Delivering on the Promise: The Final Story

I would contend that one of the most important aspects of feature writing is ensuring that your story pitch delivers on the promise you make to a potential editor or publisher. In other words, does the final story measure up to what you say it will be? Katrina Onstad's pitch for her story "My Year of Living Dangerously" appears on p.38. Compare her pitch to the final story. Does it deliver on the promise(s) contained within her letter to ELLE magazine? Is so, what key elements in her pitch might have contributed to her eventual success in getting the story published?

The "Perfect Pitch": Getting Your Story Published

This week we will concentrate on approaches and strategies for capturing an editor's attention. While this is the second chapter in the text, it seemed to me when designing this course that working on how to pitch a story should come only after having a story to pitch. Read Matthew Hays' advice, especially the sample pitch letters that led to successful publications. Decide on a publication for which your final long-form story might be appropriate, both in terms of its subject and the publication's audience. Using Hays' advice, tell us how you would pitch your story to that publication's editor.

Taking the High Road: " Into the Valley of Death"

In discussing the differences between fiction and non-fiction narrative writing, Ivor Shapiro (pp. 292-293)compares Stephanie Nolen's story "Into the Valley of Death" to a New York Times account on the same subject: civil unrest in Kenya following disputed election results. Both are "true" accounts, he says, "but Nolan's story is distinguished by an approach that reads like fiction--a fast paced, first-person narrative of a descent into danger." What specific elements make her story compelling in the same way that a work of fiction might capture and keep our interest? Also, are there specific points in her narrative where she might have been tempted to "tweak" or fabricate the truth about what she observed to make a better story, ala Jayson Blair,Janet Cooke, and the others we discussed in class?

Truth and the Storyteller: Ethics in Non-Fiction

In this chapter, Ivor Shapiro takes us through the process of using the techniques of fiction and applying them to non-fiction writing. He makes a case for how easily a feature article, in the hands of an unscrupulous person, can take a turn for the worse by enhancing the storyline, embellishing or adding to quotes, or direct fabrication of content. He refers to "the seductive similarity between writing a feature story of journalism, on the one hand, and writing a short story of fiction on the other. He even says that, as a young reporter, he was once told by his editor to "tweak" a story for a travel magazine to make it more "effective" for the reader." The specific request was to put himself in the story checking into a hotel that he (Shapiro) had never visited. The editor told him "this kind of thing was done all the time in travel pieces, 'tweaking' at little details that don't change any of the basic facts." It should make us cautious, he suggests, about being sure that our feature stories are, first and foremost, true. Jayson Blair, a former New York Times reporter and Janet Cooke, formerly of the Washington Post (each seen above), could be considered examples of crossing an ethical line in their feature writing. Look up some background on each. Do you agree that they are examples of what Shapiro is suggesting? Why or why not? Are they alone or have there been others who exemplify the same issue?

Details of Structure: Topic and Theme

In class, we discussed how good feature stories between with a topic,(what the story is about) but branch out to contain a theme (what the story is really about). In "When Animals Attack," Bruce Grierson tells the tale of a family's fight against a beaver population that causes them turmoil while threatening to flood their home. That's the story's topic, but it seems to me that the theme of this story is much broader. What do you see as its theme? What examples can you find of points in the story where Grierson uses the technique we called grounding to reinforce the story's topic and theme?

Building the Beast: Approaches to Structure

When approaching a feature story, says Paul Benedetti in his chapter on structure, the key is to "strike a balance between narrative and exposition." He goes on to say that "too much narrative and you won't fully explain the issues; too much exposition and your article will read like a government report." In the "Sixty-Storey Crisis," a narrative on engineers trying to repair a hole in the Bennett Dam, do you believe the writer, Anne Mullens, achieved that balance? If so, what pointers can you gain from her story that might help you achieve a similar balance in your own writing? If not, in what specific ways do you believe she could have improved her story's structure to achieve a better balance between the two?

Telling the Story of a Culture

In "Living on Lobster Time," Philip Preville explores the subject of lobster fishing on a small island in the middle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He immerses himself in the culture of the people who live there, not an easy thing, given that so many of them are suspicious of outsiders. We've talked about gaining access as one of the major challenges to immersion storytelling. In this specific instance, the writer really had to penetrate the local community in order to get at the "truth" of what drives them to "call this place home."

Do you think he was successful? If so, what specific elements of the story suggest that he focussed his efforts on answering why these people stay in a place with few ameneties and a steadily decreasing population? Was immersion the best way to get this story or the only way?