I read through the piece “Obama after Dark: His Precious Hours Alone” by Michael D. Shear, published in July of this year in the NY Times. The story was a really detailed and intriguing look into the behavioral patterns, practices, and habits of President Obama. This was done in a variety of ways, and used heavy amounts of anecdotes to walk us through the president’s work ethic and dedication from his first term until now. The structure is really smart in starting present day and with a simple quote lede that hooks you from the very beginning, given the context that you’ve already read the title.
“Are you up?”

Throughout the rest of the piece, in a rather winding non linear fashion and demonstrates well the idea of seizing narrative opportunities wherever it can. Through the constant stream of anecdotes and mundane details about a high profile figure, the story really puts us in Obama’s inner circle for a moment in order to illustrate the breadth of this man’s work and character. By using small narratives, even the simple, silly ones like Obama texting his former personal aide whenever Duke loses, his family’s movie nights where they have first run films delivered by Motion Picture Association of America, and even the small inside jokes he has with staff. Shear sharply contrasts those tiny anecdotes with larger, more serious ones, like how late he stayed up the night before delivering a speech in Charleston after the fatal shooting of nine African Americans at a Episcopal bible study. By writing these personal vignettes of such a powerful leader, the writer turns Obama into a character in a story rather than just a subject, a perspective we don’t often use when reading about the president.

The “Man in the Woods” by Ashley Powers appeared in The Sunday Long Read on June 5th, first appearing in The California Sunday Magazine. It is a chilling and sadly memorable account of a mind unraveled, a life gone terribly wrong. There are plenty of victims, including the killer himself. It is also a dramatically told story of the manhunt to find – and ultimately take down – the tormented young man.

It is most certainly a story rather than a report, without question. According to Clark, a story gives the reader an experience, not just provides information. This piece most definitely takes the reader on a journey, with emotional peaks and valleys; it propels the reader toward the end (noted as key in Blaine’s text).

Distinctive parts and subparts are important, according to Clark. This piece contains 14 sections, I believe. They are not identified by headings but are separated by space between sections or by photographs (at least that’s how they appeared online).

The pattern of sections is worth noting because there is some amount of repetition. They are as follows: 1. Scene setter lede, beautifully written, almost poetic; 2. Key “anecdote” that becomes the crux of the story – Aaron, young man in the woods fires at and kills men investigating his drug operation; 3. Lure of the Redwoods and their attraction to various fringe type individuals and groups; 4 Look back at the early life of Aaron; 5. Manhunt begins; 6. Back to Aaron’s story, progressing forward in time; 7. Second week of manhunt; 8. Introduction of sheriff in charge of manhunt, including his back story of having a brother experiencing mental illness with some similarities to Aaron; 8. Look back at Aaron’s earlier life, again progressing forward in time, with his arrest for behavior related to delusions; sister’s recognition of the darkness of her brother’s life; 9. Exposition about laws regarding involuntary commitment to psychiatric facility, learning how the system failed in this case; 10. Third week of manhunt; 11.Look back at Aaron’s life, forward to the point where his father was relieved to hear he was moving into the woods, which he thought would keep him safe; 12. Closing in on Aaron and shooting/killing him; 13. Reflections from each party in Aaron’s life (except his mother, for some reason); 14. Reflection from the Sheriff who hunted him down, carrying out his responsibilities but still seeing the tragedy of Aaron’s life and humanity. To note from this breakdown is that each aspect of the story moves forward, with the sections interspersed.

Two other tools from Clark to note are use of internal cliffhangers and putting coins along the path. Each section ends with a cliffhanger, to be returned to after the next interspersed section. The coins along the path, to me, are beautifully worded ideas that hit hard. For example, the writer states about Aaron that in the woods, “he was a woodman, not a lost boy.” The thought of hiding his brokenness by removing himself from others and merging into the woods is jarring. We know it won’t work. There are a number of others that make the reader stop and ponder what it must have been like for this “lost boy.”

Something else to mention is juxtaposition. A number of the photographs show natural beauty of the setting juxtaposed with the horrific events taking place. The photograph of Aaron as a young man, handsome and well groomed, juxtaposed with description of how he was regarded by others, despite his relative good looks – “that something about him warned – stay away.” And that same photograph juxtaposed with his mug shot just cries out, “What happened??”  Of course, we learn that the real villain of the story is the mental illness which has stolen his mind.

I chose to read “The Afterlife of a Ballerina,” which discussed prima ballerina Alexandra Ansanelli’s surprising decision to walk away from her career in dance at the relatively young age of 28. As someone who grew up idolizing stories about her in issues of “Young Dancer” at my own ballet studio, I was surprised on an almost punch-in-the-gut level to learn that she has retired.

I was, however, relatively disappointed in the article, which, to borrow from Tool 25 of Clark’s Writing Tools, I found to be more of a report than a story. It follows a narrative structure in that anecdotes are arranged in chronological order interspersed with the author’s own thoughts or research, but it reads like a report. Clark says that you “use [a report] to render information, and [a story] to render experience.” I found this piece to render more information than experience, detailing Ansanelli’s rise far more than what surely must have been an emotionally fraught decision to walk away from her career. I was missing the why, and the how. Perhaps I am projecting too much of my own experiences onto Ansanelli, but when one has trained for years in a very demanding art, walking away is incredibly hard. The author details why this is hard for a dancer in the general sense (most dancers have no other formal skills or training to fall back on), but I would have appreciated learning more about Ansanelli’s particular experiences. I think the basic narrative structure the author chose for this piece could convey such information perfectly well, but just as we have been finding in our food exercises, what truly makes a story is all the personal detail that brings a scene alive.

The story I read was  Rae Carruth’s son will be at prison gates when father who wanted him dead goes free. This story was organized in a similar was as “The Things That Carried Him” in that it showed multiple different perspectives of the same event. It begins with Carruth’s son, then to the boys grandmother, the coach, and his wife’s mother. Each of the perspectives uses dialogue as a form of action. Through quotes, the traits of each character in the story become apparent. The article is sectioned off by different quotes, and new characters were introduced with quotes as well. Almost the entire last section of the article is one long quote broken up into different graphs. This story covers a deeply personal event, and through the characterization of the quotes, the readers can see how each person in the story feels.

I chose the piece, Obama After Dark: The Precious Hours Alone from the Don Van Natta list. The piece, published in the New York Times gave insight into President Obama’s day-to-day life. It detailed how he spent his nights working, having dinner with his family or watching sports. The writer interviewed several sources about the president’s various habits and the relationships he had with his aids. Something I noticed about this piece is that it does not have the “suitcase lede” that Clark talks about. It’s clear, straightforward, and not bogged down by too many details.

This is how the article starts:

“Are you up?”

The emails arrive late, often after 1 a.m., tapped out on a secure BlackBerry from an email address known only to a few. The weary recipients know that once again, the boss has not yet gone to bed.

It’s oddly specific without giving away the subject (President Obama) or the location (The White House). It leaves enough mystery for the reader to want to continue.

Similarly, the nutgraph is straightforward, clear and easy to understand

Mr. Obama calls himself a “night guy,” and as president, he has come to consider the long, solitary hours after dark as essential as his time in the Oval Office.