First-person feature stories?

[YankeeFan]

Obama era is correct however.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Now Paw Patrol is stuck in my head. Again.

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

 

[QYFW]

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

 

[Dick Whitman]

This is a source of internal wrestling with me. I used to be hard against appearing in stories. I tried not to appear in a story about my dad, but at some point I had to acknowledge that he was my dad. I still dislike when reporters appear in stories for no reason. I find it lazy and self-absorbed. But some readers find it distracting, the hoops you sometimes have to jump through NOT to appear in the story. That's worse to them—and in some ways more "look at me"—than just saying "I" and getting in and out of the situation discreetly.

That realization came to me when I wrote about Robert Caro, and the New York Times Mag did a Caro profile at the same time. A critic complained that he didn't like my being all over my story, and gave credit to the Times writer for not appearing in his. Except that the word "I" never appeared in my story, and it appeared plenty often in the Times version. The critic just somehow felt I was more visible, more handsy. That got me thinking that a piece can be just as much of, or even more of, a first-person piece without the word "I" than with it.

I have a long feature coming out soon that I appear in a couple of times. I feel weird about it, like I'm a traitor to my former ideals, but I do think it's smoother and less cumbersome in some ways. It's less of a dance.

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

What about it worked for you?

Dr. V's Magical Putter

 

[Skylar]

Here is another example of a story with some first person in it that I think illuminates the story. It has just enough. Not a lot — we don't really get into Jay Kang's background — but he's also making it clear up front that because he's Korean he brings a perspective to this piece that's valuable to its overall purpose.

What a Fraternity Hazing Death Revealed About the Painful Search for an Asian-American Identity

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.

 

[typefitter]

Here is a story that I mostly love, but I also think is messy as heck, and maybe could have lost its first person in the middle and been improved, that is worth debating on its merits. I'll argue for it, but I can also see the counter argument: What purpose does Sullivan's digression in the middle of this piece serve about the fight he witnessed as a kid?

The Final Comeback of Axl Rose

I think it's also important to stipulate we're mostly talking about high-level, ambitious stuff here. Maybe it's in a magazine, maybe it's for a website, but we're not talking about the first person piece about cover high school volleyball. (And I wrote about a lot of high school volleyball!) As I've said a lot of times, I don't like hard and fast rules about anything, but it has to be a pretty special newspaper piece to include first person in my eyes. Newspapers have a different relationship with readers than magazines or long-ass stories you read on the web.

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 heck out of it, and you know that it will all come together at the end.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

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

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.

 

[Cosmo]

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

 

[AD]

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.

 

[Cosmo]

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

 

[doctorquant]

So you forgive and even savour the digressions and borderline structural chaos because you know you'll enjoy the heck out of it, and you know that it will all come together at the end.

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

 

[Dick Whitman]

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.