NYT's new editor on narrative

Jill Abramson, who will be the New York Times' new editor, spoke recently at a narrative nonfiction conference in Boston. Prof Chris Daly's Blog reports Abramson said narrative nonfiction is "a distinct American art form" and predicts it has a "very robust future." More here.

Word from Boston U's narrative conference: Long-form narrative is anything but dead

Highlights, via Bill Kirtz at poynter.org:

• Jill Abramson, ME of the New York Times, said tablets and iPads give narrative a new way to reach new readers.
• New Yorker writer Ken Auletta says nonfiction writers should use blogs and other new media, not whine about it.
• Susan Orlean said new technology means the packaging of a story might be different, but content is still the thing.

Stories, direct to you

Longform.org , which allows you to 'bookmark' long-form stories to read later via Instapaper or Read It Later, now has another deal: Send Me a Story. You give them your e-mail, they send you a nonfiction story every Saturday morning (plus one right away when you sign up).

I got "Can You Say ... Hero?/a profile of Mr. Rogers" by Tom Junod from Esquire in 1998.

Back to basics

This from playwright-and-more David Mamet, via Movieline, via a link on Gangrey:

It's Mamet's, let's say, directive a few years back to the writers of the TV show "The Unit," in which he reminds them, not subtly, what they must do as dramatic writers.

As we've discussed here before, fiction techniques work in nonfiction narratives. So there's a lot to take from this. For example (it is, in fact, written in all caps):

'LOOK AT THE SCENE AND ASK YOURSELF “IS IT DRAMATIC? IS IT ESSENTIAL? DOES IT ADVANCE THE PLOT?

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY.

IF THE ANSWER IS “NO” WRITE IT AGAIN OR THROW IT OUT. '

I also love the fact that he used the word "typewriter" in this piece.*

*And also the word "dickhead" several times, which I use here in small type because this is, after all, a family blog.

What good editors do, by Stephen King

Like so much of what we discuss in here, King is talking about fiction writing/editing (specifically, editor Gordon Lish and writer Raymond Carver), but what he says certainly applies to our newsroom, or any newsroom:

In King’s opinion, “a good editor should improve the writer’s work by doing a number of useful things: posing questions the writer should have answered and didn’t, suggesting places where thematic concerns can be reinforced to make a more pleasing whole, and pointing out (gently) infelicities of language. What an editor should never do is superimpose his or her own beliefs about style and story on the author’s work. An editor should be an expert midwife, not a surrogate parent.”

Don't make a commitment or anything

Gangrey.com links to this story about nonfiction narrative writer Lawrence Weschler talking about teaching nonfiction narrative at New York University, and saying:

"...it is less a class about reporting methods than it is about the fictional methods that can be applied to nonfictional writing. It presupposes that the writer will try to be fair, but also acknowledges that there is no such thing as objectivity, and revels in that fact. Then we get down to business and talk about all the stuff that’s interesting: form, freedom, irony, voice, tone, structure."

I would propose he could be a bit more rigorous than "It presupposes that the writer will try to be fair."

I'd suggest: "It demands the writer be fair and tell the truth -- not only report things that actually happened and things that were actually said, but portray them in context to tell a true story."

Thoughts?

Now I know why ...

... Roy Peter Clark's old column on nonfiction and memoirs (see blog entry below) is on the Nieman Narrative Digest's site.

It's because of this piece, a memoir featured by the Nieman folks written by a mother about her son's battle with autism, called "The Monster Inside My Son." Apparently the Nieman staff got into a deep discussion about whether this is nonfiction journalism or something else.

I haven't read the notes on their discussion or the piece yet, but plan to. Meanwhile if anyone else does, let me know what you think.