Shonell in TCR Land

From reading chapter 6, “Narrative Theory” in Writing for the Internet (Baehr & Schaller):

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"Sight, sound, and motion added to bad writing might entertain some readers, but it will not translate into effective storytelling." ~Samuel D. Bradley

[Makes me think about what we read in regards to news writing in new media. It's not about tossing in every form of new media AND the kitchen sink to tell a story; it's about having the skills and understanding of the form of writing you're working in and applying the new media tools that BEST illustrate, develop that story -- whether a news story or a fictional story.]

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Narrative:

• passes down stories across thousands of years
• adds considerable muscle to the human cognitive arsenal
• intensifies emotional experience

[Sometimes, it's not about the stories we are told, but about the stories that an image, a piece of music, a video triggers within us. We are story-constructing machines. For example, let's take my reading of the "Narrative Theory" chapter. Sure, I'm taking notes and highlighting as Bradley discusses and I am remembering the "story." However, another story develops as well. It's the story of a student, let's call her Shonell. She's

taking an Internet Writing course, and she has a paper due in less than a month. As she reads the chapter and takes notes, ideas for a paper begin to converge, and she has to take a moment to leave the book and write out these ideas. The temporal sequencing of the "story" within the book sparks the reader of a "story" of her own: the story of developing a paper idea. It's almost as if story begets story.]

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"As an online writer, it is important to understand your goals for your writing." ~ Samuel D. Bradley

[That goes for ALL writers, which harkens back to understanding basic writing forms and having the skills to write in that form. From the Freshman Composition class, to the author penning her next novel to the new media news writer, without a goal, a purpose to your writing, the writing will be a disheveled mess.]

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Bradley, on page 87, talks about viewers' thoughts upon seeing both a broadcast news story being told chronologically and in traditional broadcast form. Viewers recalled slightly more information from the chronological stories, and their memories were significantly more accurate for news they had seen chronologically. I'm sure the chronological view helped, but I also wonder if the cutting of a story has any bearings on this remembrance. There has been many times when I watched the news and was terribly put off with what seemed like an unfinished story. I suspected the story was probably cut and with the less significant material (to the station) at the end of the story, that is what was cut. To the station and to the news media in general, least significant isn't that important, but to viewers who are used to chronological stories, to having a beginning, middle, and ending, there can be an abruptness to these "cut" stories that is frustrating; that frustration can keep you from remembering a lot about that story.

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2 Types of Memory

• Non-declarative - involves things such as muscle memory that cannot be readily verbalized
• Declarative -- more interesting for the online writer - involves the things we talk about: facts, lists, and episodes of our lives.

2 Types of Declarative Memory

• Semantic - the isolated facts that reside somewhere in your brain
• Episodic - tied to a specific event (it's not just a series of disconnected facts but rather a narrative woven together in time)

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"If you want your message to be well remembered, it needs to include a narrative component."

[Can do nothing but agree with this.]