New Leads:

“Witches do not believe in the devil.” “Jane,” a witch and a goddess worshipper, is setting out to dispel myths about witchcraft.

“Jane” is your average woman. She goes to church and dresses like an accountant. You would never believe that “Jane” is a witch.

I chose the analyze the lead of a story original published by Buzzfeed News that I found on the Longform stories website. It is called “We Saw Nuns Kill Children: The Ghosts of St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage.”

The lead of this story is a series of quotes from Sally Dale’s deposition during a lawsuit against the orphanage. I think it works because it sets a dark scene. This person is telling of a gruesome murder and keeping her exact words really show how she wanted to get her wording exactly right to make this case stick. I think this works really well because you aren’t clicking on this story expecting a happy time. The use of quotes really pulled me in to the story because it gave it a sense of being real. These weren’t some over exaggerated stories. This actually happened to someone.

Rewrite: On a summer afternoon Sally Dale was being escorted across the campus of St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage when suddenly…CRASH…. She turned to see the body of another resident hitting the ground after being thrown through a fourth-floor window. Dale saw the face of a nun standing in the window with her arms straightened out in front of her. She turned to her escort. “Sister?” she said. The other nun told her she had an overactive imagination. “We are going to have to do something about you, child.”

In this article we are told the story of different public places that have implemented classical music as a means of security. The main characters in this article are the groups that the tactic is trying to repel (vandals, homeless, etc.) and those implementing it (store owners, transit workers, etc).

This story is written in a style that closely resembles a news story. There are a lot of quotes and scene building that make it more of a feature, but for the most part the facts are presented in a reporting style.

What is really interesting is that this story takes a turn. About halfway through, after reporting all the facts on this topic, the story gets very critical of the use of classical music in this context and how it really doesn’t do much in the deterrence of real crime. It simply moves it elsewhere. It also addresses the fact that weaponizing this music also adds to the reputation classical music already had for being elitist and only for those of a higher class. This is literally using the music to run off the lower classes.

There are a lot of themes being explored in this article such as classism and safety as well as being a look in to connotations that music can have.

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/bach-at-the-burger-king/#!

I found a story on the rerelease of Michael Jackson’s Thriller album cover suit for his birthday (August 29th). Here are five more ways to spin this story.

1. A look back at the success of Thriller
2. A feature on Michael Jackson’s influence on fashion
3. A feature on the 1980s trend in current fashion
4. A look back at the making of the iconic Thriller music video
5. A story about Hugo Boss’s other famous clients

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/29/fashion/michael-jackson-thriller-hugo-boss.html?action=click&module=Features&pgtype=Homepage

1. How many long, black, fringe dusters are too many for a 21-year old to own? Is five too many?
2. How often can I tell people to come to Next to Normal before they decide not to come just out of spite?
3. Are you too obsessed Cher if your drag queen friends have started to make fun of you for it?
4. Why is it so hard to think of questions when you are put in a position where you have to write questions?
5. If question one technically has two parts do I need a fifth question? (Not gonna risk it so this is technically a question now.)

A story is our way of telling people about what is happening in the world. They are important because they are how we stay connected as a society. Whether they are fictional or non-fiction they bring groups of people together to learn about a topic, be entertained by a whimsical tale, or debate over a tough topic put forth by the writer. Without stories there would be no other forms of media because everything starts with a story.