Is This A Good Candidate For A Non-Fiction Story?
If you're like me we both want to do the same thing--write powerful non-fiction stories that tear the heart, boil the blood, and turn into award-winning films that make the writer rich and admired. Now here's a story (see above link) that seemingly would work. A talented 13 year old black pitcher for a Little League team, previously unbeaten, gets knocked off by a team with a 1 and 6 record. Afterward, a 15 year old white player from the winning team teases the 13 year old player at the refreshment stand, whereupon the 13 year old kid pulls out an aluminum baseball bat and beats the older kid to death.
A tragedy? Certainly. But also one that is certain to catch the interest of most readers (as the editors of the LA Times instinctively understand when they put the story on the front page.) Now here's the question. Where do you go with a story like that? How can you, as a non-ficion story teller, come up with something from that which will be read and admired years from now? What's the silver lining? How does a story like this satisfy emotionally and intellectually? What's the moral of the story (without which you ought not to write anything at all)?
You can't just say, "Okay, something horrific happened and therefore it's automatically a good story." What's so great about the suxffering of two families, one of whom lost a son and the other of whom has a boy in jail for murder? Is there any way to tell a story like this that can possibly make the story seem to end "right?"
I'm not suggesting you can't write a story that ends in tragedy. As we all know from the Greeks, some of the best stories are tragic ones. But to make a story work there has to be something in the lives of these boys that makes their ends (one in jail, the other in the grave) seem inevitable.
Did the white boy do something in the recent past for which he deserved to be punished? Did the black kid have a history of flying off the handle at the slighest provocation? Did the kid's coach suggest before the game that the 13 year old pitcher should have no problem whatsoever with a 1 and 6 team?
The racial angle here is intriguing. Six months ago, several black basketball players were suspsended for running into the stands and beating up white fans. Is this a variation on that? A black kid who has never been taught to control his aggression? Or thinks that when the issue at hand is racial he really has no need to?
(continued... )
Archives
A tragedy? Certainly. But also one that is certain to catch the interest of most readers (as the editors of the LA Times instinctively understand when they put the story on the front page.) Now here's the question. Where do you go with a story like that? How can you, as a non-ficion story teller, come up with something from that which will be read and admired years from now? What's the silver lining? How does a story like this satisfy emotionally and intellectually? What's the moral of the story (without which you ought not to write anything at all)?
You can't just say, "Okay, something horrific happened and therefore it's automatically a good story." What's so great about the suxffering of two families, one of whom lost a son and the other of whom has a boy in jail for murder? Is there any way to tell a story like this that can possibly make the story seem to end "right?"
I'm not suggesting you can't write a story that ends in tragedy. As we all know from the Greeks, some of the best stories are tragic ones. But to make a story work there has to be something in the lives of these boys that makes their ends (one in jail, the other in the grave) seem inevitable.
Did the white boy do something in the recent past for which he deserved to be punished? Did the black kid have a history of flying off the handle at the slighest provocation? Did the kid's coach suggest before the game that the 13 year old pitcher should have no problem whatsoever with a 1 and 6 team?
The racial angle here is intriguing. Six months ago, several black basketball players were suspsended for running into the stands and beating up white fans. Is this a variation on that? A black kid who has never been taught to control his aggression? Or thinks that when the issue at hand is racial he really has no need to?
(continued... )
May 2004 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 December 2005 January 2006 July 2013 June 2014 July 2014 August 2014 September 2019
