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The Writer’s Art Preview • The well-written story: • Makes its point clearly. • Engages the reader, viewer of listener with human-interest material, quotations, incidents and examples. • Sets a pace and has a style appropriate to the event or personality being described. • Satisfies the viewer, listener or reader that the story is complete and is truthful. Read! Writer’s write…And read, too. Stephen King, the prolific writer of best-selling horror stories, says, “Writing is a matter of exercise…if you write for an hour and a half a day for ten years you’re gonna turn into a good writer.” In King’s book On Writing, A memoir of the Craft, he lists first in his suggestions for aspiring writers, “Read a lot of books.” Doing It Right—In a Hurry • A journalist doesn’t have hours to spend finding the right word… • So…you’re job is to create stories that are “accurate and shapely.” • Comprehension precedes clarity. • A reminder: Don’t write writing. Don’t make clever prose the purpose of your writing. Your job is to communicate information. • Writers who try to write well are always asking themselves whether the words they are using make their stories clear and direct. If not, revise. Show, Don’t tell • Don’t write “remarkable”; Write the story so that the reader would way, “That’s remarkable.” • Showing engages readers by making them visualize, draw conclusions, experience insights. • Personalize events that easily lend themselves to human interest. Don’t just write about a new Poison Control Center. Find a frantic mother who was able to save her child’s life by contacting the center. Human Interest Essential • Let Them Talk, Act. • Good writers let the words and the actions of their subjects do the work. • When the reporter makes it happen, the reader moves into the story. The writer disappears as intermediary between the event and the reader. • Unemployment is more than figures released by an official sitting at a desk. It is men and women standing idle on street corners or waiting anxiously in offices day and day for job interviews. Frank Sinatra Has a Cold • www.esquire.com • Human Interest Up High • We try to place as close to the lead as possible the human-interest example, incident or anecdote that spotlights the theme of the story. • Think of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. “’What is the use of a book,’ thought Alice, ‘without picture or conversations?” • The print reporter lets the anecdotes serve as pictures, and the quotations as conversations. Quotations Are Essential • Good Quotes Up High • …Especially if they sum up the event. Styling the Story • Every event has its own tone, texture and pace that writers try to reflect in their stories. • The way a story is written is known as its style. • In the following story of a murder, the short sentences reflect the starkness of the event:http://www.nypress.com/article-18662femicide.html • Vocabulary Helps • When the treasurer of a large utility is convicted of stealing $25,000 in company funds, a reporter can write: • The employee was TK. • The official was TK. • The executive was TK. • Each noun has a different connotation. • • • • • • • Next some verbs: He pilfered $25,000 ... He took $25,000 … He appropriated $25,000 for his own use. He embezzled $25,000 ... He stole $25,000 ... Which is the best verb to use? Accuracy of Language • A journalist’s basic tools are words. • Ernest Hemingway’s writing was simple, but it was not simplistic. He shaved language to the bone, but at no sacrifice to meaning. This required hard work. Reaching for a baseball metaphor, Hemingway said of the writer that “he has to go the full nine even if it kills him.” Good Writing: Four Principles • Accurate: The language fits the situation. • Clear: The story is free of vagueness and ambiguity. • Convincing: The story is believable. It sounds true. • Appropriate: The style is natural and unstrained. Mark Twain said good writing is marked by “unpretentiousness, simplicity of language, naturalness, selecting just the right word for the service needed.”