Narrative, Multiple Storylines And "the Wire": Notes For Journalists

Narrative and multiple storylines What we can learn from “The Wire” -Scott Blanchard, Sunday editor, York (Pa.) Daily Record/Sunday News, 2008 “The Wire” storylines 1. Cops chasing the Greek/dock (main storyline) 2. Frank chasing a future for stevedores/dock 3. Omar chasing revenge for Brandon’s death Story so far: As a personal vendetta, a higher-up in the Baltimore Police Department created a team of cops to bring down Frank Sobotka, leader of the stevedores’ union. Sobotka and the union were suspected of being dirty. Sobotka’s motivation is to save the union any way he can. As the cops investigate, they learn about the dock workers’ smuggling and tie it in to an outfit run by “The Greek” – but they have limited knowledge of the main players in the smuggling operation. In the previous episode: Frank’s son Ziggy, who was doing his own side business with the Greek’s crew, snaps and kills one of the cops’ main targets. The Greek’s No. 2 man, Vondas, orders his crew to clean up a warehouse and store that they’d been using as part of their drug/smuggling operation because they know police will be headed there. Two of the cops see Nick, Frank’s nephew and a dockworker, and someone they know to be selling drugs in the city, show up at a diner known to have been the Greek’s hangout and realize he’s connected. Part of the cops’ efforts have been thwarted by a leak they don’t know about who is feeding the Greek information.

What you’ll see and what we can learn The big open Features: • Time element: the clock. It turns from 5:59 to 6 and everything explodes, symbolically shattering Nick’s languid morning. You know something’s coming … a reason to keep watching. • Short scenes jump from raid to raid to raid. Storylines bolt forward. It’s all action, little or no dialogue, but the action is telling a story of the cops’ chase and their success/failure. They make arrests (conclusion) but it’s clear they are still chasing (conflict/reason for you to keep watching). • Conflict questions: will they get nick? Will they get the smugglers?

What we can learn A story with multiple storylines can benefit from an opening that focuses on action and propels the storylines forward and sets up the major conflicts that will keep readers going. Examples: -Five coaches are chasing one prized basketball recruit -Rescue crews arrive at the scene of a daunting task (a big fire, a guy impaled on a fence …)

The pace Features: • most evident in beginning and closing scenes, when a lot happens at once. Quick cuts, action, montages, forward motion, etc. • also evident when white mike helps the case move forward. Two real short scenes are used, one as a tease, the next as the break. • use of re-sets at strategic times (see below) • Vondas foot chase … one of the most tense series of scenes in the episode. It’s broken up three times by relatively short scenes of Frank on the ship. That breaks up the Vondas scene, increasing the tension as that scene progresses. Also keeps storylines continuously moving at the same time. What we can learn When you have multiple storylines, vary the pace of action. Short scenes amid longer ones stand out and call attention to themselves, and also quicken the pace; longer scenes can be used to slow a reader down, make them pay attention to detail. Ending a scene with a tease (see below) helps push the reader through the storylines to find out what happened next. Examples: Someone is rushed to the hospital, his life in danger (quick scenes, rapid pace). The surgeon delicately and methodically performs open heart surgery to save his life (longer scenes, more detail, aiming for total immersion on the part of your reader). The tease • •

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opening scenes re Nick, the cops (the conflict questions) during interviews, cops questioning White Mike. No one has talked. They play White Mike their wiretap recording … and then break. They’ve teased that something might happen here. Two scenes, later, Mike gives them Sergei and Etan. Daniels after learning that feds are off the case: “We’re on (Vondas) ourselves.” A tease, a promise that the hunt continues … a reason for you to keep going.

What we can learn Know where each of your storylines is going, and break them down into parts that allow you to write scenes that move the piece forward, but don’t prematurely ‘end’ the storyline or give too much away. Examples: Let’s say you’re following a high school team through a season. You have five main characters, each with her own conflict as the team tries to win a championship. You will know through your reporting what each girl has at stake, what her successes and failures are during the year, and how her story ultimately turns out. So you can weave your five individual stories together, bringing them together at the end with whether the team wins. The re-set • • •

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first one happens right after the opening scene and raids, when they cut to the detail’s hq and the board. They find out Glekas is dead. McNulty goes over who they got and who they didn’t. Daniels goes on warpath. second one comes after Frank meets Ziggy in jail. Cuts to the detail’s hq. They’re still hunting Nick. Daniels lays out how they need to go higher – Vondas. Raises the stakes. Also a tease here. third one comes after the Greek walks past Kima and last scene of Frank on ship. Back to detail’s hq, where they’re trying to figure out what just happened. They talk about White Mike and how they still don’t have what they need. Russell says she’ll try to get Frank to talk … another tease, because he knows everything, and could blow the thing wide open. fourth comes when Greek/Vondas are having dinner. They assess, they talk about how to evade, they set up a plan. Now the two forces that will collide at the end are in motion.

What we can learn This is where you deliver the info that may not be part of the true narrative, but is needed for someone to understand what’s happening. You can step away, briefly, from the true action of the story to catch people up on what they need to know and set them up for what is to come. Examples: If you’re writing about an agoraphobic, you’ll need to deliver information about the illness. If you’re writing about two people trapped in a car in a flooded creek, you’ll have to say how they got there. The big close Everything comes together quickly over the last 10 minutes or so: Frank decides he’ll talk to police. The forces mentioned above meet when Nick tells Frank the Greek could get Ziggy off.

Frank, who wants to save Ziggy, Nick and the union, thinks he has a way out. He decides he’ll talk to the Greek instead of police. Montage: Greek thinks they’ve won and will escape. Frank thinks he’s won and will save Ziggy, Nick and maybe the union too. Nick thinks he’s won and has brokered a deal to save Ziggy and himself. Detail thinks they’ve won because Frank has agreed to give them everyone all the way up to the Greek. The leak changes everything. Everything accelerates, just like in the beginning: short scenes, quick cuts, forward motion, little or no dialogue, but the action is telling a story. By the time Frank is walking toward the Greek, everything is resolved: The Greek won. Frank lost. Nick lost . The detail lost. What we can learn You can rely on action to bring the story home. You’ve set the story in motion at the beginning, you’ve advanced each storyline to a critical point, and you’ve done all the re-setting you need to do. Now just show the reader what happens. Examples: This is where the recruit calls four coaches to tell them no, and one to tell him yes. It’s where the surgeon makes the critical cut to save the man on the operating room table. It’s where the high school basketball team wins or loses. It’s where the rescue crews get the guy off the fence, or lose the two people in the floodwater.