story structures

From http://www.notrain-nogain.org/Train/Res/Write/sstruc.asp By Steve Buttrey

This is a good summary of the different ways in which you might think about organizing your news stories:


Inverted pyramid. The inverted pyramid remains a common story form, perhaps the most common. It gives the reader the most important information first, then follows with information of diminishing importance or interest. The inverted pyramid helps the scanning reader who wants to learn the most important information quickly and doesn’t necessarily want to read each story to the end. The inverted pyramid is easy for editors to cut quickly from the end. The inverted pyramid has fallen into disrepute because of its weaknesses: It grows less interesting or more trivial as it goes, virtually inviting the reader to stop reading. The inverted pyramid doesn’t engage the reader. If you’re writing most of your stories in the inverted pyramid, you should try branching out. Don’t use the inverted pyramid to write a long story. Because the story gets increasingly less important or less interesting, a long story in this style has a lot of wasted space. As the information diminishes in importance, your readership will narrow. The inverted pyramid can be effective for a short or medium-length routine story.

Martini glass. This story form...starts out as an inverted pyramid, giving the reader the most important news first in a straight lead, following with other news in decreasing importance, just like the inverted pyramid, which becomes the top of the glass. At the bottom of this triangle is an olive, the nut graf or set-up for a brief narrative. The narrative follows in a straight path, the stem of the martini glass. The story ends with a conclusion that wraps up the story, perhaps fulfilling a promise you made up in the “olive” paragraph or resolving the conflict laid out there. While an inverted-pyramid story can cut from the end, the martini-glass story needs this ending, the base of the glass. If you must cut, you probably will need to shorten the stem. This is a different description of what Roy Peter Clark of Poynter calls the “hourglass,” structure, which turns from inverted pyramid to narrative with some sort of transition like “It started with …”
Conflict/resolution. Ken Fuson of the Des Moines Register says every story at its heart is a story of conflict and resolution. Establish your conflict early and clearly. Unfold the plot as your characters pursue the resolution. Ideally the resolution will provide a powerful and fitting end. Because we write many news stories before the conflict is resolved, you sometimes need to alter this approach. Instead of resolving the conflict, your story becomes about the quest for resolution or the frustration of waiting for resolution.

Circular story. This story starts in a particular place, usually with an anecdote about a character or with a particular scene. The anecdote leads to a larger story, usually an examination of an issue. The story concludes back where it started, with an insight from the initial character about the issue or by resolving how this issue affected the introductory scene. The circular structure also can work with a narrative or feature story.

Sidebar. A sidebar generally should be short and tightly focused. It should make a separate point from the main story but on a related topic. When you have good information on a topic that doesn’t fit in the main story, consider a sidebar rather than forcing it into the main story.

Five boxes. Rick Bragg uses and teaches this approach, which helps organize both your story and your material as you report. He sets up the story as a series of five “boxes,” as explained in an interview with Chip Scanlan of the Poynter Institute:
The first box is your lead and perhaps the following paragraph or two. This is where you draw people into the story with an image or detail that captures their attention.
The second box is the nut graph, summarizing the story (more on nut graphs later).
The third box leads into the body of the story with a new image or detail. This may work almost as a second lead.
The fourth box is the material that rounds out the story.
The final box is your “kicker,” ending with a powerful quote or image.

Q&A. Question-and-answer format is most effective as a change of pace or a sidebar. It works only with tight editing and with a character who speaks clearly and colorfully. Long, rambling quotes bog down a story, so the Q&A runs the risk of becoming tedious and loaded with jargon. You want to produce a brisk transcript with pointed Q’s & crisp A’s. Be sure to tell the source you will publish an edited transcript. Then acknowledge in the introduction that you have edited the transcript. Edit out the jargon and clutter. Try not to edit in much, if anything. You might change a pronoun to the person’s name or add a couple implied words to make a conversational fragment into a clear sentence. But you don’t want to put words into the character’s mouth. If you edit heavily, run the transcript or the passage in question past the subject.

Roundtable. This is a variation on the Q&A, with multiple sources providing the answers. When it works best, you have just a few questions, each launching a lively discussion among the characters with little input from the reporter. This might work as a sidebar or final installment for a series on an issue. Perhaps you have laid out the problem effectively over the first three days of a series and your fourth installment is a discussion of possible solutions. Again, you will need to edit heavily. Even with heavy editing, the roundtable often needs considerable space to work effectively.

Debate. Still another twist on the Q&A is a debate, or joint interview, perhaps with two political candidates or with advocates of opposing positions on a hot issue. Without television cameras or an audience, you get the candidates or advocates together to answer the same questions in a less formal setting than a debate. You don’t need to time answers, but tell the candidates in advance that you will edit the transcript to give them equal or similar space. Provide the equal space over the transcript as a whole, rather than for each question. One candidate may provide more substance on a particular question while the other addressed it briefly. But even the space out in the long run. Or you can interview the candidates separately, asking the same questions and editing the answers into a transcript in debate style. Be sure to tell the candidates in advance how you will present the information and disclose to readers that this wasn’t a live debate but one created through interviews and editing. This edited debate allows you to press for answers when candidates dodge the initial question and lets you omit questions that elicited platitudes from both candidates.

Blog. Whether you’re writing a blog for your web site or writing in blog style for a print story (perhaps about a blogger or about blogging), a blog takes on a different style from traditional print stories. If you blog a breaking news story, it unfolds in reverse chronological order for new readers. Entries should be brief and brisk, so you can post them quickly and move the story along for readers refreshing frequently online. Write each post as a distinct unit, readable by itself but tied to the rest. Readers will read in different ways: Some will follow the story closely and reading each new post in order. Some will check in occasionally, reading the newest post and scanning for other updates of interest. Some will start with the most recent post or two, then scroll to the bottom to read the coverage in order. As important developments break, some background and summary are in order, because those posts will be read most closely.

Brief narrative. The brief narrative is effective for simple stories about a single incident. A routine police story or light feature may be a brief narrative. You can unfold the brief narrative in a variety of ways. If you’re writing a news story, you may need to give the reader the news first before you begin the narrative. Start with a summary lead, telling the basic news. You might follow with a paragraph or two of context and/or explaining why the story is important. Then you start at the beginning and tell what happened. You might open with the who, what, when and where, then use the narrative to tell how and why. With a feature story, the brief narrative can start at a key moment, then jump back in time and unfold chronologically. Or you can start at the beginning and let the story flow chronologically. In a feature, you might want to use suspense and tension to keep the reader moving, rather than giving away the end at the top, as you may have to do with a news story. A brief narrative may develop just a few story elements.

Long narrative. A long narrative is an especially effective approach for a weekend story or for second or third-day coverage of a big news story. It also works in feature stories. In the long narrative, you don’t want to give away the whole conclusion, or perhaps any of it, at the top of the story. If you’re writing a narrative about a major news story, the reader will already know the what of the ending, but may not know the why or how or the background or all the details. A long narrative needs to hook the reader quickly and give the reader a reason to stick with you. Tension and suspense, even mystery, are important elements of the long narrative, but confusion is not. Give the reader an early hint, or promise, of what’s to come early in the story. The promise sometimes plays the role of “nut graph” in the long narrative. The promise may raise a question that the reader can expect you to answer by the end of the story. It may lay out the mystery that you will solve or establish the conflict you will resolve. Story elements are crucial to the long narrative. Develop the characters carefully so the reader cares about them and wants to know what happens to them. Help the reader picture them in her imagination, even if photographs will accompany the story. Place the characters in a setting and transport the reader there. Put the characters into action in the setting. Use sensory detail to help the reader see, feel, hear and even smell the scenes. Use dialogue to help the reader hear the characters. Capture the key moments in memorable scenes where your narrative slows (or accelerates) to highlight the drama.