'I need to keep writing'

YDR managing editor Randy Parker called our attention to this blog post at a meeting the other day. It's by a member of our staff, Stacia Fleegal, about giving birth to her son almost three months before the due date.

Randy said it was a compelling read. He was right.

I read something this morning and felt like I'd received a gift

I read a lot. And I read a lot of personal writing -- essays, columns or first-person accounts of something or other, stuff like that.

And I like to think that I recognize honesty in that type of writing, and can gauge when someone's going through the motions, or trying but not really getting there, or unreservedly opening themselves up and standing before me, the reader.

But every now and then I read something that makes me realize I give a lot of writers a pass. I read something that is so bracing, so true, it's pleasantly startling. It is a gift from the writer.

This morning I read Steve Navaroli's column, "Taking a break to battle cancer." Steve, a YDR sports staffers, writes columns as part of his job. But he's never written one like this.

I know Steve as part of our staff here; he's universally known as a good guy. I don't know him well personally.

But I know him better now. Through his act of writing, of honesty and with a perfect sense of an emotional moment, he gave me that gift.

Thanks, Steve. Count me among those looking forward to your return.

When first-person writing works well

At the PNA storytelling seminar last week, Marion Winik talked about personal essays and first-person writing; it's how she's built her career.

She's quite good at writing about events in her life. We hear someone like that and we come away tempted to do first-person writing. It's so alluring, and so different from what we usually do, and here's a nationally successful writer encouraging us to try, so we naturally start thinking about how we can do something like that.

I think it's a good idea to take that enthusiasm and keep it alive until the right story comes along. Most ideas won't qualify. Somewhere down the road, one will.

Here's an example of when it works.* I doubt anyone in our shop is going to go to Iraq and develop a relationship like this to write about, but this story, from Corinne Reilly in the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot has what makes for a strong first-person story:

It's about something, as opposed to just relating some experiences. It tells a story -- it starts somewhere and goes somewhere and ends somewhere -- and (by design) it tells you there's more to come. It has a point of view, but it's never self-indulgent.

And for me, it had one of the best qualities of a well-written piece: I clicked on it just to see what it was about, not really intending to read the whole story, but it moved at such a good pace and was so seamlessly written that I read until the last sentence.

See what you think.

*Update: Broken link fixed. Thanks LeAnne.

The perfect touch

A good friend of mine forwarded me an essay about the late John Wooden by the L.A. Times' Bill Plaschke. "For your TMAS blog thingee," read the e-mail subject line. I suppose I can forgive my friend for referring to this blog as a "thingee," because the story he passed on is pretty damn good. It is, obviously, not something that was tossed off when Wooden died recently, but something that's the result of years of reporting, of being around Wooden (at least every now and then), of deep thinking, and of heart. It focuses on Wooden's devotion to his wife, who died in 1985. The tone of the piece is, I think, just about perfect -- emotional but not fawning.

A sample:

 ... in the middle of the bed, was a bundle of carefully scripted letters, all in the same intricate handwriting.
"Fan mail?" I asked.
"You might say that," he said.
The letters had been written by Wooden to Nell.
They contained humble descriptions of his day, gentle laughs over private jokes, eternal promises of his affection.
They had been written once a month, every month, since 1985.
They had been written after she died.

Left unsaid

This piece was in the NYT mag this weekend.

It's a account of how a business reporter got drawn into the financial crisis. Once you get past the part about him being a reporter making $120,000 a year, there's pretty interesting storytelling here.

I don't want to say too much about it, because it would spoil the story, but a friend and I discussed the story at length Sunday. I'd like to see what you think.

Read the story with an eye toward the bits he weaves in here and there about his wife. Do you think what was obviously left out makes the story more effective? (I am talking about his second wife; the one he bought the house with.)

"Generation Kill"

Under my little brother's direction, I read "Generation Kill," a 2004 book written by Rolling Stone reporter Evan Wright, about the 1st Recon Marines who were at the tip of the spear in the 2003 Iraq invasion.

Steve, who enlisted in the Marines last year and is now training in the Marines Special Operations Command, said that the guys in his unit who have served in Iraq thought the book and the HBO miniseries are fairly accurate depictions of their mission.
Wright, who was embedded with the battalion for two months at the start of the war, tells of the confusion and misdirection that came to define their mission and the whole war.
I knew that the book would be disturbing, if for no other reason then I would get a peek into what my brother could be faced with in the coming months. I knew it would only make me angrier about Bush's war, and the complete quagmire it has put us and the Iraqi people in over the past six years. But I'm glad I read it.

Wright doesn't spare us any details about the civilian casualties he witnessed or the adolescent glee at which the Marines ripped apart buildings like they were playing "Grand Theft Auto". But he's careful not to paint them as one-dimensional, souless characters out to play with guns. He spent two months getting to know the unit and the command structure, and developed respect for the individuals and the sacrifices they were making as part of their call to duty. It's heartwarming to get a peak into the brotherhood the men share, and it's a relief to find that they don't follow their commanders blindly and that they question their actions and mourn for the loss of life on both sides.

This is definitely a good read for journalists covering the war and the toll it takes on the men fighting it. Anyone here is welcome to borrow my copy.