Belated Blog Hits (3 out of 3)

Yesterday, as the center piece for the New York Times weekly section called The City, this enheartening bit appeared. There are a lot of narrative morsels in this piece, however, I wouldn't call it a full-fledged story as much as a nice, warm action profile.

"The Chicken and Rice Man" illustrates how the "elfin" Jorge Muñoz, a former illegal immigrant from Columbia who has now become a U.S. citizen, is providing homeless immigrants here with hot dinners.

One of my favorite grafs: "When Mr. Muñoz’s truck pulled in, several workers pressed their faces to the tinted windows, hoping to catch a glimpse of dinner. Hopping into the back of the truck, Mr. Muñoz began untying steaming containers filled with hot chocolate and foil-covered trays of homemade barbecued chicken. As the workers accepted Styrofoam containers stuffed with hearty portions of chicken and rice, they thanked him as respectfully as if he were a parent, never mind that the 5-foot-2 Mr. Muñoz, with his buzz cut and boyish grin, could pass for 20-something."

If you read the print edition, it would lure you online, where you can watch "An Angel in Queens," a multimedia presentation, narrated by the writer, Adam B. Ellick.

In the presentation, one hungry, homeless immigrant explained: "It's not because politician. No, no, no, no. He do that because he has a very, nice sweet heart. He's an angel. He's a god. He's an angel god."

Ellick elaborates, "For many New Yorkers Thanksgiving is a weekend stint in volunteerism. But for the Munoz family, it is just another day."

Belated Blog Hits (2 out of 3)

The Cape Cod Times, a much respected newspaper here in Massachusetts, concluded its 14-part mini-mystery novela on Nov. 17. This was brave, I think, to put this on the front page and neatly tucked on the bottom left corner of the page with four to seven grafs.

The series is titled "Collectors: A Cottage Colony Mystery." It's all about this strange family who has a home down the Cape. All the nuances of Cape life are sure to appear: Christmas Tree Shop, hobbies, Yankee Magazine, Labor Day, antiques.

The quality of the characters and the story, however, just didn't peak my interest. It was, too, soap opera- or Lifetime-esque.

Here's some pieces to illustrate what I mean:

"Jeremy had been walking to the last cottage — the unrented one — to see why the door was open, at the same moment Harry and Sylvia pulled up to their place and got out of their car. Looking, Jeremy could not help but notice, like a couple in love.

"A couple from the L.L. Bean catalog, in love.

"Was everyone patching things up except him, he wondered as he stood there, trying to think of something to say besides, 'How nice: matching barn coats.' Sylvia broke the ice."

* * *

" 'What happened?' Jenny asked Fred, who seemed to be in a daze.

" 'Your father shot me, that's what happened,' Mandy said, staring at Fred through teary eyes.

" 'I didn't shoot her,' Fred said, shaking his head as he looked plaintively at his daughter.

"Then his eyes shifted to his wife. 'Why were you going to stab me?'

" 'I wasn't going to stab you,' she moaned.

" 'You had a knife,' he said.

" 'The knife is worth a lot of money,' she said. 'I was going to use it to buy your half of the house. I want a divorce.'

" 'So do I,' Fred said.

" 'You didn't have to shoot me to get it,' she said, as Jenny went to direct the EMTs.

" 'I didn't shoot you,' Fred said softly, using his shirtsleeve to wipe a trickle of blood from Mandy's arm. 'I was going to give the gun back to Sylvia.' "

* * *

Well, I hope The Times, at least, encouraged other newspapers to experiment with this type of thing, and hire fiction writers and literary journalists.

Belated Blog Hits (1 out of 3)

This agonizing narrative appeared Tuesday, Nov.3 in the St. Charles (Missouri) Journal. It's a really heavy report and there was narrative approach to it. It reads like a short story, but the newspaper probably could have stepped this up a notch, with the investigation and sensory elucidation.

There were poor editorial decisions. I think they could have used the name and used compassion when reporting on the children involved. The Journal balked a little.

In an outburst of virtual vigilantism, readers of blogs such as RottenNeighbor.com and hitsusa.com have posted the Drews' home address, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and photographs. Now more vigilant and wise newspapers like the L.A. Times have taken over this case. And the Boston Globe reprinted it today. The story is the sixth most popular story this hour on Boston.com .

Here are some bloodthirsty quotes from The Journal's comment board.

"This a terrible occurance. What happened to megan is terrible and i am sorri for ur loss," said thirteen-year-old Eden Maree Hemera. "[A]nd find t that family is cruel and should not get away with wat they done. for a pperson to do that to a nother human being is disgusting. they wont get away with this. "

Another commentor went without a name. She simple addressed herself as "madnurse."

"I just recently read in the Sun Sentinal newspaper in Florida tha account of this terrigle crime," madnurse said. "Hate crime? Child abuse? Internet stalking? Child Prediator? There must be some way to make the parents who instigated This crime pay for what they did to that child. I work in a pedi ER and what they did is a crime. Lets put a name on it. They need to be listed as child prediators. I wouldn't want them near my children. Doesn't the district attorney have any way to press some kind of charges against the adults who tromented a trouble child???? God help us if we let them get away with shis. Someone Please Help! "

From the L.A. Times piece:

Dozens of people allegedly have called local businesses that work with the family's advertising booklet firm, and flooded the phone lines this week at the local Burlington Coat Factory, where Curt Drew reportedly works."I posted that, where Curt works. I'm not ashamed to admit that," said Trever Buckles, 40, a neighbor whose two teenage boys grew up with Megan. "Why? Because there's never been any sense of remorse or public apology from the Drews, no 'maybe we made a mistake.' "

Another narrative from the St. Petersburg Times today, on the front page no less. It's a humorous criminal justice experience: an undercover cop and the people he busts (you). This is fun because it plays around with traditional sentence structure, grammatical tense and point of view (second and third -- and in a few instances, first).

"Anything you stole, he'd take it off your hands. Jewelry. Guns. Drugs. Cars. Boats," Times Staff Writer S.I. Rosenbaum tells us, the criminals.

Lots of hypotheticals here: "he would" and "he could" and "you could" and "you might." I like.

We get some funny anecdotes. A woman he previously arrested entered the store front and said he looked familiar. Almost blew his cover.

"Once he found himself giving an old lady advice over the phone about her ailing VCR. She called him back an hour later. He had fixed her problem.

"What was he doing?"

Wow, seems like this last sentence is in the first-person.

Here's another example that mixes first- and second-person point of view: "I can spot one a mile away, you might say, and the man behind the counter would nod, looking impressed."

It's the triple crown of points of view in this prose. The only thing I would have done is space them out, seperating the consecutive second-person point of view sections, with the one that comes after. Enjoy the stool pigeon!

Today we get a feature from the Kansas City Star about a recovering marine who lost his leg in Iraq during an explosion caused by an improvised explosive. He has a textured story, rife with trials and tribulations, yet the narrative lacks the storytelling dynamics that, I would argue, could make this shine much brighter.

The man, apparently, saved someone's life but writer Eric Adler failed to mention this.

The newspeg that is used as a hook for this narrative is really irrelevant to the story, except that it brings the national limelight to this guy. (“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is slated to help him out, honoring him only because, as Adler intimates, Veteran's Day is approaching.)

The man seems to have a real make-good-out-of-whatever-life-throws-him attitude. I feel like the the ABC makeover could have been an end to the story, not a means, but that's just me -- and what do I know?

“I was thinking it could be real easy to die,” he said to the Star. It would have been fun to be put in his head, like this: "It could be real easy to die," he thought. And then get all the sensory details straight from his point of view.

What if this great chorus of "Improvise. Adapt. Overcome," was to be the core of the story. It's implied in the story that he thought of this phrase while priming to become a marine and while in combat, simultaneously struggling with his marriage. I think this could have been used as a chorus at least one more time; it could have been used as a marking point for chronology.

Lastly, do we seriously need to censor one of the only parts of the story where this mean marine opens up and reminsices with a little humor? While being operated on, after losing his leg, a medic bumps into his injury and he responds, “If you bump my leg again, I’m going to punch you in the (sensitive place).”

Props for putting this on the front page, and I don't mean to nitpick, just doing my job on the blog.

On the front page of the St. Petersburg Times today, a new edition of Encounters appears. Ben Montgomery, Times Staff Writer and Nieman notable, delivers a nightclub experience chalked with terror. What makes this a meaningful narrative is the main character -- a rapper whose lyrics seem to sensationalize gun violence -- and the changes brought forth by this horrible night.

The original story of this shooting death appeared in mid-October; but, now we get this feature from a different point of view -- an ironic and powerful story.

Encounters is a segment of the St. Pete Times "dedicated to small but meaningful stories." Montgomery wrote the first one, but more on that and a workshop he spoke at in Cambridge will appear here later in an edition of REFLECTIONS.

The only criticism I can offer for this piece is that I wish he used a second set of "* * *" stars to partition the context of the rapper's past, to pop back into the nightclub scene, preferably, right before this: "He thought at first a speaker had blown ..."

Otherwise, this is a picture perfect story. One of my favorite parts is that he described the signs the rapper saw on the way out of the building. NO HATS, NO DURAGS, NO LONG T-SHIRTS, the sign read. (Montgomery did not use quotes and kept the words all in caps.) He captured all the sounds and sights and feelings. Excellent.

The St. Pete Times is very friendly to narrative. How about other newspapers?

BOSTON -- While studying at the School of Journalism at Northeastern University, I met a wiry, coffee-eyed writer named Jordan Novet. He introduced me to "narrative journalism" last year, showing me newspaper clippings and giving me a book called The Journalist's Craft: A Guide To Writing Better Stories.

Prior to meeting Jordan, I didn't delineate between the banal approach to event coverage, for instance, and the vivid story telling that is possible in a standard news assignment. We started discussing different ways to approach an article: point of view, scene setting, character development, conflict and resolution.

People would enjoy print journalism more if there was an increased emphasis on "stories" at newspapers, he said. I agree. Well written stories can touch the human condition, peaking one's interest through passion, pity, humor and terror, I think. Jordan's goal is to write stories that allow people to have an increased appreciation of their lives. So we talk about the different techniques for stories in newspaper form, discuss opportunities for narrative, and criticize the attempts at narrative we see.

"Aaaahh!" Jordan exclaimed one day. "Look at the front page of the Globe! Smack-dab in the middle, a narrative! It even comes with special headline type! And this is the first of three parts! Hurrah! I can't wait to read it. Let's read it."

Jordan left Northeastern to study at the Missouri School of Journalism. But, as he continues his studies at the Missouri School of Journalism, we frequently exchange stories through e-mail. "Tell me what you think," he says.

Today, I'm embarking on an endeavor to bring this experience to fellow journalists and readers alike. The mission of Tripping on Truth is to discuss storytelling technique in journalism. The focus will be on how vivid narrative affects the success of newspapers, but magazine material will be discussed as well. Tripping on Truth believes that the narrative form, when implemented properly, can reveal truths about the human condition and can cause elation, even enlightenment, in a way the prototypical "inverted pyramid" report could not.

Tripping on Truth will run the occasional reflection piece, like this one -- at the most, once a month -- expressing my, and other journalists', experiences with the state of narrative in the newspaper world. But typical entries -- published regularly -- will provide a link to a timely narrative, include brief commentary, and hopefully, many journalists, and readers alike, will be able to join in discussion.

For those who are still lost on what I'm getting at, here are two articles about apartment fires that left occupants homeless:

Narrative
Inverted Pyramid Report

Which one did you like more?

For those who are curious, here is a few of Jordan's articles that use the narrative approach:

Cranes
Hands-in Experience
Parkour (Note: This article came well before the New Yorker piece on this emerging sport.)

Here are a few of mine:

ROTC members gain ARMY outlook (Jordan was my writing coach on this one, my first attempt at narrative storytelling. I definately could have beefed this up with some stats as a nutgraf; don't mind the copy editing errors.)
Northeastern student victimized, gains empathy
Students go deep -- for fish, that is (I took the photos for this piece!)

REFLECTIONS is a segment of Tripping on Truth that will use the narrative technique to describe experiences journalists have with the practice of storytelling and to observe the state of narrative in the newspaper world. It will appear once or twice a month.