THE BLOG on THE WAR

The line, as I see it, for the war is people. There is conflict between what people know from text books (and a multitude of Tom Hanks films), and what really happened to people in the war.

This TV series is not about telling the facts and figures of the war; this series is about life for the average person in the war. This goes from men serving, mothers, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers. This film is telling the experience, not the event.

This is what the line is. This is how the story will unfold.

The creators must have known what the line was before they created it, because of how they got their information. They got all their footage, stories, and pictures from national archives, but also from people! They put ads in newspapers asking for people's pictures, film, medals, and stories. Then they honed it down to what they wanted to use--what they could use. This film expressed the war from the bottom up, so the creation had to also be from the bottom up. There were not war diaries from generals. There were pictures from families.

Observations turn to stories..

The observation I chose came from Jeremy D. He was in Chicago when he was doing his observation assignment, but I have noticed the same thing in Spfld.

Cigarette butts all over sidewalks

What I really got from the Tom Ashbrook story was the idea of the story as a diamond. Start a story, ask more questions, ask more questions, ask more questions, and then bring it on home again.

For this story on cigarette butts, I would start downtown. Talk to a local business owner who is having problems, or is at least angry about it. Then talk to the city sanitation department, see if they are doing anything to clean the sidewalks and streets. If yes, see how much money that costs. If no, see if anything is being done. The next question I would have is what does the beautifying Springfield group think about this whole issue? Are they trying to do anything about it. Where can I get rough numbers of how many people smoke on a Saturday night in Springfield? If sanitation does clean up, is that why taxes per pack are going up (I highly doubt it)? Talk to the tourism info, see if this is an issue with them at all. Then bring it all back home as a sanitation crew cleans up the mess, or the business owner does, or the butts just sit there as more and more people come outside to smoke.

Observe This!

Saturday night, as soon as I got off work, I had to go to my girlfriend's birthday party. It was toga themed. I had tons of homework to do the next day, and probably shouldn't have gone out at all. Still, I knew I had to attend so I took this unique opportunity to do my observations list. Besides being bombarded with questions of, "What the hell are you writing" I think it went pretty well.

1.) Punk Rockers stay in the kitchen
2.) They probably stay there because that's where the beer is
3.) Punk music means a lot of people singing along with the stereo
4.) Guys pump the keg for girls
5.) Guys are reluctant to pump the keg for other guys
6.) The best togas have leafy accessories.
7.) No one pays attention to their card game
8.) Brother's friends don't mingle well.
9.) Dancing mother's attract a crowd.
10.) "I'm wasted" becomes a substitute for conversation.
11.) The less attractive the girl, the skimpier the clothing
12.) When one smoker lights up, at least one more does too.
13.) The later it gets the more people smoke.
14.) Every time someone new enters the conversation switches
15.) Cameras cause guys to pose horribly.
16.) Cameras cause girls to look cute.
17.) People at toga parties make a lot of references to the movie, "300"
18.) Whenever my friend Ernie meets a new guy he tells a story about a fight he has been in.
19.) Whenever my friend Ernie meets a new girl he talks about his kids.
20.) The drunker the guys get the more touchy-feely they get with each other.
21.) The dogs look sad.
22.) Drunks cannot decide on a CD for more than two songs.
23.) People get a lot quieter as soon as they go outside.
24.) People seem to enjoy Steak-n'-Shake a lot more when drunk.
25.) Steak-n'-Shake seems to enjoy people a lot less when they are drunk.
26.) Theme parties are the best parties.

Suprises on SCI campus

Well, maybe I am just too easily entertained, but I think that suprise is all over the S.C.I. campus. The fact that Green Club is growing as a club and growing fast is amazing. Green Club fliers are everywhere. They are giving out green slushies today. They are having an event on saturday. This club that didn't exist last year is becoming one of the major (and best known) clubs on campus. I'm suprised by that.

The biggest suprise I have had this semester was with my interview with Rihab Mousa (whose name I am still having problems spelling). I interviewed here about the Dominican Sisters, and life in and out of Iraq. I was really suprised by what I expected to hear compared to what I heard. I expected a lot of heart strings pulled, and honestly, a pretty sappy interview. Once me and Rihab got to talking, I found out I was wrong. She is a very strong and straight talking woman. She gave me fantastic quotes and kept a strong demeanor the entire time. It spoke volumes about her character, which is much stronger than I expected.

This last part probably shouldn't have suprised me but it did. How easily one source can lead to another. From tlaking to Rihab, I really didn't hav ea whole story. Then she offered to get me in touch with some other Dominican's who are doing more peace keeping missions. I probably shouldn't have been suprised that people will help you out, if you go the right way with it, but I was.

Now, time for the suprise ending.

Tips for College Writers--or--Who am I to be Giving Advice

David Murray's basic Outline for the writing to a deadline process is:

Explore
Focus
Rehearse
Draft
Develop
Clarify

I suppose mine would look more like this:

Explore--Well, duh! You can't really write anything until you know what you are writing about.

Rehearse--Actually, until Murray wrote about, "writing away from the desk" I just thought I was lazy. I just thought that the ideas I would kick around in my head were useful starts, but didn't really do me any good away from a computer. After reading this chapter though, I realized that thinking about something is just as important (if not more so) than writing it. It's all about thought, you can only write after you have ideas.

I skipped the "Focus" step because that usually falls between the rehearse and the draft. It is either when I am thinking about what and how to write that I find the focus of my story. Sometimes it comes a little bit later as I draft a story and I realize that some of my ideas are superfluous.

Draft--And then, I write.

String it along--I suppose that this is much the same as Murray's "develop". Murray likes to develop his story into a true story. You got to make it move. My version is just going through the article to make sure it has flow. Always make sure to transition from graph to graph. You never want the reader to say, "how the hell did he get there?"

Edit--I hate editing.

Finally, and Murray says it to, the best advice ever:

How do you get to the Washington Post?
Practice Practice Practice


What did I get from David Arnold?

First, I like all of David's rules. I am not going to type them all out, but here are a few that I find more helpful than the others.

There's always a story in there somewhere

If the story's good, don't let the writing interfere.

Try for an action verb in the first sentence

Don't lead with a quote

Don't lead with a subordinate clause

use descriptive detail, but only what everyone would notice

Don't end your best quotes with an attribution.

I also liked When Arnold tells the reader to stretch out, and let the editor reign you in. I suppose since I am the writer, I will write how I see fit. If the editor doesn't like it I can change it, but if he does like it, then he liked my actual piece.

It was also good that he told us not to overwrite. Not that I usually find that a problem, anymore.

An Evening With David Mehegan

In this interview, David Mehegan gives the reader many strong points of advice. He tells begining writers to use strong verbs (hey, I am trying), to be trustworthy, and to be--above all--human. It was the human focus that first struck me. I was going to write about, "I try to write every story with such a voice and tone that the reader is aware that here is a person on this side of the keyboard." Thisis a great idea! Humanity from a newswriter, the concept never dawned on me that you could be reporter and person at the same time! I was so captivated by this idea that I started to soar out of my chair, but then I read this. "I also think we shoudl try to entertain whenever possible, to give good reading, using style and eyes for detail, without going so fatally overboard that we are attracting the reader's attention to us rather than to our story." Damn, he makes a good point, and my feet slowly came back down to the earth.

Balance. Oh, how easy it is to forget about balance. It is easy to write up a bare bones story with no voice and basic structure. It is easy to remove yourself from the facts, and have nothing human in your story. It makes for dry writing, but I was just saying that it was easy. (I should edit this to say easier and not easy, but I am not going to do that.) These are the kind of stories that I believe Mehegan is talking about when he says, "most stories read like they could have been written by a newswriting software package."

However, especially as a student, it is easy carried away with your own sense of self, that you forget why you started writing the article in the first place. You start thinking about getting noticed by someone, or writing an article that is so personal that any editor who ever sees it is going to hire you on the spot. That kind of writing has no place in a paper, and I fear will probably make every editor laugh, and throw away my portfolio.

Balance--One word. He never says it, and I may imagined this entire rant, but that's what I got out of this interview.

Donald Murray

Well, Doc wanted me to answer this question. Due to my love of passing his classes, I feel obliged to answer.

Donald Murray was 82 years old when he died. Is there anything in his last few columns that you can learn from in your own career as a professional writer?

I liked his style, but adapting someone's style to your own, just happens when you read thier work. Though I love his light conversation style, there is nothing to adapting such a style. What I truly learned from him, and I think I should try to integrate into my own life, I found in his obituary.

My parents and teachers got together and decided I was stupid," he wrote last year. "My response was to develop a private mantra: 'I'm stupid but I can come in early and stay late.' Surprise. It worked. Good work habits will beat talent every time."

I try to use this idea at work too. This is just a great mantra. Hopefully I have talent, but incase I don't I can still succeed as a writer.