How to Write Your True Crime Story
Summary
TLDRThe video script outlines a method for crafting true crime stories, emphasizing the distinction between journalistic and narrative non-fiction styles. It suggests focusing on the 'who, what, when, where, why, and how' of the crime. For journalistic writing, an inverted pyramid approach is recommended, prioritizing crucial information upfront. In contrast, narrative non-fiction delves deeper into character development, motives, and scene setting. The script introduces a five-box framework to organize the story's elements, from the lead to the kicker, guiding students to create engaging and impactful true crime narratives.
Takeaways
- π The goal is to write a true crime story, which can be approached either journalistically or in a narrative non-fiction style.
- π Both styles aim to provide the 'five Ws and H': who, what, when, where, why, and how, but differ in their approach and language use.
- π° Journalistic style is more objective and fact-focused, using succinct language and following the inverted pyramid model where the most important information is upfront.
- π Narrative non-fiction style delves into character development, motives, and uses more imagery and scene setting to build suspense and interest.
- 𧩠The story structure can be built using five 'boxes' to organize information: lead, nut graph, new image/detail, supporting material, and kicker.
- π The 'nut graph' summarizes the story, answers why it matters, and provides the impact and timeliness of the story.
- π Different types of leads are suggested for both journalistic and narrative styles, such as straight news leads, observational leads, anecdotal leads, scene-setting leads, and zinger leads.
- π¨ The narrative style uses descriptive language to paint a vivid picture, focusing on character and setting, while journalistic style is straightforward and fact-based.
- π Research is key, and students are encouraged to use true crime resources to gather information on their chosen crime or criminal.
- π The script instructs students to bullet point their findings and organize them into the five boxes to create an instant outline for their story.
- π The next class will focus on organizing the story, deciding whether to focus more on the crime itself, the context, the community, the victims, or the perpetrator.
Q & A
What are the two main approaches to writing a true crime story mentioned in the script?
-The two main approaches mentioned are a journalistic approach and a narrative non-fiction style approach.
What are the key elements that should be included in a true crime story, regardless of the writing style?
-The key elements to include are the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the crime, the criminal, and the victims.
How does the language style differ between journalistic and narrative non-fiction in true crime writing?
-Journalistic writing is more objective and focused on facts, being succinct and less flowery with language. Narrative non-fiction uses more imagery, character development, and scene setting to build interest and suspense.
What is the inverted pyramid model in journalistic writing, and how does it apply to true crime stories?
-The inverted pyramid model places the most important information at the beginning of the story, ensuring that even if a reader stops halfway, they have received the most crucial details.
What are the five boxes used to structure a true crime story, and what information should be placed in each box?
-The five boxes are: 1) Lead - initial image or detail to draw readers in, 2) Nut graph - summary of the story and its relevance, 3) New image or detail - a shift in the story that resembles the lead, 4) Supporting material - additional information to flesh out the story, and 5) Kicker - a strong closing image or emotion to leave a lasting impact.
What is a 'nut graph' in the context of writing, and why is it important?
-A 'nut graph' is a section of a story that sums up the main points, answers the 'so what' question, and provides the impact and relevance of the story to the reader.
How does the script suggest developing characters in a narrative non-fiction true crime story?
-Characters should be developed by focusing on who they are, what is known about them, and their motivations and actions within the context of the crime.
What is the purpose of the 'kicker' in a true crime story, and how does it differ between journalistic and narrative styles?
-The 'kicker' is meant to leave a strong emotional impact or memorable image with the reader. In journalistic style, it's a factual statement, while in narrative style, it's a more detailed and evocative image or quote.
What types of leads are suggested for journalistic and narrative styles in true crime writing?
-For journalistic style, straight news leads, observational leads, and anecdotal leads are suggested. For narrative style, scene-setting leads and zinger leads are more appropriate.
How should a writer research and prepare to write their own true crime story according to the script?
-A writer should research their chosen crime or criminal, bullet point the who, what, when, where, why, and how, and create their own five boxes with quotes and statistics to build an outline.
Outlines
π Crafting a True Crime Story: Approaches and Techniques
This paragraph introduces the task of writing a true crime story and outlines two primary approaches: journalistic and narrative non-fiction. It emphasizes the importance of providing the five Ws and an H (who, what, when, where, why, and how) in the storytelling. The paragraph distinguishes between journalistic writing, which is more objective and fact-focused, and narrative non-fiction, which delves into character development, motives, and uses more imagery. It also explains the inverted pyramid model typical of journalistic writing, where the most crucial information is presented upfront, contrasting it with the more story-driven, suspense-building narrative style.
π Structuring the True Crime Narrative with Five Essential Boxes
Paragraph 2 delves into the structure of a true crime story, introducing a method using five 'boxes' to organize information. The first box is for the lead, which should be engaging and set the tone for the story. The second box contains the 'nut graph,' explaining the story's relevance and impact. The third box introduces new details or a turning point in the narrative, while the fourth box provides additional information to flesh out the story. The final box is for the 'kicker,' a strong closing element that leaves a lasting impression on the reader. The paragraph also discusses different types of leads suitable for journalistic and narrative styles, such as straight news leads, observational leads, anecdotal leads, scene-setting leads, and zinger leads, providing examples for each.
π¬ Applying Research to Build a Compelling True Crime Outline
The final paragraph focuses on applying the learned techniques to one's own writing. It encourages students to use true crime resources to research a crime or criminal of their interest, and to bullet point the essential elements (who, what, when, where, why, and how). The paragraph guides students to create their own five boxes with quotes, statistics, and other information for each part of the story, from the lead to the kicker. It sets the stage for the next class, where students will explore how to organize their story, focusing on either the crime itself, its context, the community, the victim(s), or the perpetrator.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘True Crime
π‘Journalistic Approach
π‘Narrative Non-Fiction
π‘Inverted Pyramid Model
π‘Character Development
π‘Chronology
π‘Setting
π‘Motive
π‘Lead
π‘Nut Graph
π‘Kicker
Highlights
The goal is to write a true crime story, which can be approached either journalistically or through narrative non-fiction.
Regardless of style, the story should provide the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the crime.
Journalistic style focuses on objectivity and facts, while narrative style delves into character development and scene setting.
Narrative non-fiction relies more on imagery and building suspense, even in true crime stories.
Journalistic writing follows an inverted pyramid model, prioritizing the most important information upfront.
Narrative style focuses on character development, action, chronology, setting, motive, and narrative description.
Five boxes are suggested for structuring the story: lead, nut graph, new image/detail, supporting material, and kicker.
Leads can vary in style, including straight news, observational, anecdotal, scene setting, and zinger leads.
The nut graph sums up the story, answering why it matters and why the reader should care.
New image or detail serves as a transition, resembling the lead and drawing readers into the narrative.
Supporting material provides necessary information to round out and flesh out the story.
The kicker is a strong closing element that leaves a lasting impression on the reader.
Journalistic leads tend to be straightforward, focusing on the essential facts of the crime.
Narrative leads often involve storytelling elements to engage the reader and set the scene.
The nut graph in journalism is brief and to the point, while in narrative it can be more detailed and descriptive.
Narrative style can play with chronology, starting with a dramatic event and then unfolding the story.
The setting in narrative non-fiction is vividly described to immerse the reader in the story's context.
Motive is a key element in narrative non-fiction, exploring the reasons behind the crime and the characters' actions.
The narrative style's description chronicles the entire tale, showing how all elements of the crime story come together.
Transcripts
with our true crime unit
your goal is to write your own true
crime story
so how are you going to write your true
crime story you can take a more
journalistic approach or you can take a
more narrative non-fiction style
approach
in some ways building on some of the
techniques we learned with narrative
non-fiction
in our memoir unit at the beginning of
the school year so
regardless of which
sort of tactic you take more
journalistic or more narrative in style
you are going to be giving the who the
what the when the where the why and the
how
of the crime the criminal the victims
the crime story
that you are going to be sharing so
journalistic versus narrative they are
not an either or
proposition however your writing will
probably tend to lean more towards the
journalistic
or more to the narrative so if you're
going to go more journalistic in your
nonfiction
uh crime story true crime story you're
going to be
more objective more focused on the facts
the
the who the what the when the why the
where and the how you're going to be
succinct you're going to get
to the point it doesn't mean you're not
going to have description and lots of
information
it does mean that you're going to be
less flowery and perhaps less
painterly with your language because
it's the narrative writing
when we get into true crime writing that
is developing the characters that are
involved delving maybe a little bit more
into the motives and the motivations
uh setting the scene and using more
imagery it's not the journalistic
uh true crime non-fiction wouldn't use
imagery it just means that narrative
will rely on it a bit more
and narrative nonfiction is again going
to tell a story the beginning the middle
and the end
and it's not going to tell everything
upfront it's going to build interest
even suspense especially with true crime
so traditional
journalistic writing is typically going
to follow
an inverted pyramid model
in which the most important information
is at the top of the story
so for example if someone stopped
reading halfway through the story they
still would have gotten the most
important information because we're
relating the news we're giving them this
information
so the who the what the when the where
and the why the how
can also be there but it tends to get
built a little bit more with the body of
the actual story
so it is the most important pieces of
information
and it is taking center stage right up
front
very top of the story
now when we move into doing true crime
and a more narrative style that doesn't
mean we get rid of the who the what the
when the why
or the why and how we we have those two
but the who
becomes a focus on the character who are
the characters involved and we want to
develop them
who are they um what do we need to know
about them
the what is the action the crime the
incidences leading up to it the
investigation of it
all of the action that that is making up
the story
the when is the chronology the beginning
the middle the end of the story
um we could switch the chronology up we
could start with
perhaps the actual trial and then work
backwards but then we're still going to
follow a chronology that gives the win
of when the elements of the crime
happened and the where is the setting
and we're going to paint that scene
we're going to give the context for the
community perhaps
we're going to make the visual of the
perhaps the crime scene or the heist
come alive
the caper the why is the motive
so why did this all happen what was the
motivation behind
the perpetrator or the way the victims
responded or the way the
investigators investigated and the how
of all of this
is our narrative the description that
chronicles the entire tale
how these things all gelled together and
made this crime story
so this is where you take true crime and
you make it more narrative in style
as opposed to more journalistic with our
inverted pyramid of
putting that most important information
right there at the top
so how do we build our actual
true crime story start off with five
boxes
these are five boxes that allow you to
put in
information that will get you rolling
that you can fill with
the the information the quotes the
statistics
that you will be putting into these
different areas to be building these
different components
it doesn't mean that the info you put in
the box is you can't move around within
your story
it just means this is the quickest way
to build your true crime story fast
so you want to have the lead you want to
have that initial
image detail that draws people into the
story whether you're doing a
journalistic style
or narrative style um the second box is
made up of all the things that are the
nut graph that the things that sum up
the story that
answer the so what why why does this
matter why would the reader care about
this story
how what impact does it have the
transition
that occurs from the lead to the rest of
the story this is what the nut graph
does
it also really hits that timeliness
factor why
do i need to know about this even if
this is a narrative non-fiction true
crime story
and it happened years ago why would i
care now
what what is what is the impact today
what what legacy
still exists if it's breaking news then
the timeliness is a factor
that i want to share and then again any
supporting material any information
that's going to
help me understand and then that's going
to lead us into our third box
a new image or detail like a turn a
maybe a shift in the story something
new revealed and it helps us
go into the rest of the narrative and it
also resembles the lead and that it
draws us in
that fourth box is all the other maybe
less compelling information
that is needed to kind of round out and
flesh out the whole story to make it
um more understandable more relatable
more enjoyable to read
and then that last box is the kicker
that you're going to leave your reader
you know with at the end of your story
that strong emotion that strong
quote or image that you want your reader
to walk away with feeling
oh okay wow that story had an impact
so excuse me with the journalistic there
are in a narrative there are
some leads that work better there are
many types of leads that you can have
with a journalistic we're tending to go
a little bit more straight news lead
that
important information that's going to
give us that who what why when where and
how
maybe an observational lead that puts
the story into the context of the u.s so
for example
the straight lead is the five shots you
know
killing dennis leach who is repeatedly
stabbing his wife
the observational lead is the fact that
you know three women die every day in
the u.s
and that you know joyce
leach was almost one of those three
women today um an anecdotal lead would
be a storytelling
relating kind of a story like approach
which works well with the narrative
um when the officers arrived and they
see dennis lee
chasing his ex-wife it's not even their
first domestic call
and it's not even the first
knife-wielding husband
then we have our scene setting lead
so this is when we have
basically our imagery at work we want to
build a picture we want to paint an
image
for our reader so they can feel what's
going on as we
bring them into our our story a zinger
lead is
best described as the kind of thing that
makes you spit out your drink you're
like shocked
oh my gosh that was a real zinger it
really got me it wasn't the first time
that dennis lease had violently
terrorized his ex-wife but it would be
the last
now i'm not going to read out each one
of the leads for this same news story of
dennis leach's attack on his ex-wife
joyce leech
however feel free to pause the video and
read
any of these different types of leads as
examples as you go through
and also the same thing for the other
boxes that we look at
so next we move on to the nut graph
journalistic it's going to be briefer
it's going to get to the point it's
going to get
to that information that we need to know
about what happened and who would happen
to and when it happened and where it
happened
and it's going to basically
um take us in to from our lead on to the
rest of our story
and it's justifying why we should care
this timeliness of it this happened you
know now
today and this is what the officers
had to do and
then with our narrative we might be
doing more into the supporting material
why this story is important what was
going on we're painting more of the
picture we're
we're pulling in the quotes i'm going to
kill you we're going to bring up the
fact that the children were briefly
taken away
that had been returned that dennis had
just gotten out of jail
and already a few days later this is
what's happening
and he'd gone to jail for attacking her
before in may and now we're in june
so with
our graph we then want to
pull our reader back in with a new image
a new detail
that's resembling the lead dennis leach
was pronounced dead at the scene
that's journalistic just the facts
narrative he collapsed and died on the
side of the road as the police draped
a yellow tarp over his body and his
parents were watching from inside their
home
so again that image that that
you know that pulls us back in then
rounding out the story um you know the
additional details the neighbors how
they are interacting how they saw this
um what the what the parents thought
like we weren't supposed to let him stay
here but he just showed up you know like
what could we do
the fact that joyce was trying to get
herself back together that's a more
narrative amount but again the
journalistic one is still giving that
additional
details of turmoil had been a common
occurrence at the leech household
and that kicker that strong image that
element in this story
for journalistic he returned his
family's house on tuesday night and by
saturday afternoon he was dead
just the facts but again that kicker
that strong oh my gosh
narrative after all the pain in their
marriage joyce's thoughts were still
focused on dennis
as she was hoisted in the ambulance with
the knife still stuck in her right
shoulder joyce leach turned her police
and said
why did you shoot him again that
narrative image that's the last image
we're left with
and again he's dead she could have been
dead
and her thoughts are still asking the
police why did you shoot him
getting into this idea of what's at the
heart of these dysfunctional
relationships all right so you want to
apply this
what you've learned to your own writing
you want to go to your true crime
resources
all those links that we've had to
stories into podcasts you want to
determine
the who what when where why and how of
whatever
crime or criminal that you're interested
in writing about
researching on bullet point that list
create your own five boxes
put in that information those quotes of
statistics for
information that you'd use for your lead
or your nut graph or your
new image in detail in the middle or
that rounding out info and especially
that kicker
then you have an instant outline and be
prepared we're going to build on this
prep work that you've written and the
outline that you should have done
with the lesson and assignment that
we're going to do during our next class
because we're going to be working on
how would we organize our story are we
going to focus more on the crime
we're going to focus more on the context
of the crime the community
the area the time period are we going to
focus
on the actual victim or victims are we
going to focus on the perpetrator the
criminal
so again we'll talk about how we would
organize our focus
in our next class lesson please have
your initial research and your written
outline done
so that you can start building that
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