Thursday, January 8, 2009

When is less more?

Lane DeGregory of the St. Petersburg Times does an interesting thing in this story (link at end of post):

At the end of the third section, she drops a big hint of something to come, something to make you want to read on.

What I think is unusual is how and when she decided to reveal what she was hinting at. I don't want to give it away, but let's just say she does less with it than you might expect ... but in this case, less might be more -- more powerful, more of a lasting impact. I'd bet that's what she was going for, anyway.

What do you think?

Autism can't tear twin brothers apart - St. Petersburg Times

4 comments:

  1. This is a great example of hiding a key fact in plain sight.

    If you think about it, the story's kicker is a fairly basic, for a story about twins (I'm guessing if you are reading this comment, you've read the story).

    But by ending the third section like that, Lane created a bit of misdirection and you wind up wondering what exactly the other thing is. At least when I read it, I started thinking about a whole host of possibilities.

    When Lane dropped that basic fact to end the story, it hit with a deep "Of course."

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  2. Exactly.

    And I think it's also important to note that the ENTIRE story could have been about the one kid's thought that 'it could have been me.' What he thought, what others thought, etc. etc.

    But the way she did it, that fact may have greater impact than if she had written all 35 inches or whatever on that specific thing.

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  3. Great story.

    I noticed the wording on the story's Web address includes the phrase "humaninterest."

    This is so off topic, but it cracks me up when people categorize feature stories as "human interest." As opposed to what? Being of interest to space aliens or kittens?

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  4. Wonderful story. She captures so well the routine that Anthony has fallen into as this pseudo-parent. I love that she doesn't go out of her way to make a big deal about the fact that a 12-year-old boy is changing his twin's diaper or having to push him on the swing or buckle him in his carseat. We know it's a big deal, no need to tell us it.
    And it goes a long way in illustrating Anthony's maturity, you almost start looking at him as an adult. I found myself getting mad at his parents for letting him be his brother's keeper.
    That last quote is even more profound considering his age. I'd like to think I had that much self-awareness at 12...but probably not.

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