Claudio Sanchez  On Writing


SUMMARY LEADS: CAPTIVATE THEIR ATTENTION

When I first got here [to NPR], having had background more so in print journalism than writing for broadcast, the whole idea of using sound became really a way to explore how to attract a listener to your story. So it made me rethink what a summary lead was, what a first sentence of a story should be. Because it made me aware that in order to get people to listen, you had to really say something that just piqued their interest. You really had to struggle. Certainly in complicated stories. For the most basic, the most fundamental question in a story. The most intriguing aspect of a story, and reduce it to a sentence, or to a paragraph at the very least. Preferable in broadcast news, certainly at NPR, there's always a need to get that very early on, as early as an introduction that's by a show host. And then to segue into your story for the details of this compelling issue or story or person that will attract that listener. Or will at least captivate some attention, so that that person who's either in your car, or your kitchen, or in your office, stays with you. As long as you would like, and then, hopefully have them learn something from this story. So I guess, getting back to your question, a summary lead really takes on very different definitions in broadcast. In the way we write for broadcast.

PARAPHRASING, TRANSITIONS, AND CUTTING WONDERFUL QUOTES

Paraphrasing comes in when you know that you can't fit in all of the tape that you think is great. And we all have that dilemma here, that we find ourselves having to cut wonderful things out of people's tape. But we try and use whatever that tape is going to tell you, and add it to your writing. I seldom just write something out of wholesale, something that I came up with. But rather listen to a tape, and when I'm logging, I write down the best transition in and out of a particular interview, or a particular piece of tape is. And I find myself grabbing and taking the same words, the same thoughts of this person and wave it, here she was continuing into this thought, and writing with my style, and adding to that interview, by essentially just taking what these people would have said, and adding it to my own writing style. And it makes for a greater transition, a better way to segue into the next point you want to make, or the next interview you want to introduce. I guess a better way to say this, I find people that I interview almost writing pieces for me sometimes.