Blog Post #2

In the first two chapters from Tompkins, there were important aspects of storytelling brought up. 

Chapter one was titled “Aim for the Heart”, where the acronym F.A.I.T.H was discussed as a tool to use for storytelling. F.A.I.T.H was started by a television news director and general manager, Mike Kettenring and stands for: fair, accurate, interesting, thorough, human. Also discussed in the chapter was the difference between fact-telling and story-telling, because there is a need for a mix of both in journalism. In TV today there is often criticism that there is more story-telling than fact-telling. Tompkins addresses this in the chapter, as it was stated that producers and TV reporters often protest, “We do TV. You can’t be compelling and factual in a minute and 20 seconds.” Tompkins denies this and mentions the likes of Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Dorothy Parker learning their crafts by writing short stories due to the challenge that comes with mixing fact-telling and story-telling in a low-number count. 

Tompkins also discusses how in almost all levels of writing, from elementary school through being a professional writer and everything between, finding and aiming for the heart of the story is important. Good writing was described by Tompkins as, “… process of selecting, not compressing, what goes into our stories.” This means selecting the important information and highlighting that instead of getting caught on less important details of a story. The chapter was ended by emphasizing the importance in using soundbites that connect to the viewers’ heart. An example given was when a soldier comes home, using soundbites that showed the audience the true emotions of the soldier’s family who awaited their return. 

Chapter two was more focused on shaping a story, the order of the content, rather than the actual content itself. The first piece of advice given was about giving readers a surprise. Tompkins tied together the importance of giving a surprise and reaching the viewers heart, stating, “You reach the viewer’s heart by sneaking up on it.” Which means that in writing or on-air, you want to constantly give the viewer/reader a “gold coin” moment to ensure they stay interested. There was also a basic story-telling structure given for writers looking to put together a quick-story:

• Once upon a time, setting
• Suddenly, the complication
• Fortunately, the resolution
• As it turns out, the closing/summary

The structure given in the chapter allows for a writer to include all of the aspects that keep viewers and readers interested and informed. The components of this structure can also be flipped around, with the “As it turns out” component, jumping to the front of the structure. 

The emphasis on structure at every level of news-presentation, including sentences, was discussed in the chapter. Sentences should hold their most important pieces of information at the end. This means having things such as death, great success and other important details of news should be the end of sentences, as they will cause the reader to have it on their mind going into the statement that follows. 

Chapters one and two of Tompkins highlighted the two most important parts of telling a good story, having facts that interest and inform viewers/readers, and structuring it in a way that does the same.