Five Stages of a Story

Idea Report Organize Draft Revise

Michael Roberts

Prose is architecture, not interior decorating.

-- Ernest Hemingway

Idea Report Organize Draft Revise

Focus

Why focus?

Choose a suitable design and hold to it. A basic structural design underlies every kind of writing. Writing, to be effective, must follow closely the thoughts of the writer, but not necessarily in the order in which those thoughts occur. This calls for a scheme or procedure…planning must be a deliberate prelude to writing. The first principle of composition, therefore, is to foresee or determine the shape of what is to come and pursue that shape.

-- William Strunk, E.B. White, The Elements of Style

Artful and impeccable use of the language is less important in storytelling than you think. A well-shaped idea, convincing illustration and interpretation of it, and sound story structure count for more. Lacking these, the writer who follows all the instructions on fine-tuning his prose in all the book’s extant will produce a well-written failure.

-- William Blundell, The Art and Craft of Feature Writing

Perhaps the central step in the writing process, focus gives a story unity and coherence. Most stories should be about one thing. The writer should understand and capture the heart of the story and offer it to the reader. Focus determines what to toss out as well as what to include. Many problems, especially disorganization, result when stories lack focus. Writers and editors search for focus by using a variety of tools; writing the lead, coming up with a headline, making a list of the most important points in the story, and developing a theme or point statement.

-- Roy Peter Clark, Don Fry, Coaching Writers

The most important thing in the story is finding the central idea. It’s the one thing to be given a topic, but you have to find the idea or the concept within that topic. Once you have that idea or thread, all the other anecdotes, illustrations and quotes are pearls that hang on this thread. The thread may seem very humble, the pearls may seem very flashy, but it’s still the thread that makes the necklace.

-- Thomas Boswell, Washington Post

By the way, when you’re telling these little stories, here’s a good idea: Have a POINT! It makes it so much more interesting for the listener.

-- Neal Page (Steve Martin) to Del Griffith (John Candy), Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Five Stages of a Story

Idea Report Organize Draft Revise

Tasks

IDEA: Identify a central question or premise.

REPORT: Gather enough information to answer the question or test the premise.

ORGANIZE: Determine the point of the story, the central theme, and plan the story around that central focus.

DRAFT: With plan in hand, write the story.

REVISE: Revise for clarity and precision, guided by the central focus.

Developing ideas

Story mapping: Map the story idea as a web. Lay out all aspects of the idea. Select the most important part of the “map” as the focus of the story and the reporting to come.

Central question: Identify the central question at the heart of your story idea. Then set out to answer that question.

Premise: Frame your idea as premise (rather than a fact) and set out to prove or disprove the premise. Remain open-minded as the reporting progresses.

Developing ideas

Point of view: Write your topic or question in the middle of a circle. Around the circle list all the people with a connection to the story. Decide which person’s point of view might be the best way to report and tell the story.

Reader questions: Ask five questions a reader would ask about the topic. Set out to answer those five questions.

Five whys: Ask “why” five times. Each “why” should take you deeper into the topic and closer to the central question or central premise.

Organizing stories

Story mapping: Re-map the story with all the information accumulated through reporting. If using a specific point of view, re-map the story with the selected point of view at the center.

Theme statement: In a sentence or two, express the central point of your story, the heart of your story. This can be the answer to your central question or a restatement of the central premise. Use the theme statement to help determine what material stays in the story, what is left out.

Organizing stories

Jot outline: List key points in the order they will appear in the story. Consider story focus, length and packaging.

Story forms: Select a story form that will help shape the story. Consider inverted pyramid, block, wine glass or layer cake forms.

Jot outline

New state proficiency tests

•  Overview on why, schedule, problems

•  Why the new tests

•  Schedule; requirements for passing

•  Problems for schools to administer

1: LEAD / OVERVIEW 8”:

• Across the country NCLB prompts what

• Meanwhile in AZ – along with others – what happens

• As result, AZ scores now show… and deadline to fix pushed back 4 years (preview chunk 2)

• As a result AZ financial burden is what… who wins or loses re schools (preview chunk 4)

• Arizona’s story is a tale of what (how/who did this)…(preview chunk 5)

• And Arizona’s story shows how WHAT re NCLB nationally, and will play out with real people (preview chunk 3 and 5)

2: SCORES

• NCLB is all about accountability, which is scores and deadlines, with loss of $$ as the stick

• AZ, like other states, was facing big failure rates and big costs as result of measuring stick

• AZ, like others, changed the measuring stick by arguing what??

• Along the way, they also changed the deadline for completing this diluted improvement

3: TWO EXAMPLES

• Two key examples of change in measuring stick

4: FINANCIAL IMPACT

• AZ, like other states, was looking at big $$ to meet NCLB criteria

• New measurement means costs have dropped

• New measurement shifts where money will go to narrow group schools

5: A YEAR INTO NCLB LEAVES US WHERE

• Across the country this process has played out. Good for states. How for people?

• Examples of what this means at school/people level overall

• Comment from people who pulled this off, as well as people affected

1: LEAD / OVERVIEW 8”:

• Across the country NCLB prompts what

• Meanwhile in AZ – along with others – what happens

• As result, AZ scores now show… and deadline to fix pushed back 4 years (preview chunk 2)

• As a result AZ financial burden is what… who wins or loses re schools (preview chunk 4)

• Arizona’s story is a tale of what (how/who did this)…(preview chunk 5)

• And Arizona’s story shows how WHAT re NCLB nationally, and will play out with real people (preview chunk 3 and 5)

2: SCORES

• NCLB is all about accountability, which is scores and deadlines, with loss of $$ as the stick

• AZ, like other states, was facing big failure rates and big costs as result of measuring stick

• AZ, like others, changed the measuring stick by arguing what??

• Along the way, they also changed the deadline for completing this diluted improvement

Story forms

Inverted Pyramid

Most important information

Next most important

Less important

Less important

Least important

Block

Overview / Central point

Sub-point 1

Sub-point 2

Sub-point 3

Summary

Layer Cake

Scene Background

Scene Background

Scene Background

Scene Background

Scene

Layer Cake (3 – 2)

Scene Background

Scene Background

Scene

Wine Glass

Summary of entire story Begins at the end Segues to start

Start Next Next Next Next

Ending / Kicker

Alternative Story Forms

Formatted text

Grids

Annotated photos / maps

Timelines

Q&As

Charticle

Lists

Quizzes

Worksheets

Timelines

Photo stories

Glossaries

Exercise

Focus & frame your stories

Idea Report Organize Draft Revise

Story forms: Block, Layer Cake, Wine Glass