First-person feature stories?

Obama era is correct however.

 

Remember the terrible SB Nation piece about a memorable football game nobody watched in Adventure Bay?

 

The citizens of Adventure Bay are wildly reckless. Not a day goes by that something or someone doesn't need saving.

 

Here's one you promoted enthusiastically on your Twitter feed at the time.

What about it worked for you?

Dr. V’s Magical Putter

 

Hey, there is a good example. I thought the first-person in it was for the most part useful and needed. I did think there were times when it interefered a little bit.

 

I love that story. It's one of the few I can remember when and where I first read it.

I think there are some writers, like JJS, where you kind of want them to spin you a yarn. You want to sit beside them at the bar and listen to them tell you a story. Charlie Pierce is like that for me, too. So you forgive and even savour the digressions and borderline structural chaos because you know you'll enjoy the hell out of it, and you know that it will all come together at the end.

 

That SB Nation piece about Mayor Goodway taking over as the boys basketball coach and overcoming sexism to win over the townsfolk was actually halfway decent.

 

How about the use of first person in this excellent New Yorker piece about the threat of nuclear war with North Korea?

The Risk of Nuclear War with North Korea

 

osnos' experience was unique and illuminating about north korea: the way he got access, the way he was handled, is a great lens into viewing the regime's mentality. again, when it's used to advance our understanding of the subject -- not as filler for what's NOT there: access and good reporting -- first-person can be necessary and wonderful. but it's a judgement call. For writers, the "I" looks like, is as powerful as, and should be treated like an exclamation point ("!"): Overuse drains it of its power. Misuse makes you look like an idiot.

 

That story has stuck with me more than any I've read this year. It was so well done.

 

People said the same thing about my work on hierarchical linear modelling as applied to the multi-dimensionality of environmental complexity.

 

You haven't lived until you've opened a vein and drafted discovery requests.