Converged Feature Writer - Reporting With All Five Senses
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Transcript of Converged Feature Writer - Reporting With All Five Senses
The Converged Feature Writer
Reporting with all five senses
The daily dish
•The rise of narrative writing
•A cautionary tale of reporting for detail
•The multimedia mind of Anne Hull
•Detail without aim: notebook dumps
•Meaning in description: The Hotel
•Class exercise in critique
Long-Form Giants
Anne Hull Isabel Wilkerson Tom French
Leon Dash Jacqui Banaszynski
CANONS OF
DESCRIPTION
I. SPECIFICITY
There is no such flavor as “ice cream”
Exhibit A:
Pete blows his big Baskin-Robbins scoop
II. UTILITY
Journalistic detail must serve the topic
Exhibit B:
The geopolitics of the Dairy Queen
Exhibit C:
Street Preachers
• In two words, what is the story about?
• How does that drive Hull’s choices?
• How do the details advance the story?
• What are video, audio entry points?
III. RESTRAINT
• Choose details like toppings: Use taste
• Synecdoche rhymes with Schenectady
• Do not put a cherry on top
• Avoid the color purple
Homer on the color purple
"Your opening shows great
promise, and yet flashy purple patches...”
…and not to do
• Relevant
• Telling
• Concise
• Emblematic
•Authentic • Clichéd
• Random
• Verbose
• Gratuitous
• Extraneous
To do
Overwriters Anonymous
Example 3
Stories that make your teeth hurt
Exhibit 4
“The Hotel Aftermath”
By Anne Hull and Dana Priest
The Washington Post
2008 Pulitzer Prize
Public Service
Practice makes perfect
Be specific: Ask what flavor.
Be purposeful: What is the “stuff” of the story?
Be choosy: Select details for meaning and effect. Less can be more.