A beagle barreling down a gravel driveway to enthusiastically greet its owners as they emerge from a marigold sedan. A graduate student propping his phone on the bathroom sink and hurriedly mirroring the how-to video’s directions so that his necktie isn’t crooked before he presents his dissertation. An excitable 3-year-old girl grinning ear to ear as she toddles into her parents’ bedroom carrying a tray loaded with a plate of buttery pancakes and a handmade Mother’s Day card, scrawled with crayon.
These descriptions paint clear pictures in readers’ heads of characters performing actions in certain settings. As we expand on these elements, they form scenes: the building blocks of narrative structure. Journalistic articles are often called “stories” for a reason, and that is because many of the most engaging articles employ narrative writing on some scale.
Any reporter can tell you that Jane Doe’s garage caught fire last Tuesday, but a reporter who interviews Doe and relays details acquired about how the fire started in sequential order—how sparks from an overloaded circuit ignited some loose sawdust as she was weed-eating in her backyard while listening to Phil Collins through her wireless headphones, unaware until a neighbor waved his arms within her field of vision and pointed to the rising flames—that reporter has taken the time to “show” what has occurred instead of simply “telling” their readers. Showing makes the difference. Scenework morphs Jane Doe into more than just a name in an article; she becomes the main character in her own story.
When the subject of an article becomes a fleshed-out character, a reader is more likely to empathize with someone’s lived experiences or cheer for that person’s successes or mourn those losses. Long-time Free Press readers may recognize reporter Brian Johnson’s 2006 article, “Deepest Midnight: Cedric Willis and The Failure of Mississippi Justice,” or Donna Ladd and Imani Khayyam’s joint story, “A Hunger to Live: The Struggle to Interrupt the Cycle of Violence.”
Both of these powerful articles embody the Free Press’ practice of employing narrative as a means of amplifying the human element within journalistic storytelling. That is why Donna has encouraged our team of reporters and editors to study them during our internal writing workshops in conjunction with Jack Hart’s “Storycraft,” a book that provides incredible insight into how and why journalists use narrative structure.
As the deputy editor who oversees our features and culture sections, I have used the lessons I have learned from our workshops when providing feedback to some of our more junior freelancers, and I have noticed our internal staff using Hart’s tips for narrative writing in their stories. For example, I love how Web Editor Dustin Cardon treated Sissy Hudson as a protagonist who strove to surpass both physical and mental hurdles during the narrative opening of his recent Person of the Day article on the two-time New York City marathon runner.
Donna teaches that reporters can obtain the information they need to write engaging narrative sections in their works in three basic ways: observing action and story unfolding in real time, often by “moving with” sources; pulling narrative details from documents and other materials, including court narratives; and by asking sources for stories from their lives. The goal is to uncover the rising and falling actions, dramatic tension and other qualities found in fiction, except real. Sometimes, people suggest that they are not “interesting enough” to be featured in, say, our Person of the Day section, but anyone’s life can be presented in an enthralling manner when anecdotes are involved. That’s their power.
In a way, narrative writing is part of the Mississippi Free Press’ “secret sauce” that I believe helps us stand out as a newsroom, as it was at the Jackson Free Press. We contextualize. We humanize. Our stories help readers walk in others’ shoes. By focusing on storytelling, we help our readers emotionally connect with the people about whom we report—their hardships and their triumphs. And we do so because every Mississippian matters.
Do you know a Mississippian who would make a good protagonist in their life story? Nominate them for a potential Person of the Day article at mfp.ms/pod.
This MFP Voices essay does not necessarily represent the views of the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, its staff or board members. To submit an opinion for the MFP Voices section, send up to 1,200 words and sources fact-checking the included information to azia@mississippifreepress.org. We welcome a wide variety of viewpoints.
