Meeting Lead

It may result in many ruined Saturdays for parents and students alike if the School Board approves a new policy that would require students with disciplinary problems to come to school for a Saturday morning session.

To Delay or Not to Delay

             Leads can be a tricky thing. Much like trying to come up with a topic to write about, trying to figure out how to begin your article is the hardest part. Sometimes it’s easier to dive in and start writing, leaving the formation of your lead until the end. But sometimes it’s only after crafting the perfect lead that a writer is able to continue with the story.

            The principal strength of summary leads is that they are very informative. They’re straight to the point, they communicate the important information effectively and immediately, and the reader only needs that one paragraph to know what the article is about. The problem, though, is that they can be boring and unoriginal. The typical news article is written with a summary lead and sometimes I would like something different.

            Delayed leads are usually far more interesting. They draw the reader in and make them want to continue reading to see what the article is about. The danger in this type of lead is that it can be confusing. The enigmatic quality that is usually the appeal of delayed leads can also cause the reader to stop reading if the first paragraph sounds too random.

            I think it all depends on the article. Certain types of articles require a summary lead while others work best with a delayed lead.

            When I first read “Mud, massages, mouse on St. Lucia”, I was a little unsure where the article was going, but I kept reading to figure it out and it ultimately worked for the piece.

            Here is lead:

            “We had only been at Rendezvous, our “couples” resort, for an hour, and we were flunking Romance 101. Maybe it had been a mistake to book the romantic candlelight dinner on the beach for our first evening here. The wind kept blowing out our candles so it was too dark to read the menus. Plus, we were famished — all we’d had to eat all day were airplane snacks.”

The Profane, The Sarcastic, The Humorous

              Journalism comes in many forms, a fact that is proven more each and every day. One form that I have recently begun to explore is Gonzo journalism, which can be accredited to Hunter S. Thompson circa 1970 (see previous post). It’s a combination of journalism and fiction that is partly based on the personal experience of the writer. Thompson was inspired by William Faulkner’s idea that, "The best kind of fiction is truer than any kind of journalism."

            I find this rather interesting because the subjectivity of this style appeals to me immensely. Traditional journalism takes a detached and objective approach and is focused on getting the hard facts. Gonzo journalism strives to capture the personality of the topic in addition to the topic itself. It utilizes emotion and experience as writing tools. Sarcasm, humor, exaggeration and profanity are also frequently employed in this style, which tends to “tell it like it is”.

            The more I research Gonzo journalism, the more passionate my opinion becomes concerning the rules (or lack thereof) of writing. I think people should express themselves more freely in their writing and not try to fit into a mold. I’m not saying that they should go to the lengths that Hunter S. Thompson did in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but I do believe that we-as writers- should not be afraid to tell a story as we see fit. 

Non-Creative-Fiction

            Last semester I took ENGL 501 Intro to Creative Nonfiction. I had no idea what the class would be like. The name in itself confused me. Creative. Nonfiction. Aren’t those supposed to be separate things?

            After finishing the class, I had a better grasp of what creative nonfiction is. I realized that nonfiction doesn’t have to be written in a dull or stagnant manner. The lines between creative writing and nonfiction writing don’t have to be so black and white. They can meld and blend and merge and bend. In writing, there is only one rule. There are no rules.

            In Chapter 6 of our textbook, it talks about how reporter Tom Wolfe popularized his feature-writing style, in which journalists borrowed techniques from novelists. Another central figure in this “New Journalism” movement was Hunter S. Thompson, who wrote Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which I read in my ENGL 501 class.

            This was a very unique book. The story’s plot is crazy enough but what struck me most was Thompson’s writing style. It had never occurred to me that you could write news in such an interesting way. To be honest, I had always thought of reporting as cut-and-dry. But after reading Fear and Loathing, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that was not the case. 

A Softer Lead

Even to this day former Rhode Island governor Don Caricieri remembers the tense moments that families endured at a hotel while waiting for word that their relatives' remains had been identified and how people came together to support each other.

"At a time of our state's worst tragedy, in some sense, it was our people's finest hour," he recounted.

Now, as the 10-year anniversary of the nightclub fire that killed 100 people approaches, survivors as well as the families of the victims will gather on Sunday for a memorial.

Summary Lead

The world suffered the loss of its most famous talking bird- Alex, an African gray parrot, who died last week at age 31 of natural causes.

I Pray to Thee, O Writer of Mine Sustenance

            I want to be Michael Pollan.

            Maybe not the middle-aged man part, but definitely the food journalist part. He is a foodie, a writer and an intellectual, which is a combination I have been striving for my entire life. The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and In Defense of Food are just a few of the books he has authored, all of which I have read and all of which I regard as religious texts (food is pretty much a religion, as is his writing style).

            What I enjoy about Michael Pollan’s writing is that it isn’t boring. I’m used to the fast-paced, intelligible world of fiction, so it takes a certain kind of non-fiction to hold my attention. He writes in a completely atypical sort of manner, one that is surprising and balanced. Surprising in the sense that his language seems unbounded by the harshly constructed peripheries that plague most prose (he uses sarcasm and irony) and balanced because he writes in a way that is both thought-provoking and uncomplicated.

            I’ve grown up idolizing Michael Pollan; he is partly responsible for my choice of career. When I thought about what to study in college, I was stumped. I liked food, but I didn’t want to be a chef. And I liked writing, but I didn’t want to be a novelist. Then I realized: why don’t I just do what Michael Pollan does and combine them? He writes about food for prestigious magazines, is interviewed for movies like Food Inc., and actually seems to make a difference in the world.

            The future of food writing- as most sectors of literature tend to be- is uncertain. But because there are iconic figures such as Michael Pollan, I have something to shoot for. He is paving the way for food writers like me and when I grow up, I will follow in his footsteps- fighting for a more sustainable gastronomic future.