personal observation, interviews, public documents, maybe a camera to get the detail in Donna’s Diner, etc.

We won’t be spending this much time on these exercises in the future, but all of them introduce another way to analyze your own writing. Look for the phrasing you overuse.  Is your writing flabby with too many words? Are your verbs active? Do you rely on forms of “to be” and “to have” too much?

Now let’s talk about getting started on a piece of writing:

Find your focus. A topic is not a story. An issue is not a story. Find the piece you can focus on and go for it. (more below)

Find your audience (in some cases you may need to reverse those two actions). More importantly, identify the audience of the media where you hope to see your article published.

n  Are you aiming at an audience that is well-versed in the subject you are writing about? Or are you introducing them to it?

n  What is the proper tone and style for this audience? Will humor be appropriate?

n  What about length? Will there be any other elements to support your article (photos, graphics, etc.)?

Take a look at the handout I gave you on “Focus.” Turn to the third page on the “Five Stages of a Story.”

We are at the idea stage. But before we hear your ideas, two things to keep in sight: A topic is not a story idea. A subject is not a story idea. Try to write about a topic and you will never bring your story in for a landing. Now to mix metaphors: You need to bite off a digestible piece of the topic/subject, chew it well and make it palatable to the reader.

Story forms: Second page of the handout.

Here’s the link to the video on the inverted pyramid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hPG-aCE3RE

I’ll try to figure out how to get the sound working in the class room. Sorry about the glitch last week.

More story forms:

Block: Helps in technical stories. Sometimes in stories where the chronology is important (think Benghazi attack on consulate and Egyptian riot)

Layer Cake: Good for when you are casting back and forth among different time elements. You will need strong transistions.

Wineglass: My favorite. Combines the inverted pyramid but still allows for story telling.

Note the parts of the handout on organizing your story. My fav is the jot outline. That can be the outline you turn into me for your final project.

See Boswell comment on thread (first page of handout)

I keep tyring to get to this info in class, but have run out of time twice. So here it is for you to look at on your own. It’s entertaining, it’s advice worth reading on writing:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-ultimate-guide-to-writing-better-than-you-normally-do

Want something different to get your writing juice flowing? Check this out (but do your assignment first):

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/thirteen-writing-prompts

The URL home for the above:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/

Not so entertaining, but good on editing and revision:

http://www.copyediting.com/read-first-edit-after

Next week: Eli Sanders on this article, which won him the Pulitzer:

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-bravest-woman-in-seattle/Content?oid=8640991