She kept talking about "voicey" stories, for example, when Joan asked about columns vs. news stories. Reminded me that it's all about picking or recognizing the right story to write a certain way. Some stories can be told funny, some have to be told seriously; some can be told as conflict-resolution, some won't fit that model; some stories can take a little attitude in the writing, some shouldn't. Part of what we've been doing this year is talking about ways of writing stories that we have at our disposal so we can make those decisions.
Someone asked about her hyper-awareness of things around her that allows her to gather the details that appear in her essays. She said it wasn't that she was aware of everything, but that she was aware of certain things -- such as 'story,' i.e., the narrative of what's happening around her, the what happened next part.
And she works on perfecting that ... and you can see how it shows up in her stories. Think of two she read about people who died -- the maid and the soldier. Both stories built up to either an unexpected ending or an ending with a twist that you may or may not have seen coming.
As she said in a somewhat untethered comment: you can learn what the thing is that your mind is really greedy for, and tune in to that thing. Basically ... know yourself, and what you do well, and use that to your advantage as a reporter and writer.
Any other thoughts on Marion's visit?
I thought the way she described creative non-fiction by using a series of drawings was brilliant...a true alternative story form. And it really got the point across.
ReplyDeleteShe had many great one-liners during her talk, but my favorite was: Nothing's so bad that you can't write about it.
Awesome.
I liked that line, but also the part about being greedy and scarfing up the things you want/need to piece together a story you spot.
ReplyDeleteWent on amazon last night and bought "Telling" and "First Comes Love" in addition to the "Above us only sky". Wow, combined with "Telling True Stories," I've got my holiday reading list pretty well filled!