Eek—where’s your NUT GRAF????

-- anyone have trouble with them?

-- more the merrier.

ANYONE NEED FEEDBACK ON ONE THEY ARE WORKING ON TODAY???

(remember—I am available for private discussion/chat/ story review/ brainstorming/troubleshooting via email )

I keep forgetting my nutgraf because I’m getting a lot of featurey type stories. So when I’m trying to frame the picture my editor always has to call me and say ‘hey we need a nut graf.’ But it kind of messes up the flow of the storytelling in my opinion.

It’s easier when it’s hard or breaking news.

I agree with Anthony. Sometimes, when I have trouble writing a nut graf, it’s because I have included too many details into it. I’ve had to figure out which of those supporting details is the most important for the reader to know, and then put the other things into other grafs later down the line.

A little trick I use. After I am done writing my story, I will read it again up until just after the nut graf. If I still don’t get the basic story (unless it’s a delayed nut graf in a feature or something) then I know I have to work it out.

acanamelechi - 25 June 2008 03:49 PM

I keep forgetting my nutgraf because I’m getting a lot of featurey type stories. So when I’m trying to frame the picture my editor always has to call me and say ‘hey we need a nut graf.’ But it kind of messes up the flow of the storytelling in my opinion.

A—can you give example of this? Maybe then we can start really nailing what a nut graf is and what it isn’t ... I think that’s the real bulk of this discussion!!!

rachelle_leah - 25 June 2008 04:13 PM

because I have included too many details into it. I’ve had to figure out which of those supporting details is the most important for the reader to know, and then put the other things into other grafs later down the line.

Ditto here—examples would be great, so we caan talk about what works and what doesn’t and where people are having trouble identifying what it is/ does!

thx.

Is a nut graf supposed to explain the who/what/when/where/why/(maybe how), as in the case of event previews?

Or is a nut graf supposed to give a cause-effect summary, paired with an explanation for why the reader should care?

I’m just throwing these out, people.

AMunn - 27 June 2008 09:38 PM

Is a nut graf supposed to explain the who/what/when/where/why/(maybe how), as in the case of event previews?

Or is a nut graf supposed to give a cause-effect summary, paired with an explanation for why the reader should care?
.

GUYS—this is a great question! Anyone care to answer, or better yet, give examples of EACH OF THOSE POINTS? Truth is, nut graf can be both, depending on the style of the story. If there is a longish featurey lede, the nutgraf usually has THE NEWS (the who, what, when, where. how, why)—for example, an advance, as you mention—you do a scene-setting lede… then two or so grafs down, you CUT INTO THE SENCE, OR END IT, and position the HARD INFO of the story:
The Atlantic Ipod Marathon, the longest running foot race in River City, will hold its 45th annual race this weekend in Big Foot Park. The marathon brings runners from all over the Northwest,,,, kinda thing.

If the story is a harder news story, with the wwwwhw up top, then the nut graf serves to GIVE THE BIGGER PICTURE—as you say, the So What? What does it mean in the wider world? Who cares that Obama and HIllary spoke together about party unity at a place called UNity New Hampshire? Big deal!

(Nut graf gives big deal: Historic coming together of two history-making candidates, formal rivals, whose pledge of unity could give the DEmocrats the power base they need to win the White House.....)

EXAMPLES PLEASE!!! GIMME NUT GRAFS

I always confused Nut grafs with boiler plates. I’m not sure if they are the same thing for the purposes of our thread, but I’ll take a crack at defining things.

At the internships I worked for, editors always drilled it into me that Nut grafs happened after the lede to “solve the puzzle” or elaborate on what was initially brought up so the reader isn’t guessing anymore.

Here’s the first few grafs of a story I wrote this week as an example.

DeDe Sartori-Chamberlin had to pay off her house and could not afford another car for her 16-year-old son.

On Friday, she drove off from the Sam Linder Honda dealership in Salinas behind the wheel of a new $17,000 Honda Fit, and she didn’t pay a thing.

In this case, the lede spans the first three grafs and the final paragraph would be the nut because that is where readers find a resolution to what I brought up

When editors would ask for boiler plates, they wanted a graf devoted to an explanation of a report, organization, issue, etc. From the same story, a boiler plate would be this:

The Relay For life is a national effort, and in Salinas, more than 150 teams along with 700 cancer survivors walked around the Hartnell College track for 18 hours last weekend, raising more than $750,000 for the ACS.

This happened around the middle of the story and pretty much summed up things up so the reader would have some context for the next few paragraphs. Boiler plates are a real pain to write because your condensing so much information into a few sentences. 

Jose

First of all, I am so sorry this is late.  Is there a way to get email notification when a new question is posted?

Actually, the presentation from the Features editor at the Virginian Pilot really helped me solve my issues with this. Now, I ALWAYS remember the rule about getting the point of your story in within the first four graphs. If people understand the point of your story, and if you can put it in eloquently, they will continue to read the rest of your story, including all the description. Here is an example from a story I wrote this past weekend:

“Scores of priests in white robes marched into Sacred Heart Cathedral on Saturday for the first ordination of a Filipino priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester.

Choir music rose into the vaulted apse of the cathedral and flowed from the top of the grandiose organ down to the entrance of the church at 296 Flower City Park in Rochester.

The atmosphere was reverent, but more than anything, the jubilance of the occasion was evident on the faces of the faithful. The feeling was that of a much-anticipated wedding, when the room is bursting with hope.

Waiting for the ordination to begin, Edison Tayag fielded hugs from friends and well-wishers.”

My first inclination was to really get in on the wonderful, adjective-worthy things that my writer’s eyes saw, but by getting the point up high, the story got better play and (I hope) had a bigger impact on more people.

A nut graf usually follows the lede in a story. I feel that nut grafs have more of a place in feature stories, especially because feature stories have a tendency to start of with narratives. The nut graf tells the reason for the story.

I tend to over think the placement of the nut graf in fear that I will bury it in the story and have it lose it’s purpose.

Sometimes I’m not sure where it should go. One editor may want it within two inches; another thinks 5 paragraphs is ok. This has been a bit challenging to figure it out. I don’t want to wait too long to get to the point, but I don’t want to cut off a creative intro just to get in the main point.

I don’t think I have any really great ones (yet) as I’m still trying to figure out how to explain what’s going on without messing up the flow of my story.

Let’s see if I can remember this correctly. I nut graf is the paragraph in a story that summarizes what the story is all about and why it’s important.

I do have a bit of a history of not adding nut grafs in my stories. I have found that I have done quite a few stories without them. I do my best to lede with the important stuff.

I will re-post as soon as I pin down a good one to share.

I have a question. Are there any tricks or tips to make writing and finding them easier?

It’s late but I think this one’s worth the wait. It comes from an AP story that ran today. You couldn’t make this up if you wanted to. Queasy stomachs/morals/values might want to look away.

Oh, and be sure to read the nut graf. It keeps getting better and better (or worse and worse depending on the context.):

Four women who took part in sadomasochistic role-playing with motor racing chief Max Mosley told a court Tuesday that the event was not the “Nazi-themed orgy” described in a tabloid newspaper.

Mosley, the son of late British fascist leader Oswald Mosley, acknowledges a lifelong interest in sadomasochism, but said Monday that he found the idea of Nazi sex fantasies abhorrent. He said he and the women acted out a German prison scenario, but without any Nazi aspect.

How’s that for a nut graf?

herbsao - 08 July 2008 02:26 PM

STORYTELLING LEDE: Four women who took part in sadomasochistic role-playing with motor racing chief Max Mosley told a court Tuesday that the event was not the “Nazi-themed orgy” described in a tabloid newspaper.

BACKDROP/ NUTGRAF; GIVES STORY CORE!
Mosley, 68, is suing the News of the World for invasion of privacy over a March story that alleged he attended a five-hour sex session in which participants played concentration camp inmates and guards.

Mosley, the son of late British fascist leader Oswald Mosley, acknowledges a lifelong interest in sadomasochism, but said Monday that he found the idea of Nazi sex fantasies abhorrent. He said he and the women acted out a German prison scenario, but without any Nazi aspect.

Wow. Abhorrent—but interesting, and instructive. Guys—check out the lede: It is a summary of the most interesting/ newsworthy thing that happened in court—typical news/feature lede.... THEN, the ACTUAL CORE of the story: THE NUT GRAF. THERE IS A LAWSUIT. HEre are the basic deets of same. Then, a bit of BACKGROUND (lifelong interest in sadomasochism… son of Oswald Mosley....) THEN, presumably, back to what happened in court (i.e., the telling of the story, versus the NUT GRAF, which pins the story to the ground. GREAT EXAMPLE.