Hard news, features

and narrative
writing
Julien Gorbach, Ph.D.
Our path: from
news to features to
beyond …
STORY STRUCTURE
“Soft news” or
“Hard news” Feature news”
THE INVERTED PYRAMID
In other words …
 Narrative
storytelling
Rising action
…
Variations,
like “in
media res”:
 Narrative storytelling: Key terms

Characters: do things, drive
narrative.
Narrative: Characters do one
thing, and then another. The
writer’s recounting of that
sequence creates the narrative.
Plot: That’s something Story: Narrative + Plot = Story
different.
A plot emerges when a writer carefully
selects and arranges material so that
larger meaning can emerge.
A plot is a series of events deliberately
arranged so as to reveal their dramatic,
thematic and emotional significance.
Plot is the “why.”

Narrative: The king died and then the queen died.

Plot: The king died and then the queen died of grief.
— EM Forester
 • Complications: “In literature, only trouble is interesting.” — Janet Burroway
Your protagonist, in other words, needs a problem. Why pay attention to a
character who is content, who has no reason to act, no challenge to meet, nothing
to teach us about coping with the world?
• Any problem constitutes a complication, but only certain complications justify a story. But: Not every
problem has to have life or death consequences.

Narrative • Motivation: Another way to think about complications is in terms of human wants.
Once somebody realizes he or she wants something and sets out to get it, he sets a
potential story in motion.

storytelling: • “Inciting incident”: The event that sets the whole story in motion.
• “Value charge”: refers to the degree to which a character is up or down relative to

Essential the ultimate goal of resolving the complication. In a survival yarn, the protagonist
may fall into icy water, a mishap that sends his value charge plunging. That’s worth
a scene. When he snares a rabbit and eats it, his value charge climbs, and that’s
Elements worth a scene, too.
• “Archplots” vs. “anti-plots”: We learn something from characters who solve their
own problems and create their own destinies. Versus: Protagonist as mere victim,
someone buffeted by forces beyond his control.
• Sympathetic character: That doesn’t mean you can’t write bad guys, of course. You
just don’t want to make them your protagonists.
• Do you agree or disagree?