A Serial Workshop: Day Four
Four Questions to Find Meaning
Faced with a daunting task—writing a deadline account of President Richard Nixon’s funeral—Washington Post reporter David Von Drehle did what more of us need to do. He stepped back and asked himself some tough questions.
1. Why does it matter?
2. What’s the point?
3. Why is this story being told?
4. What does it say about life, about the world, about the times we live in?
“Newspaper writing, especially on deadline, is so hectic and complicated—the fact-gathering, the phrase-finding, the inconvenience, the pressure—that it’s easy to forget the basics of storytelling,” Von Drehle wrote in an essay published in Best Newspaper Writing 1995. “Namely, what happened, and why does it matter?
Reporters in particular need to ask—and answer—those questions before they write their story. Again, I think freewriting often produces surprising insights and prose that while not perfect can be polished. More than once, I’ve seen reporters scribble answers that surprise their colleagues–and themselves–with their raw eloquence. Actually, I think everyone involved in a story should address them as well as part of every journalist’s search for meaning. Sometimes answers are elusive but the questions have to be addressed since those are the questions that readers and viewers bring to the news.
This technique is especially useful for reporters struggling to write a nut graf as well as those who are struggling with focus. When they finish answering the four questions, ask them, “What’s your story about—in one word?” The critical thinking that went into answering the four questions often brings them to a sharper understanding of their story’s theme
In a world overloaded with information, people are hungry for news stories that help them understand why the news matters. The reporter provides context and background and analysis that let readers and viewers understand why they should care about the news. If they don’t, people simply won’t tune in.
“We live in an age awash with information, but “Readers don’t just want random snatches of information flying at them from out of the ether,” Jack Fuller, president of Tribune Publishing, argues in his book News Values: Ideas for an Information Age. “They want information that hangs together, that makes sense, that has some degree of order to it. They want knowledge, rather than facts. And they want a little wisdom, perhaps.”
On your next story try answering Von Drehle’s four questions. You just may be able to deliver news that includes facts, knowledge, and perhaps, even a little wisdom.
Tomorrow: Five Boxes to Build a Story Fast
