About to embark on my first 100/120-inch serial...any suggestions?

MGoBlue - Yes, it is a serial. I thought I wrote that at the beginning. If not, oops.

JMac -- Two questions -- Where do you teach, and how do I become a student? When I get into my office, I'm printing out what you wrote and taping it next to my computer. Thank you for the thoughtful insight, and I will take all of it to heart.

Regarding the reading aspect, I've spent the last several months reading and rereading my favorite narratives to get prepared. I'm not, yet. But I will be in a couple months when this is a go (hopefully). The best tool I've had is the Neiman Narrative Digest from Harvard, which has me in tears daily at my desk. Not normal.

Thanks again, I'm eager to share my progress with you.

 

Don't try to put together the whole thing in one sitting. Write about 10 to 15 inches off of each session. Also, talk to opponents. How do they feel about playing these kids?

 

NICE awriter, I will definitely talk to opponents. Good call.

 

Well, jgmac up there just about nailed it.
Print out his words. Keep it with you at all times.

I'll add (and repeat) a few things:

1) Don't worry about inches and days at this point. If I were you, I wouldn't even think about a serial. Just look for a story. Once you find it, develop it. Narrow your focus. The football team itself isn't a story. It's a topic.

2) Stay on top of your notes. Organize, organize, organize. I wouldn't use a recorder unless absolutely necessary (or during sitdown interviews.) It slows you too much.

3) Write as you go. If you witness a good scene, go back and write it. This let's you start to shape things a bit, and it shows you holes in the narrative. As you do this, you'll find that your narrative reporting will improve throughout the project. Plus, it's nearly impossible to go back and write an entire serial once the reporting has ended.

4) An obvious one: Look for dialogue.

5) Have a photographer with you as much as possible. Serials these days don't fly without art. Try to get the same photographer each time. Trust me: The better the art, the better the serial. Also, think about online possibilities.

6) Don't get caught up in the "serial fantasy." To keep readers coming back day after day, devouring inch after inch, the story has to be powerful. It has to have a strong theme, rich characters and a touch of suspense. These elements take time to develop. Sometimes theyre not there at all. Build your story, not your serial. There's a huge difference. Think small. One step at a time.

6) Keep your editor informed and interested. The more he or she is engaged in this project, the better off you will be. Send him or her a note every so often letting them know how everything is going.

Good luck.

 

ORGANIZE ORGANIZE ORGANIZE. Literally try and plan out the story graph by graph when you have all your notes in front of you. Just sitting down and writing something that long NEVER ends up well.

And because this is a potential clip - PROOFREAD PROOFREAD PROOFREAD. Have your editor read it twice. Have other writers read it. Have your mom read it.

Good luck. Feel free to post it on here, also, to get some advice.

 

Most here have touched on this, in some form or fashion.

Transitions seem to be of utmost importance, IMO. How you weave your one thought to the next, your one subhead to the next, and your one story line to the next, will bear more weight than in a 30-inch narrative. I'm always impressed by the time I'm at the end of a serial, I can look back and see how the writer prepared me for the next submission or how it might not have made sense going through it, but when it's all said and done, all loose ends are tied.

 

Bigger doesn't always mean better.

Leave the reader wanting more, not less.

Sounds like a story that Rick Reilly would do in 750 words and absolutely hit it out of the park.

It also sounds like a story that Gary Smith would do in 7,500 words and hit it out of the park.

Not saying you should lock yourself into a 20-inch box. But I've found when I envision a story length before I even start writing, I tend to frustrate myself.

Report the hell out of it. Talk to as many people as possible, then start writing while it is still fresh. Stories like this can write themselves if you let them.

 

"Writing for Story" by Jon Franklin has some practical tips on an assignment like this. He won two Pulitzer Prizes for feature writing using concrete steps of storytelling -- he believes the story does not write itself. He and his wife Lynn run a listserv called WriterL where people like yourself discuss the "narrative nonfiction" projects they are working on.

Tom French of the St. Pete Times has some great series you might want to check out. Movies like "Remember the Titans" or "Hoop Dreams" can give you a sense of interwoven narratives.


To get the arc of your story, consider the team as one character. What do they have at stake? How close can you get to see that tested? What about individual players -- what are they running away from, or toward? Who are the people in their lives who depend on them, and who's helping them?

If you can identify your most compelling characters and their motivations, you have an engine for your story. It will be easier to track and organize your reporting, and recognize important moments.


Good luck -- sounds like a great story.

 

Cut it to 10 and Gannett will take it.

 

This topic was dead on point for me as I just submitted the longest feature I've written to the magazine that employs me (mostly as an editor). Don't know how the inch count would translate, but it was 4,400 words.

I used as many of the suggestions as I could, and the process went amazingly well. It enabled me to write parts of the story and then go back and write the lead and put topics together.

Thanks again, guys.

 

I just wrote close to 4,500 words on a series about Utah Valley State College moving up to D-I. A lot of work and I wrote 5 stories instead of one large story with subheads. Came out okay, but once it's sent to the desk and out, you always think of more you could have done.

 

Would you tell me how you wrote 4,500 words on that topic?

What happens when a team moves up to D-1?