The Converged Feature Writer

Reporting with all five senses

The daily dish

•The rise of narrative writing

•A cautionary tale of reporting for detail

•The multimedia mind of Anne Hull

•Detail without aim: notebook dumps

•Meaning in description: The Hotel

•Class exercise in critique

Long-Form Giants

Anne Hull Isabel Wilkerson Tom French

Leon Dash Jacqui Banaszynski

CANONS OF

DESCRIPTION

I. SPECIFICITY

There is no such flavor as “ice cream”

Exhibit A:

Pete blows his big Baskin-Robbins scoop

II. UTILITY

Journalistic detail must serve the topic

Exhibit B:

The geopolitics of the Dairy Queen

Exhibit C:

Street Preachers

• In two words, what is the story about?

• How does that drive Hull’s choices?

• How do the details advance the story?

• What are video, audio entry points?

III. RESTRAINT

• Choose details like toppings: Use taste

• Synecdoche rhymes with Schenectady

• Do not put a cherry on top

• Avoid the color purple

Homer on the color purple

"Your opening shows great

promise, and yet flashy purple patches...”

…and not to do

• Relevant

• Telling

• Concise

• Emblematic

•Authentic • Clichéd

• Random

• Verbose

• Gratuitous

• Extraneous

To do

Overwriters Anonymous

Example 3

Stories that make your teeth hurt

Exhibit 4

“The Hotel Aftermath”

By Anne Hull and Dana Priest

The Washington Post

2008 Pulitzer Prize

Public Service

Practice makes perfect

Be specific: Ask what flavor.

Be purposeful: What is the “stuff” of the story?

Be choosy: Select details for meaning and effect. Less can be more.