Tag: writing a fictional news story

Getting It Right: This Just In: Writing News Copy into Your Fiction, Part 2

Author Lynne Cantwell
Author Lynne Cantwell

Last time, we talked about writing print news stories – the kind you would find in your morning newspaper.  Today we’ll talk about how broadcast copy is different, and why.

Write for the ear:  I have a confession.  While I was writing my fake Sotheby’s story for the last installment, I was wincing.  No, actually, it was worse than that.  As I typed that hard news lede, every fiber of my being was screaming, “NONONONO!  This sentence is too damned LONG!”  That’s because, in broadcast news stories, the shorter your sentence is, the better.  Keep in mind that someone is supposed to be reading your words aloud.  If the sentence is too long, the news anchor will have to pause partway through it and take a breath – and guaranteed, he’ll breathe in the wrong place and screw up the flow.  So do yourself a favor and keep your sentences to between ten and 20 words.

You’re absolutely right – 20 words is not very many, and ten will hardly get you started (especially if you interview some self-important person whose title is five or six words long, but I digress).  That’s why you must stick to subject-verb-object sentence construction.  Any subordinate clause needs its own sentence. Continue reading “Getting It Right: This Just In: Writing News Copy into Your Fiction, Part 2”

Getting It Right: Stop the Presses: Writing News Copy into Your Fiction, Part 1

Author Lynne Cantwell
Author Lynne Cantwell

It happens sometimes: Your main character needs a vital piece of information that can only come from a third-party source. So you slip it into a newspaper story, or you put it into the mouth of a TV or radio reporter. There’s nothing wrong with that. But please note that writing credible journalistic prose means following some conventions – conventions that you would do well to follow, if you want to keep your journalist readers from howling, or sobbing brokenly, or reaching for the hooch. Or all three.

I worked as a broadcast journalist for 20 years, including a few years at the network level, before I quit the business and got a real job. I’ve distilled that experience into some pointers on how to make news stories in your novel more realistic.

Writing for broadcast is a little different from writing for print, but the principles behind both are the same. Let’s talk about those principles in the context of newspaper copy first. Continue reading “Getting It Right: Stop the Presses: Writing News Copy into Your Fiction, Part 1”