Structure Advice

I read the Wright Thompson story The trouble with Johnny. I can’t remember who first introduced me to this story, but it perfectly foreshadowed the implosion that was Johnny Manziel.

One of the biggest writing techniques I took out of the story was Tool No. 27 — reveal traits of character. Throughout the story, you got glimpses into what Johnny Manziel was like off the football field and how those gave insight into what Manziel was really like. When he plays golf with his father, Manziel’s father has to let him win otherwise he gets mad and starts throwing his clubs. The only time we saw Manziel at first was on a football field. Before all the substance abuse and partying information finally surfaced the public looked at Johnny as a great college quarterback, not the destructive young adult he truly was.

Another tool I noticed was tool No. 29 — foreshadowing dramatic events and powerful conclusions. Throughout Thompson’s observations and his talk with Manziel’s father, the conclusion that Johnny was a troubled young man was evident. He struggled controlling his emotions and became irrational at times. You could see throughout the writing that Manziel had the makings of a teenager trapped in a millionaire quarterbacks body. It wasn’t until three years after the article was posted that we actually saw how damaged Manziel was.

The final tool that really caught my eye was tool No. 26 — Use dialogue as a form of action. The most prevalent use of dialogue were among the observations that Thompson captured, whether it be on the golf course or at the dinner table. All the interactions gave a key look at Manziel’s personality and gave a more accurate depiction of his character traits.

Clark and Instagram

I decided to go out on a limb and click ‘random article’, because why not? I ended up reading about how Instagram is ruining vacation, which is somewhat true, for my generation especially. I could go on and on about how much time people spend trying to portray a perfect lifestyle, but that’s a different story for a different time.

As I read this article, I felt it best connected with Clark’s tool 25, ‘Learn the difference between reports and stories.’ A lot of this article is an opinion, almost like a column, but it does contain information found from reporting. Clark emphasizes that the balance between reporting and stories is important to creating the best overall piece, as it levels our emotions with our knowledge.

If Pilon would have written this whole piece based around her opinion, I probably would not have credited her as a legitimate source on the matter. But she backs up her opinion and her own personal experiences with facts about what is happening around the globe, like the ban of selfie sticks at Disney and the increase in deaths by selfie.

The reporting and facts that she presents opens the reader up to feeling emotion, as Clark notes as being important if the reader is going to connect to the piece. To an extent, while her own experiences definitely qualify as stories, they can also qualify as reports. That exact reason is why it is important to understand both the difference and the necessary balance when writing. A story comprised of anecdotes will only go so far if it has no fact.

Pictures can also tell both stories and reporting, which is one of many reasons why having a good photo editor who can tell them difference can be so important.

Pilon does a good job of using stories to draw emotion from the reader. The emotions, in this case, can be anywhere from anger to curiosity. If I’m being honest, it could have used a bit more reporting to could less column-like, but either way, she demonstrated why the differentiation between stories and reporting are important.

Clark’s Writing Tools

After reading a few of the Sunday Long Read, I found the Deadspin article I Covered the Braves for a Newspaper that didn’t Exist. Having the Atlanta background and having been a former Braves employee I found it very interesting that this was even possible. I found it very interesting to read about how easily he was able to navigate around. Guess it just proves, confidence is key.

I thought the curiosity of Phil Braun is one of the strongest themes within the article. This reflects Clark’s Tool 27 of Reveal traits of character. It was simply done in the way that he would notice a new opportunity and without much consideration on consequences, Braun would be off exploring the next part of the Ted.

Clark defines this tool with the anecdotes of how to show and not tell the audience about descriptors. He uses the anecdotes of Bethany Hamilton giving up her jacket for a homeless child. This showed compassion whereas earlier in the article the author simply said she was always a compassionate girl.

His experiences simply told you he was curious. He had child-like wonder when touring himself around the stadium and took the experience in with passion. It was never taken advantage of, every time sounded like it was a gift.

“I discovered I was allowed to enter the dugout and walk the tunnel back to the clubhouse. In the tunnel, I happened upon Chris Berman chatting with Javy Lopez about a recent injury the catcher had suffered. I pretended to rummage through my camera bag just so I could listen in for a few moments.”

I first read the Sunday Long Read that Lil’ Wayne wrote and while comical and extremely confusing, I decided that was not an actual piece of journalism that warranted analysis.

Clark’s structure advice

I read an ESPN The Mag story called Broken Route: A former Texas A&M standout committed an unthinkable crime. How did so many people miss the warning signs? It details the unraveling of former A&M wide receiver Thomas Johnson and his murder of Dave Stevens.

One of the writing techniques that stuck out about this story was the use of dialogue. Clark’s Tool 26 is to use dialogue as a form of action. In this story, the characters come to life when you can essentially hear them communicate with each other. I feel like one of the best ways you can define who a person is, is by showing how they interact with those around them. In the middle of the story, there is a stretch of about 10 back-and-forth quotes. When I read that part, I realized how easy it is to read and how it speeds the story along. Also, dialogue was used at the end of the story and it was one of the most powerful ends I’ve ever read.

Secondly, Tool 29, foreshadow dramatic events and powerful conclusions, was in full effect in this story. From the beginning, we, as readers, get the sense that this is going to go horribly wrong. It is clear that Thomas’ life is moving in a downward spiral, and small hints throughout make that clear. The reader can feel the tension build as the chaos inside Thomas’ head is strengthening.

Finally, because it was too obvious not to address, this story epitomizes building work around a key question, Tool 31. And that question is explicated stated in the headline: How did so many people the warning signs? That’s narrative this story takes us through and the streamlined approach to sticking with this angle made it easy to invest yourself as a reader without getting confused.

Clark’s Advice

The story I chose was, The Official Coming-Out Party written by Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN.

Clark’s advice that pertains to this story was “reveal the traits of the character” and “work towards an ending.”

This story was very well written and thought out. I heard about this story before, but never read it. The author is able to take someone who is actually a pretty normal person and dig into their life in order to tell an amazing story. Arnovitz does an excellent job revealing the traits of Bill Kennedy, not only as a gay man, but as a NBA referee and a human being. The author mentions small details and instances that gives readers a better sense of who this guy really is. The author describes him liking karaoke and hanging out with friends and other details that make him relateable.

This story was a feature story, so the author had no other choice, but to reveal the traits of Kennedy. The story was all about him and in order for them to pull the proper reaction from readers, he had to reveal Kennedy to everyone.

Clark’s second piece of advice, “work towards an ending,” is reflected in this story as well. The story opens up and introduces Kennedy and from there his life is unraveled from a child dreaming of becoming a NBA referee to his life now after going through the Rajon Rondo situation and coming out to the world. The author did a great job using Kennedy’s personal stories, and all the details to build up to and ending that shows how this has made him into who he is today.

The Misunderstanding of J.R. Smith

I stumbled upon Charles Bethea’s profile on J.R. Smith for The New Yorker via Don van Natta’s list of stories and was able to spot some interesting points that Clark made in his book.

Looking over Clark’s list of tools, Bethea’s story pointed me to Tool 38: Prefer archetypes to stereotypes. Smith is not a stereotypical professional athlete or basketball player, and there is no attempt to paint him in such a manner. Instead, Bethea hits on two of the established archetypes in his story: Winning the prize and the ugly duckling.

As far as winning the prize is concerned, Bethea details Smith’s account on when things weren’t working for him in New York: He worked too hard, then partied too often and then found trouble due to marijuana. Smith was discredited by people such as his former head coach George Karl, but his career was validated by the Cavaliers’ NBA Finals championship. It was a win that seemingly helped Smith get past the many criticisims–both fair and unfair–he’s been subjected to over the years.

As far as the ugly duckling is concerned, this comes up from Smith himself. His youth was not, once again, stereotypical in the idea that he was always a hot-head basketball standout. Smith explains how he was bullied growing up, and that people who think it was the other way around are misguided. Smith hit a growth spurt as he got older, which transformed him into a talented prospect who eventually skipped college altogether to play professionally. This ugly duckling angle isn’t a major crux of the story, but it is certainly tapped into by Bethea enough that it draws a reader into Smith’s story. I can honestly say this profile gave me a clear picture of Smith that I completely lacked before.

Structural Advice and the Wonder of Bill Murray

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/the-greatest-role-of-bill-murrays-life-has-been-playing-bill-murray/2016/10/19/8f6b2794-913e-11e6-9c52-0b10449e33c4_story.html?tid=sm_tw

Pieces like this are my favorite and almost a form a therapy as much as sitting down to a TV show I like. This story is immediately interesting and its writing very quickly became a story of its own, in large part due to the deft and delicacy it was reported with. Marty Baron singled it out on Twitter, which counts for something, too.

Without giving too much away, Bill Murray is famously stingy about publicity and being hard to pin down even by his closest friends. He’ll pop up out of nowhere, and it’s your best chance of ever seeing him. He could walk into my apartment now and I wouldn’t question it.

Clark advises to work from a plan. In this case was, plan on not talking to Murray for a story that is entirely about him, commemorating his receiving the Mark Twain Prize for humor. So Edgers talks to a lot of his famous and instantly recognizable friends to add some ethos to the story. It’s through this that Edgers trudges on. It allows his story to breathe and be different, and indirectly shows his skill in writing about a subject who won’t be profiled.

He chooses to use stories and anecdotes from others as a way to show who Murray is, which works because of the persona that he and the public have helped create.

Clark also advises to work toward an ending, and Edgers does that in the sense that he saves the best story for last, the one that fully encapsulates quintessential Murray. And a few hours later, not to give too much away, Murray adds a helping hand. It’s a really cool moment of internet journalism, and wouldn’t have happened Edgers hadn’t done a good job writing and reporting on the story.

Clark Structural Advice

First of all, this feature on Jose Fernandez and his funeral brought me to tears. I may be biased as a semi-Marlins fan, but it was beautifully written and captured the entirety of Fernandez, as his teammates and the community knew him.

I found that this piece illustrated Clark’s tool 27: Reveal traits of character. For casual baseball fans or those unfamiliar with the Marlins, Fernandez’s death was shocking and sad. There have been countless clips and stories on his success on the mound and compassion for fans, and Miami in general. But in reality, Fernandez was a bit of a polarizing character. He was involved in multiple altercations with teammates and opponents, and often butted heads with Marlins’ management.

S.L. Price did not shy away from this aspect of the pitcher. Instead, he focused on it and qualified it in the most respectful and honorable way. Fernandez was immature, and thought himself to be invincible. But Price never wrote that. He used a quote in which a teammate called Fernandez a kid in a man’s body and his nickname in Miami, Joselito, to show that he was viewed as garishly charming and mischievous son of the community. Instead of saying, “Jose was showy and boisterous, but you should still like him,” he showed it by talking to the Marlins, each of whom expressed their frequent frustration or worry with Fernandez, and absolute devastation at his loss.

This made the piece much more genuine. Despite his showboating or questionable decisions, one cannot help but feel connected and drawn to Fernandez, who lived his life so intensely. I think this story is a great illustration of conveying a character trait through showing, not telling.

Don van Natta story

Looking at tool #25 : Learn the difference between reports and stories.

I used the Don van Natta “random story” link to find this story. This story talks about how nail products used in almost every nail salon can cause very serious health problems for the workers ingesting the fumes everyday.

This story could have easily been a report using data and facts, but instead it told the story of an Ecuadorian immigrant, Ms. Otavalo and the people she works with everyday. This story isn’t just about Ms. Otavalo and the people she works with but the thousands of people this is impacting. People are often concerned about the safety when they go into a nail salon for their manicures or pedicures but what they don’t realize is that they aren’t the ones really at risk but the workers are.

What makes this a story rather than a report is that there are characters and a setting and action. This story has a lot of characters and the writer interviewed a lot of nail salon workers / owners who have diagnosed with diseases or have children that have to live with the life long effects of their mom’s working in nail salons.

This story focuses on different sections: “‘They Cannot Breathe’”, “Miscarriages and Warnings”, “‘Fox Guarding the Henhouse’” &”Standing in the Breeze”.

From Van Natta

For my structure story I chose one about finding a safer way to make blue M&M’s.

This story structure followed Clark’s tool No. 27: revealing traits of character.

The piece started with the present. It talks about what alternatives are being researched and what the process looks like.

Then it jumps back in time to the turn of the 20th century. It brings up the Food & Drug Act of 1906 because of what was being done to food to make it seemed like it hadn’t spoiled.

The story then goes through the 60s and 70s and mentions a list of seven dyes that are still used today (as well as deemed safe). From there it goes through other legislation and mentions a case in 2007-08 where a researcher found a correlation between colored foods and hyperactivity in British children. Then the author brings in statistics about how Americans feel about colored dyes in their food over the latter half of the 21st century.

After a brief history lesson, the author describes the facility where the blue M&M’s are made. Micro algae is something they’re looking into to create a new blue hue. The author also makes a note that humans, in general, don’t like change. Especially when it’s something they’re used to. Some people assign color change to taste change and aren’t as accepting of it.

The author also gets to try some of the new blue-colored candies herself.

I liked how this was organized because it kept the reader interested. It started at the present, moved back to the past without being overwhelming and then followed that point in the past to present day.

The author’s experience trying the candies gave it a personal touch as well.