News

1-23-11

I seriously think that Writing for the Media is my favorite class thus far this semester. (We haven't started our first big assignment yet; that starts tomorrow, and by the end of tomorrow, I may be singing a different tune.) We had this inverted pyramid exercise, and, except for adding a few necessary details, my tiny attempt was the one my group picked to read to the class. The professor even said that I had a "strong" lead, and suggested that I change "resident" to "man" to give a clearer picture of the person.

So my finished lead (for this fictional story; it was, after all, an exercise) reads as follows: "A 20-year-old Murfreesboro man died Monday when his car smashed into a utility pole at the intersection of Main and Broad streets." I suppose I could fit the "How" in as well, and say, ". . . when he lost control of his car and smashed it into a utility pole at the intersection of Main and Broad streets," but the rest of the little article goes into the "How."

See, we're supposed to pack as much information as possible into that first sentence, information that answers the questions of Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. Some people might claim that this type of writing isn't creative, but, in my opinion, jamming that much information into a grammatically correct and easily readable sentence requires some thinking.

I got to thinking that maybe this will help my fiction writing as well. You know, make every word work for its presence on the page. Double or triple duty, if possible. I think that's one way that good worldbuilding and good foreshadowing is done--through great economy of words and details.

Basically, I'm enjoying this class because it's broadening me as a writer, even if technically my writing will be narrower for the purposes of the class. ("Just the facts" is the name of the game in Writing for the Media.)

More later.