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Introduction
- University of North Texas Press
- Chapter
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Introduction The Best American Newspaper Narratives of 2012 George Getschow In American literature, whether fiction or nonfiction, the best narratives capture the absurdities, the contradictions, the paradoxes, the sadnesses and the glories of everyday life in the poetry of everyday speech. The best American narratives arouse powerful feelings from deep inside us. When they fail, no matter how well-crafted the story, no matter how important the subject—readers stop reading because they expect to feel something. That’s why the best American narratives require deep thinking and sound planning. They can’t be reported or written in haste, on a tight deadline , with a snarky editor breathing down your neck. “Where’s the story Myrtle? Don’t you know we have a paper to put out?” Unlike most news and feature stories that appear in the daily editions of newspapers across America, stories that stick to a tried-and-true form, 2 TheBestAmericanNewspaperNarrativesof2012 if not a formula, narratives are in many ways formless. Young writers often ask me if there’s some kind of master plan, some method, for both discovering and constructing a great narrative. I tell them no. Narratives come in all forms, shapes and sizes. There are event-driven narratives, place-driven narratives, time-driven narratives, memory-driven narratives and many others. There’s no one model, one true form, that fits real world experiences. The only certainty, I tell young writers, is that in the end, their stories will almost never turn out as expected. Finding, shaping and forming a great narrative is always a great mystery. You have to fumble around in the dark, praying you’ll somehow stumble across a sympathetic character who arouses your curiosity, someone driven by a need, an obsession, a quest, a lofty ambition that’s likely to present them with mighty difficulties, but also the allure of achievement. Once you find her—say a beautiful young woman who wants to become a man—you know she is going to face a world of misery to achieve her ambition. You want to follow her journey, to see if she succeeds or fails. You’re not sure, exactly, what her story is all about, not yet anyway. Why is she doing this? How much pain and embarrassment can she tolerate going through the process? And if her transformation is successful, will he be accepted on the other side of the gender divide? Will he find happiness? As the days, weeks and months pass, your editor is growing increasingly nervous. You assure him you now know what the story is about; you’re just waiting for “the resolution,” some neat and tidy ending to the story. But as more weeks pass you realize that there is no neat and tidy ending, no “resolution” of your character’s problems, no solid answers to the questions you really wanted to know. Like life itself, because narratives mirror reality. The best endings, I tell young writers, leave the reader thinking about your character: What will happen to her? Will she ever escape her troubles? Will the character who is now a he ever realize his quest, the thing he said he wanted more than [3.95.2.54] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 09:12 GMT) The Best American Newspaper Narratives of 2012 3 anything in the world? Only Hollywood, I tell them, produces neat and tidy endings. *** Yet while there’s no exact formula or form for telling great nonfiction narratives, there are things they all have in common. The best nonfiction narratives have a distinct attitude, an unmistakable tone, like the clink of a wine glass. That tone might be harsh, humorous, sarcastic, sweet, bitter or a combination of these. A narrative exploring a married woman’s unrequited need for romance, for example, might well start out with a humorous tone before the woman succumbs to temptation and tragedy takes over, laying hold of her, her husband, and her lover. The best nonfiction narratives have a clear time line, a chronology in which the story unfolds, tension and conflict arises, causing trouble for a character but pleasure for readers, who can only wonder, “What will happen next?” The chronology is usually linear, but sometimes the writer will deliberately play with chronology to create suspense or some other dramatic effect. But the best nonfiction narratives never alter reality in a way that makes the story untruthful or unreliable. The best nonfiction narratives transform place and landscape into a gritty, deeply felt force that...