Wholestory.com Classroom

Stories We Come Across

2007-12-31T20:50:41-05:00

I figure this warrants a different thread than “Stories To Read” because they seem to be the stories we’re focusing on for analysis. Here I figure we can just drop stories that we think may be good reads and that may or may not lead to deeper analysis ...

I’ll start by reposting the Gangrey Web site link: http://www.gangrey.com. Again, this is a site run by a few St. Pete Times writers dedicated to ferreting out narratives from across the country.

Also, earlier this month Tom French of the St. Pete Times dropped his latest opus. This one’s about the zoo. I just came across this today and haven’t had a chance to read it, but figured I’d pass along:

http://tinyurl.com/3dw6zl

FELON: narrative in miniature

2007-12-29T11:41:37-05:00

Mary Ann adds FELON, 412 words, a close-up snapshot of what we do:

FELON, Anne Saker, Oregonian

This summer, Pauline Sue Brooks became a felon.
Then she gave birth to a daughter.
On Monday, she went to prison.
On Wednesday, she turns 16.
Brooks of Southeast Portland received a five-year sentence in Multnomah County Circuit Court for a gang-related shooting last November in which Brooks fired a gun into the chest of a 13-year-old girl. Her long hair knotted on top of her head, her body clad in shapeless black sweats, Brooks faced Circuit Judge Alicia Fuchs to accept a punishment negotiated with the district attorney.
When Fuchs asked Brooks if she had anything to say, Brooks’ head fell backward. When she looked at the judge again, her voice was full of tears. “I just want to say, it’s really hard,” she said. “The biggest problem is leaving my daughter.”
But Brooks said she knew she had to do her time “because of what I chose to do,” and, “I’m going to make the best out of a bad situation.” “That’s the only thing you can do,” Fuchs replied softly. “There are a lot of ways that you will be a mother to this child.”
In the gallery of Courtroom 324, a woman cradled the dark-haired 2-month-old baby. After the sentencing, the woman declined to speak about Brooks or herself.

Brooks originally was charged with attempted murder for shooting Brittany Cruz, 13, on Nov. 12 with what police described as a small-caliber pistol.
Police summoned to Southeast 82nd Avenue and Foster Road that night found Cruz suffering a gunshot wound. Witnesses told police that two groups of girls had met, one group asked the other about its gang ties, and Brooks and Cruz argued. Then Brooks pulled out the gun and shot Cruz.
Cruz is recovering from her injuries. The district attorney wanted Brooks to testify against the man police say gave her the gun, Jose Ramon Zavala-Leon, 24.
Police said he was a member of the Latino gang Southside Trece. Brooks agreed, and she pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of attempted first-degree assault with a firearm on June 2.
A week later, Zavala-Leon committed suicide at his home in Wood Village.
Monday, as the paperwork for her sentencing was completed, Brooks looked over at prosecutor Rod Underhill, who said, “Good luck.” She nodded.
Her lawyer, Kathy Berger, touched her on the shoulder. Brooks stood for a deputy to fasten the handcuffs.
As he led her out, Brooks looked at the woman holding her daughter, and said, “Bye.”

Camille

2007-11-24T14:50:48-05:00

Janine sends Camille: Question: “How to develop structure beyond the chronological?” http://tinyurl.com/33h2by

DEATH: How do we deal with loss

2008-03-19T23:41:24-05:00

Jason’s thread made me think a little bit about what I’ll crassly call the “ultimate moment” that is death. We’ve touched on it in a couple of other threads, but I think it’s worth it’s own topic.

I’ll throw out three (OK, four) questions:

1) How do we deal with sudden death when we’re writing? Here’s a sports story that ran in the Washington Post last year where the story’s subject died midway through. It was one of the more curious pieces I’ve ever read because of the circumstances: http://tinyurl.com/yvfhtg

2) While I admit the situation from the previous story is rare, what we as writers deal much more frequently is the death of an idea. In other words, when a storyline or narrative or character fails us or doesn’t come through? What are some ways we recuperate from that?

3) Why are some of the best stories about death? Link from Gangrey about Nixon: http://tinyurl.com/2dt26r

4) How much power do we have and how scared and daunted and nervous does it make you feel? As an example, here’s a link about the sad ending to a sad story and situation: http://tinyurl.com/yo9fka. A couple years ago someone told me the writer’s mistake in the original story was to impose a narrative structure that didn’t fit the reporting. The facts weren’t wrong, but the context was. And that’s just as big, if not more of an error in my view.

MOMENTS: Sports, memory, etc.

2008-03-05T01:17:51-05:00

Here is a link to a story I had to write in about 15 minutes last football season (read with my apologies—antiquated computer system + poor editing = dropped punctuation marks): http://www.sun-herald.com/SportsNews/sportsnews.cfm?id=204

As an athlete, I find that the things I remember about my athletic career are not necessarily games or seasons or even trips, but certain moments. I remember scoring my first goal in soccer when I was about 8 years old (a two-man break I one-timed with my right foot in front of the keeper ). I remember sitting in the locker room, crying with my basketball team when we came in second in the state tournament my junior year of high school (but I can’t remember who we played or what the score was or if I even played in the game). I remember one of my teammates repeating, “It’s too damn hot...” over and over during the playoffs of my summer baseball season when I was in middle school. These moments define those seasons for me, mostly to the exclusion of everything else that happened.

So my questions: Is there ever a time when a moment is enough to define a narrative? What if I am constrained by lack of time and/or space? Is it just me that feels one defining moment serves to satisfactorily represent a larger period of time, or am I shortchanging myself by neglecting the broader picture?

I hope these questions open up a larger discussion that some of you have already touched on in the FELONY thread about shorter narratives. Writing 120 inches of copy on a compelling topic is one thing, but trying to squeeze something compelling out of a 1-0 high school softball game in 30 minutes in 15 inches or less can truly be a tall task.

Ideas or thoughts?

NARRATIVE GROUP: Welcome!

2007-11-20T14:18:20-05:00

Dear Narrative Group Members:

This is a place for us to talk about form, structure, voice and other things that occupy (and bedevil) the narrative writer.

This is an asynchronous group. People can post any time, morning, noon or night. For the sake of group cohesion, though, please try to read and post fairly quickly after a topic goes out.

Stories to discuss are listed in the Narrative Group Folder (i.e., classroom). You can always get there by clicking Narrative Group or Forum Home above, top left, just under the WholeStory logo.

Please respond to this welcome post using tools below. In your post, please include name, job, and a thing or two about you. To get the discussion going, please describe what concerns you, what you think about/ worry about when you first start hashing out a story. When you are ready to post, click on Post Reply below.

cheers, ma

TOPIC: Voice (Reading Throne)

2007-11-24T14:53:43-05:00

Erin sends Reading Throne: “I’m interested in voice, where it’s appropriate, how much of it to use...” http://tinyurl.com/2vtl6w

TOPIC: Structure

2007-11-26T11:41:57-05:00

MA’s take on structure:

I believe it underlies and informs everything else. Every other possible topic in writing/ storycraft, to my mind, is subordinate.
I once saw a terrific roller coaster exhibit at the Building Museum in Washington, and was inspired to ask a writing group: What do a roller coaster and a great story have in common?
Some of the answers:
— They both take you on a ride.
— They both have a lot of ups and downs along the way.
— They both deliver the unexpected.
— They both thrill …etc. etc.
All true.
But I want to add:
A roller coaster and a great story are similar in that the farther out/ more risk-taking/ more “dangerous,” more experimental they are, the more iron-clad their structural core has to be.

Thought:
Let’s start this thread by tossing out definitions of what we mean by structure:
What is it (in storycraft and writing)?
What are some ways that you have consciously put structural principles to work?
What vexes you about it?
Do you do it by feel, or by design?

One of my favorite structure stories is an e-mail exchange with N.R. Kleinfield about his wonderful piece “Doula.” (http://tinyurl.com/2m9upd) A writing group down here had been deconstructing it. I e-mailed him and asked how he’d gone about it, whether he’d thought of X or Y first, or what. This is what he said:
“As for my operating protocol, although I indeed care greatly about structure and style, I am not consciously mechanical. While I am respectful, and even envious, of highly organized colleagues who cross-reference notes and sort themes on note cards and draft detailed outlines incorporating flow charts, I do none of these … Essentially, I write stories (and books) in my head. I actually do think that I am rather organized, that blueprints of some sort do get imprinted somewhere in my mind, but I can’t prove it. I guess I feel my way through a story. Whether that’s good practice, I don’t know. It’s what I’m stuck with.”

That is genius. The rest of us have to go the long way, I’m afraid!

thoughts?

Stories to read

2007-11-24T08:48:33-05:00

Narrative Folks: This is simply a quick-reference listing of stories to discuss—a tool. It is a place to read only, not to discuss or post. In the Narrative Group folder, you will find these same stories, with topics for discussion. When you have a story to post here—either one of yours or one for group study—please send me the url and I will post.
—ma

Lethal Gene, NY Times
http://tinyurl.com/ypokrn

Camille, Miami New Times
http://tinyurl.com/33h2by

Black and White, NY Times
http://tinyurl.com/2ypfwu

Ring of Regret, St. Pete Times
http://tinyurl.com/338sha

Cheerleader, St. Pete Times
http://tinyurl.com/2rqrwj

Reading Throne, Lincoln Journal Star
http://tinyurl.com/2vtl6w

Outsiders, LA Times
http://tinyurl.com/26en5j

Liam’s War at Home
http://tinyurl.com/2sapaj

(A note on the writing of The War at Home.

When beginning to think about how to write this piece, I tried to think about unifying factors I could use structurally to allow the form of the piece to follow what I was trying to say about the situation. Obviously, chronology was the first idea, but I quickly dismissed it because I could not conceive of a way to make it work.

As I continued to pour through my notes, the vibrancy of some of the scenes continued to pull at me. It eventually clicked that by writing the story as a series of scenes--or fragments--that I could mirror the disarray that had occurred in this Marine’s mind since his accident, caused by pieces or fragments of shrapnel. This approach would take me away from simple chronology, give me a unifying force and allow me to burden the reader with the same heavy weight the Marine feels.

The trick then was to sell the structure to the reader. I admit there are probably too many scenes and some run too long, this was cut down from about 30 scenes to start to the final 17. In terms of order, I knew the placement of a few at the start and the rest had to fall into place. I really had to SELL the structure in the first scene, so I tried to explain what I was doing without making it entirely transparent. I also knew I wanted the greatest contrast between scenes in the middle (8-9, tucking in kids vs. killing XX people) to create a hinge for the rest of the piece. I also knew everyone would want to know how the Marine got injured so I wanted to save that toward near the end so that people would need to get there and keep reading.

Through the editing process, the most common criticism I received was that people were lost chronologically. This made sense. I was doing something unorthodox and screwing around with time and place. As a result, I figured in order for the story to work I had to spell out time in place as early in each scene as possible. In most cases, you’ll find a time and place reference as early as the first sentence and almost certainly in the first graf of each section.)

Felon, Oregonian