THE STORY PROPER
There are numbers of people whose ideal paper is one in which
the editorials shall be written by an Addison, a Lamb, or a
Swift; the art criticism by a Ruskin; while the financial
editor shall be an Adam Smith. It is a fairly safe guess that
a newspaper with such a staff would have a life about as long
as the ministry of all the talents. Imagine Mrs. Battle’s views
on whist ... written in an hour at midnight. Good writing
really consists of clearness of expression mingled with true
literary form. And these are qualities not unobtainable even in
a daily paper, as Mr. Strachey (editor of the London Spectator)
himself admitted.--From an editorial in the _Christian Science
Monitor_, Boston.
I have always cared much for style and have endeavored to
improve my own by reading a great deal of the best English and
French prose. In writing, as in music, much of the perfection
of style is a question of ear, but much also depends on the
ideal the writer sets before himself. He ought, I think, to aim
at the greatest possible simplicity and accuracy of expression,
at vividness and force, at condensation. The last two heads
will usually be found to blend; for condensation, when it is
not attained at the sacrifice of clearness, is the great secret
of force. I should say, from my own experience, that most
improvements of style are of the nature either of condensation
or of increased accuracy and delicacy of distinction.--From the
Memoirs of W. E. H. LECKY.
Most news stories, as already pointed out, work backward from effect
to cause. In the story of a fire, for example, the writer first sets
forth the most important results of the fire. If there were no features
of obvious news interest, such as the loss of life or heavy property
loss, he may cast about for picturesque details that will enable him
to give a novel turn to his story. In either event he begins with the
effect. The lead written, containing perhaps a suggestion of the cause,
he proceeds to tell the story in detail. Usually the facts are put down
in the order of their importance, unessential details being reserved
for the last paragraph.
This method may be departed from, of course, if the most striking fact
about the fire was not the result but the manner of its starting. If
the fire, in itself unimportant, was one of a series started by an
incendiary, the feature of the story manifestly is found in the cause
and not in the effect. The lead in that case would be built on the
cause, which is the reason for printing the story.
COMPRESSION AND EXPANSION
In any case the story begins with the main fact and moves toward the
contributory incidents. Keeping his lead in mind, to avoid needless
repetition, the writer expands his story to the required length by the
addition of details. What he shall tell is determined partly by his
judgment of news values and partly by the space limit the editor has
set. Told to write half a column, he is expected to fill that space
and no more. The correspondent who wires, in reply to an order for 300
words, that he can’t tell his story in less than 1,000, is certain to
call down the wrath of the telegraph editor. The city reporter who
cannot or will not compress his story into the space allotted him is
not likely to remain long on the payroll. No matter what your personal
opinion of the news value of your story, remember that the editor is
the judge.
Another phase of “writing to space” presents itself, and this has more
to do with the gathering than with the writing of news. The writer
needs the ability to compress his story; he needs, too, to learn
the art of expansion. The order to write half a column may find him
unprepared if he has failed, as a news gatherer, to collect sufficient
details to fill that space. The problem now is not one of cutting down
the facts, but of telling all the facts he can muster. Ordered to
write a certain number of words, the reporter is assumed to have the
necessary information about his story. He is expected to tell the story
without padding and without faking.
It may be said here incidentally, since the subject is one of perennial
discussion outside of newspaper offices, that faking is not tolerated
by any reputable newspaper. A reporter who manufactures news may
succeed in deceiving his office a few times, but eventually he will
be found out and dismissed. Harmless exaggeration in giving a story
local color is often permitted, but no self-respecting city editor will
publish a story that a reporter tells him is untrue. There remains but
one solution to the problem of expansion and that is to get more facts.
The reporter should bear this in mind in covering his story. To be
on the safe side, he should get all the details possible in the time
available. Then, when he returns to his office, he will be prepared if
the city editor calls for a longer story than he had expected to write.
Even though the reporter is ordered to write only a few lines, the
labor spent in covering a story thoroughly is not wasted. Having a
complete knowledge of his subject, he is better able to determine
what are the main facts and to present them in right proportion.
Incomplete investigation leaves a reporter with the fear that he may
have overlooked something essential which a rival news gatherer has
found. The good reporter--and he is the one who is most likely to be a
good news writer--spares no effort in running down every smallest clew
that may help him to understand his story. Persistent investigation,
even when the story on the surface appears commonplace, may uncover an
important feature and enable the reporter to score a notable beat for
his paper.
What the newspaper demands is that the writer shall tell his story so
that every sentence adds something new to it. The order to expand a
story, viewed in this light, does not contradict what has been said
of the need of brevity. In adding to your story to bring it to the
prescribed length, avoid senseless repetition of details. Don’t repeat
an idea in different words simply to fill space. Try to make every
sentence count. Bear in mind what you have told in the lead and strive
to set forth the details in relation to the main facts. If your lead
is built on the rescue of a woman by firemen, tell the details so they
will contribute to the effect of the opening statement; don’t switch
your attention to the man who turned in the alarm and forget the
rescue. The turning in of the alarm is probably a trivial detail and,
if mentioned at all, should not be allowed to clog the movement of the
story. “Don’t worry about who called the ambulance or who turned in
the alarm” is one of the rules in the New York _Herald’s_ pamphlet of
instructions to reporters.
THE MECHANICS OF THE STORY
The ideal news story, from the standpoint of mechanics, can be cut off
at almost any paragraph and yet remain self-explanatory. This is the
direct result of telling the facts in the order of their importance
and making the story explain itself as it proceeds. The story that
fails materially in this respect receives scant courtesy from the city
editor. If passed on to the composing room without revision, it might
cause trouble in the make-up of the paper should the necessity arise
of cutting it down to make room for later and more important news.
Properly written, the story can be shortened by taking off paragraphs
from the bottom up. Thus the method of writing the body of the story is
suited to the mechanical limitations of the paper.
To understand this fully some knowledge of the manner of making up the
paper is necessary. One unacquainted with newspaper work may wonder
idly now and then how the editors manage each day to get just enough
news matter to make the paper “come out even.” The reporter learns
quickly that a vast deal that is written for the paper never gets
into print. Much is cut out of the copy; what survives and is set into
type is often still further subjected to pruning. It is the business
of the make-up editor, who watches the type set into the forms in the
composing room, to see that the big stories are displayed according to
schedule in the most prominent positions in the paper, with the minor
news tapering off. On Page 1 he puts the cream of the day’s news--the
stories that seem most likely to attract the reader--on the same
principle that the merchant puts his most attractive wares in his show
window. Suppose now that late news is received that makes it necessary
to cut down something in type. It is only a few minutes before press
time; there is not time to shorten a story by rewriting it. If the
story he decides to cut has been constructed strictly according to
rule, the editor has only to take off enough from the end to make the
space he requires. In actual practice, however, he may be compelled to
use considerable ingenuity in making his cuts, taking out a paragraph
here, a line there, and possibly writing a new line to hold the
remaining parts of the story together in logical sequence.
Resetting of type, a source of delay and expense, is avoided whenever
possible. For this reason care should be taken in marking proofs,
especially late proofs, not to make unnecessary changes that would
require the resetting of several lines. If a word is to be taken out,
try to substitute matter to fill the space so that only one new line
will need to be set.
It is not necessary that the reporter know the mechanical side of
newspaper making in order to write a good story, but a general
knowledge of this phase of the work is desirable. It has been truly
said that every scrap of information the reporter possesses may at some
time be turned to account. This is true also of information regarding
the workings of the newspaper, in his own and other departments.
Knowing how stories are pruned down in the composing room, he will be
less inclined to bury the main facts of his story in the last paragraph.
While the same general principles of news writing apply to all
newspapers, the need of making the story explain itself as it proceeds
is more pronounced on the evening than on the morning newspaper. The
morning paper seldom prints more than three editions and hence there is
less occasion for “making over” than on the evening paper with its half
dozen or more editions. The story that occupies a column in the first
edition of the evening paper may be reduced to a paragraph before the
end of the day. Then, too, the greater speed with which the evening
paper is turned out makes it imperative that a story be so written that
it can be changed with the least possible delay.
Do not get the idea from the foregoing that your story should be a
dry-as-dust recital of bare facts. Try to weave your facts together
into a coherent story that will hold the reader’s attention at every
point. The best news story moves with a swing that carries the reader
swiftly and easily along from the lead to the conclusion, and leaves
him at the end with a definite and clear idea of what he has read. From
the standpoint of the reader there is added reason for making the story
self-explanatory as it goes. If he does not care to read to the end,
the story nevertheless should stand complete in his mind, as far as the
essential facts are concerned, at whatever point he leaves off. The
novelist’s hint that something startling will be disclosed later has no
place in the news story.
Certain of the general rules that govern all good writing are
applicable in even greater degree to news writing. Be careful not to
omit essential words. The omission of the word “not,” for example,
may reverse the meaning of an entire sentence. The same is true of
an omitted or a misplaced comma. Observe the standard rules of
punctuation, with any special rules that may be in force on your paper.
Use pronouns guardedly; it is better to repeat a name than run the risk
of ambiguity. For the same reason the words “former” and “latter” are
frowned upon by many newspapers. Although needless repetition of ideas
should be avoided, don’t be afraid to repeat a word if that is the
simplest, most direct way of conveying your thought. A dog is a dog; it
is absurd to call it a “canine” (and “canine,” by the way, should be
used only as an adjective), simply to avoid repeating the word.
Put life and vigor into your story. An apt metaphor may express an idea
vividly and at the same time save many words. What has been said of
the advisability of short, telling sentences in the lead applies also
to the body of the story. It is a good general rule to avoid sentences
that would fill more than seven lines of type.
In trying to give your story freshness and originality do not go to
the extreme of flippancy, especially in writing of a serious subject.
Flippancy is not cleverness, though it often passes for such in the
writer’s own estimation. You will not err in this direction if you make
your story fair. Dialect should be used sparingly, if at all, and it
should never be used when there is a chance that it will offend a large
group of readers.
Remember the injunction to keep yourself out of the story. The
experiences of a reporter in getting a story are seldom of any interest
outside of the circle of his fellow workers. Let the story speak for
itself. Now and then an occasion may arise that would justify the
reporter in recounting his adventures, but in any such event he should
first consult the city editor.
Unless you are pressed for time, read over your story before you hand
it to the city editor and make sure that you have let no errors creep
in. Read it, too, after it appears in print and note what changes, if
any, have been made. Everyone makes mistakes--but the news writer can’t
afford to make the same mistake twice.
SUGGESTIONS FOR HOME OR CLASS-ROOM STUDY
I. The following account of a disastrous fire illustrates the standard
newspaper method of handling a big story. Observe that the climax--the
death of twenty-five girls in a fire-trap--comes first. That is the
vital fact, beside which all other features are of minor importance.
The paragraphs are numbered for reference:
1. NEWARK, N. J., Nov. 26.--Twenty-five girls were burned alive
or crushed to death on the pavement in ten minutes this morning
in leaping from the windows and fire escapes of the four-story
brick factory occupied by paper-box companies at 216 High
street, corner of Orange. The fire caught from a blaze which
started in some gasoline used in cleaning an electric lamp.
2. Nearly all the victims were young women employés. The latest
count to-night showed that sixteen bodies recovered have been
identified and that six girls are still missing. They may be
among the unidentified dead or they may be in the ruins. The
collapse of a wall late to-night interrupted further search.
Forty-nine were taken to hospitals, and two of them may die.
(List of the dead and fatally injured follows, this account
having been published in a newspaper in a nearby city.)
3. Among the injured is Joseph E. Sloane, deputy fire chief,
who was overtaken by the falling wall and buried in bricks and
rubbish. He is badly hurt, but may recover.
4. The ambulance from the City Hospital and the patrol wagons
from all the precincts were dispatched to the scene. An immense
crowd kept the police busy.
5. One of the spectators said that at least fifteen girls had
jumped from the fourth floor of the burning structure. With
the exception of two girls employed by the Ætna company, all
the employés on the first and second floors of the building
escaped, either by means of the exits or the one fire escape.
The two girls suffered burns about the head and face.
6. Twenty of the injured were taken to St. Michael’s Hospital
in the ambulance. The salvage automobile took four more. Of
these two died after reaching the hospital.
7. Life nets were put into use immediately after the arrival
of the firemen. Perhaps thirty lives were saved in this way.
One girl, Hattie Delapey, was badly hurt by striking the edge
of the net and falling to the pavement. Another girl suffered
a broken ankle. Eugene McHugh, a foreman in the employ of the
Ætna company, guided several scores of girls in his employ to
safety down a fire escape. Nearly all escaped injury.
8. Less than twenty minutes after the arrival of the firemen
the interior of the building was flame-swept. The floors of
the upper part of the building fell shortly afterward. It is
believed that a search of the building will reveal other bodies.
9. Among those who were early at the scene was the Reverend E.
F. Quirk, assistant rector of St. Joseph’s Church. He gave last
rites of the church to seven of the victims. Mr. Quirk said
he counted twenty-three prostrate forms on the sidewalk. All
were young women who had leaped from the upper windows of the
factory.
10. The rush of the flames was so swift and threw such
unreasoning terror into the huddled working girls on the top
story, that the body of one was found still seated on a charred
stool beside the machine at which she had been busy when the
first cry of “Fire!” petrified her with fright.
11. Horrible as must have been what went on in the smoke of
that crowded upper room, what befell outside in the bright
sunlight was yet more horrible. The building was furiously
inflammable and the first gush of flames had cut off all
possibility of escape by the stairways. The elevator made one
trip, but took down no passengers and never came back.
12. The only exit was by two narrow fire escapes, the lower
platforms of which were twenty-five feet from the street. On to
these overcrowded and steep lanes, scorched dancing hot by the
jets from lower windows, pressed forward a mob of women, blind
with panic, driven by the fire and the others behind them.
13. A net had been spread beneath the windows, and the girls
began to jump. “Like rats out of a burning bin,” was the way
a fireman described that pell-mell descent. Some of them were
dashed off the fire escape to the pavement sixty feet below.
Others stood in the windows outlined against the flames and
jumped clear; others from the landings; still others from the
steps where they stood. The air was full of them and they fell
everywhere--into the net, on the firemen, and fifteen of them
on the stone slabs.
14. When the awful rain of human bodies ceased there were eight
dead in the street. Seven more were so badly crushed that they
died in hospitals. Fifty are still under surgeons’ care.
15. Clouds of smoke and showers of burning embers spread over
the city. (Further details follow. The foregoing, with the
headlines, fills one column.)
(A laboratory guide to the analysis of the story:
Paragraph 1.--Note that the essential points are summarized in the
opening sentence. There is no attempt to describe the “lurid flames,”
no philosophizing, but a plain, terse account of what happened--the
result of the fire. A brief statement of the cause follows. Often a
story of this kind begins coming into the office just before an edition
goes to press. If the story is constructed on the right plan, the
lead can be sent to the composing room as a complete story for that
edition, while the rest is put into type to be added in succeeding
editions.
Paragraph 2.--Further details concerning the loss of life. Observe
how the elements of greatest interest, those relating to persons, not
things, are kept uppermost. Temporarily the fire itself is ignored;
what the reader wants to know about is the effect of the fire on its
victims. So, too, the destruction of the factory, under ordinary
conditions worthy of being “played up” in the lead because of the
heavy property loss, is passed over as of minor consequence. Detailed
information about the victims is properly given early in the story, to
answer the questions that first come into the minds of their families
and friends.
Paragraph 3.--Here the name of the deputy fire chief, who was hurt
while on duty, is singled out for special mention.
Paragraph 4.--Detailed story of the fire begins. The facts here told
indicate the magnitude of the disaster.
Paragraphs 5 and 6.--Further human-interest details.
Paragraphs 7 and 8.--Note the short sentences. The story moves swiftly
from fact to fact. The writer is telling what happened, without
commenting on it.
Paragraph 9.--Human-interest feature deemed worthy of a prominent place
in the story.
Paragraph 10.--Effective description of the quick spread of the fire by
means of incident. At this point the “fine writer” might have lugged in
his artillery of adjectives. Note the opposite method--the right news
method--of telling specific details.
Paragraph 11.--Continuation of the same method. “The elevator made
one trip, but took down no passengers and never came back,” is finely
descriptive.
Paragraphs 12 and 13.--Swift, vivid description by specific details.
The precision with which the story is told, indicating accurate
observation, is noteworthy, as in “twenty-five feet from the street,”
“sixty feet below,” “fifteen of them on the stone slabs.” The exact
figures are obviously far more effective than a vague expression such
as “a number of.”
Paragraph 14.--Detailed summary. Note that every sentence adds
something to the story. There is no padding.
Paragraph 15.--The story continues a column from this point, fact piled
on fact in the order of importance. A story written in this manner has
been likened to a pyramid. It may be cut from the bottom up at almost
any point and yet stand complete.)
II. Another kind of fire story, from the New York _World_, in which
the news value is not so obvious as in the foregoing. Here the writer
has seized upon the human-interest feature and developed his story
accordingly. The fire in itself was of no importance:
Fire visited last night the lodging house conducted by Mrs.
Hannah Tracy, 102 years old, and Mrs. Sarah Wrinn, ninety-five
years old, at No. 803 Washington street, and now the two aged
landladies, who never demanded board money in advance, are in
Bellevue and their boarders are minus their care.
Children playing in front of the old-fashioned brick house near
the Gansevoort Market saw smoke coming from the basement, where
the two women had their living quarters. Little Arthur Weldon
of No. 826 Washington street ran to a fire box and gleefully
sent in a call. Margaret Havlick and Elizabeth Irving, also of
No. 826, skipped across to the store of Joseph White with the
news.
White ran to No. 803, broke in the basement door and found
that a cat that looked to be at least one hundred years old
had upset an oil lamp on a table and that the table cover was
burning. He threw the cover to the floor and stamped out the
flames. Then he sprang into a rear room and found Mrs. Tracy
in bed, feebly calling for help, while Mrs. Wrinn lay on the
floor. He carried them out, one at a time.
Though they had not inhaled much smoke their advanced ages
led an ambulance surgeon from St. Vincent’s Hospital to take
them to Bellevue. Neighbors said the women were sisters. Mrs.
Tracy’s husband kept a dry goods store in Christopher street
fifty years ago and when he died left her a little money.
Mrs. Tracy is known in the neighborhood as “Mother” Tracy.
Children have made it a point to follow her in the street,
for she often distributed cents from her little old-fashioned
reticule.
(An exception that proves a rule already stated is found in the
second paragraph, which tells how a child turned in the fire alarm.
An effective touch of local color is added in the last paragraph. The
story is a good example of restraint in writing. No undue effort is
made to impress the reader with the underlying pathos, but the facts,
simply and concisely told, are allowed to speak for themselves. The
headlines on the published story were: “Sisters, 102 and 95, Put in
Peril by Cat--Children in Street Give Alarm After Animal Knocks Over
Lamp and Starts Fire.”)
III. Write a story of 300 to 350 words from the following notes. Do not
manufacture any details, but put those here given into the form of a
readable news story:
Fire in brick tenement, 193 Adams street, 10 o’clock last
night. Damage $2,000, estimated by Assistant Fire Chief Dunn.
Cause was the explosion of lamp on second floor. All the
tenants got out safely except Charles Lawrence, 35, a painter,
who lived with his wife and three children on the top, fifth,
floor. He was asleep in bed when his wife called out that the
house was on fire and told him to get out quick. He got out of
bed and told her to go along with the kids; said he would come
as soon as he got his clothes on. She went with the children
and on the stairway met Patrolmen Quinn and Brown. Told them
her husband had delayed to dress. The building was filling with
smoke and they turned their attention to rescuing those on the
lower floors. When the firemen heard that Lawrence was still
in the house, they went to his room and found him lying face
downward on the floor, unconscious. He had inhaled smoke. He
died in an ambulance on the way to the City Hospital. The fire
was extinguished in forty-five minutes.