The Power of Words. What does it take to produce a serial narrative?

12/10/97
What does it take to produce a serial narrative?

NOTE: The Power of Words was delayed from publication on Wednesday, Dec. 3 because of unexpected problems.

       What does it take to produce a serial narrative? After the Providence Journal-Bulletin in March 1997 produced a six-part serial, Willie's Nightmare, a group of reporters and editors spent an hour discussing the story form. Some of the players: Bob Wyss, the writer; Jean Plunkett, the story editor; Tom Heslin, metropolitan editor; Lynn Arditi, moderator; and other writers and editors at the newspaper.
       The issue is timely. The Providence Journal began publication of a 32-part serial narrative, The Family Way, by Maria Miro Johnson on Sunday, Nov. 30. It can be found daily at projo.com.
       Lynn Arditi: Serials are different from a series. They tend to be longer, and they're structured differently from a large Sunday story. Bob Wyss, at his own initiative, proposed doing a series about a gas-station owner who learned that his business was a potential time bomb. The challenge was to get the reader to tomorrow's story, and then the next day's. A series has the potential to make us better writers, to develop drama, character, narrative to pull readers along. How do you feel about a series as opposed to a one-shot story? What stories lend themselves to serialization? What stories don't work? How can we tell the difference?
       Bob: The background on how the idea came about: I had wanted to do a serial for years. I thought I had to have a tremendous, great story idea to do it. I could never find the great story to make the concept work. Roy Peter Clark, of the Poynter Institute, got me thinking about it again. He did really short stories, and he said you should be able to read each story (in his 29-part series, "Three Little Words'') in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee, get the readers in and out, every day.
       I heard about Willie DeCesare (the gas-station owner, whose tanks had been leaking gasoline). I interviewed his lawyer. I said, This will be a good Sunday story. Finally, I had enough reporting done to try and pull an outline together. I had a day-one story, and an outline for the other five days. That outline really did hold up. I might have been too rigid in doing the outline.
       You have to have a story with one dominant theme or person every day. As the series progressed, it became more complex. I had to get some of the bureaucracy in there.
       Editor Tom Heslin: We should always strive to let the content dictate the form. Great journalism begins with that premise. Then you move to the nature of what a story is: a sequence of actions that occur when sympathetic character confronts complex situations that he solves. (Citing Jon Franklin, a writer now at the University of Oregon)
       As to Willie: it's a biblical story, and the great thing is that it really happened. A character who is sympathetic from the outset. Facing a complicating situation that he confronts. Things happen to him. It's Homeric.
       Why a series? Number one, it's a great way to tell stories that have "little guy'' characters, and when there are a series of complications. It has all kinds of value to our readers, who want to be surprised, who want something different. They come to the newspaper for diversion, to kill some time and have a little fun. It's a way to have someone read newspapers today and come back the next day, which is good for newspapers. We should be open to 16-page sections of stories and photos, and poems about downed trees, and serialization.
       Story Editor Jean Plunkett: We got incredible reader reaction, both to the story itself and to the fact that we did a serial. It's important to keep the stories short, and to have that tension (so that the readers are eager) to find out what happens.
       Putting the package together was tricky because you couldn't give away the punch line. The photo captions couldn't steal the thunder.
       I encouraged Bob to leave out some things. Some issues about Willie's life we left out because they were not crucial to the story.
       A Writer: Did people recognize it as a serial?
       Bob: Most responses -- there were 100 -- had to do with Willie. A minority had to do with the serial. Most loved it. One woman ran out to get the paper specifically to spend some time (with this story). She said the stories were not long enough. Others said: Why are you doing this? You just want to sell papers. Why not make it a Sunday story? You're ruining the paper.
       Tom: We would like to sell papers. About 18 papers (around the country) have done things viewed as serialization. What's new is the shorter stories. The first one (in the recent wave) was about a guy who died of AIDS. People were coming out in the morning and waiting for the delivery trucks to get that story. There can be value in our audience for this material. Also, (Bob's) story had some value: a debate behind this about environmental regulations and corporate responsibility.
       A Writer: Are you assuming people are reading this through? Many may not have read the first day.
       Bob: It's easier with a six-part series than 30. I went into it with the idea that we don't have to write any precede (each day). You'd be able to get in and understand the story. After we got (first story ready), Jean and I got into a long debate about whether to use an italic precede about what happened every day. I argued: let the story tell itself. I did prevail.
       Jean: I believe that in any story, you have to bring the reader (along). And I think you did it in the writing without any precede.
       A Writer: If you start trying to compensate for readers who missed a day, you spoil the story for (the ones who've been following it). It's a question of executing the form.
       An Editor: Once you've acknowledged that this is a different form, you can't worry, in day 15, day 20, about people who might have missed day 2. Most of our writers have the ability to make things clear without having to recapitulate everything.
       Lynn: You might not know every piece of historic detail, but you know there's a crisis. Every story's got to have some tension and a beginning, middle and end -- like any story.
       Tom: We can't afford to have (lots) of background for nine paragraphs. You can hear the papers going down. Every story has to have tension, and be able to stand alone.
       Jean: I felt you were there in the first paragraph every time. I wanted it to be as spare as possible.
       Bob: Do you need to have a sympathetic character? Do you need a positive outcome? People were waiting for a happy ending. (They would call and ask him what was going to happen at the end of the series.) I thought: You guys are in for a big fall.
       Jean: He wasn't a pure victim. People never are. Bob didn't gloss over (Willie's flaws). Willie in part knew what he was getting into. (The station had leaking tanks when he purchased it; perhaps he knew this.)
       A Writer: What are the guidelines for a good story for a series?
       An Editor: What's the distinction between a serial and a series? [Note that the terms had been used interchangeably up to this point in the discussion.]
       Jean: I think a serial has to have much more tension. It has to be tension-filled every day.
       A Writer: Series tend to be very long. The beauty of the serial thing is you can hit it. (Bob's) is almost chapter-like.
       An Editor: People have followed The Days of Our Lives for 30 years. The Miami Herald had weekly installments of a novel about life in South Florida. I wonder if there's room to print a serial of that kind that would reflect life in a different way: fiction.
       A Writer: I don't think fiction belongs in the newspaper.
       A Writer: You could give each chapter to the next person. You don't have to know how it's going to end.
       Lynn: The only series I've written took three issues. It had no narrative plot. A series can be an issue story. To me, a serial has to have narrative, it has to have plot.
       Tom: The answer is in being willing to aggressively and with an open mind work to identify what is the structure for this story. Our first mission is to be fair and accurate. As we do our framing and design our approach to stories, the bottom line is we are a source of vital importance for accurate information. You can't tamper with that fundamental mission. But we have to find the best ways to tell stories. I will talk to you about any approach to anything. That's a challenge to say: let's work at this. What's the best approach for that material?
       Readers are telling us they don't have time.
       Jean: They (serials) need to be plot-driven. We didn't need to know much about him (Willie). We need to know what happened to him.
       A Writer: You could do what Bob did and put it in the can. The next time I write 100 inches in a story and have more to say, I'll say: I'll do it over 15 days.
       Tom: The thing that's on the table is short. Think of the reader. If it's a long chapter, I'll get back to it later on. In the world you work in, people are shopping for investments of time as they scan through the newspaper. Those little fillers, they're gone.
       An Editor: Sometimes you want the writing short.
       Tom: It is working with material to find the right form.
       Lynn, Quoting Mencher: An effective news-story lede meets two requirements: it captures the essence, and cajoles the reader to stay awhile. That's what we're talking about with serials.

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