The Washington Post (with permission) took a woman's Facebook feed -- she was a constant updater -- and edited it to tell the story of childbirth followed by complications, and how it turned out.
This is the type of story that conventionally could be a long narrative. It's fascinating to see how it works in this format.
Update: The writer talks about how he put the story together.
Just read it. Wow, the ending gave me chills.
ReplyDeleteAt first I was going to say - OK, I still will - that I would have liked a few more posts before she went to the hospital to have the baby. Let us get to know her and empathize with her better before the action starts. Having read the whole thing, maybe I misjudged how much action there would be at the end.
Good for them for doing this story in such a creative way. Good for them for letting the narrative unfold and not letting context get out in front of action.
-Lon
Yeah, very powerful ending. After I read it I wasn't sure why the whole story hit me as hard as it did because, even though the headline/intro didn't give it away, you knew something bad was going to happen. Now I'm wondering if it was simply the vehicle of the story -- Facebook posts -- and that if you're on Facebook at all, you might expect emotions including joy and anger, but not death or dying, and when you see death in that familiar, mostly benign format, it's really startling on some level.
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