The Complications of Literary Journalism

Quoting (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

First, the interview with Robert Weschler

* Immersion reporting may justify edited accounts of conversation. Obviously we cut out fillers, and no one complains. Is conflation of time permissible? Is – as Bob Garfield suggests – everything between quotation marks sacred?

* Memoir is different

* Sophisticated readers get it, particularly when the quotes all sound the same person-to-person

What you can do in this class:

·      * vigorous descriptive language

·      * more generally, create your own tone

·      * be present in the story - that means I do not immediately reject an "I"

·      * to some degree “instigate,” though that’s tricky; you tell me: what would be “fair” instigation and what wouldn’t?

What you can’t do:

Make things up, including extreme compression of quotes.