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?

Interviewing to Tell a Story

Students run for cover as a plainclothes police officer, centre, watches on. (Peter McCabe/Canadian Press)

On September 13, 2006, eleven Dawson College students were victims of a shooting rampage on the campus of this small Montreal school. Writer Aaron Derfel wrote a strong, captivating feature story for the Montreal Gazette based on that incident. In that story, he displays the kinds of interviewing skills that we have discussed lead to strong anecdotes. After reading "The Fight for Their Lives," find a compelling section of the story. What questions do you think the reporter might have asked to capture the moment or scene?

Driving the Narrative Through Scenes

Writer David Hayes approaches an unusual, some might say even "quirky" subject in the feature story "Die Hard." His backstage look at the production of a commercial brings us to a place few people ever see and contains a "crisis" that even fewer will ever face. Look back over Hayes' advice to feature writers in Chapter 4. How well or poorly does he follow his own advice in writing "Die Hard?"

Setting the Scene and Recreating Events

CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman (CBS)

For this week's class we are going to discuss structuring feature stories around the concept of "scenes." The chapter you are to read talks about how much can be learned from how television and movies script their stories around scenes that can be visualized. In addition, while we are primarily focussing this semester on writing for print publications, there are many great feature writers for television news programs. One of the best, in my opinion, is Steve Hartman of CBS News, who often reports for a program titled "Sunday Morning" on CBS. This week, he did a story on a rare relationship between a taxi driver and one of his fares. It's available on-line here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5304943n&tag=contentMain;contentBody

(you may have to cut and paste the above into your browser for access, due to the length of the link).

Please view the story before class on Tuesday (we will watch it in class) and ask yourself how Hartman uses a sense of "scene" and what techniques he uses to recreate an event effectively as a feature writer. Please post your ideas as "comments" below.

Research For Your Feature Story

Now to your own research for feature story 1. To continue the metaphor we were discussing in class today (thanks to Doug!), good research is a little like good teaching or a fine performance: the audience should instinctively know and appreciate the effort that went into it, but it should be such a seamless part of your story that they don't see the "wires" showing. A good feature story has a broad range of research, from first person observation to personal interviews, to on-line searches (with the precautions discussed in class today), background reading of stories that have been done in other publications or media on the same subject or issue. The goal is to know what else has been written about your subject before it became your subject. With that in mind, before Thursday's class post on this blog under "comment" a two sentence description explaining your story and its intended audience. Below that, list the sources of research you propose to do in support of telling that story. It could include people you are going to interview, articles you propose to read, websites you intend to use, books, magazines, audio or video archives, studies--anything that will help make your story more compelling.

"The Golden Bough"

John Vaillant has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic–Adventure, Outside and Men’s Journal. He lives in Vancouver with his wife (an anthropologist and a potter) and their two children.

All good feature stories involve research. It's one element of feature writing that separates narrative stories, from creative works like novels or short stories (although they, too, can involve research, especially those based upon fact, which we sometimes refer to as non-fiction narrative or literary journalism). Before class of Sept. 9th, read the assigned piece by John Vaillant (seen above) titled "The Golden Bough." It's a story that contains a good deal of research on the topic and uses the result of that research to create a compelling story from a topic that might not be instrinsically interesting to a wide audience. In what specific ways does Vaillant's research support his main storyline?