I thought of something I wish I had remembered to tell the students, if you would pass it along for me in class next week. It's an example of using literary journalism in a practical fashion - something that actually could be done on the job.
When I did this, I was actually a student a Grace and didn't know what what I was doing was called, only that I tried a more creative approach with the story and it worked very well. After I became older and "educated" (grad school), I realized what I had done actually had a name.
Anyway, I saw a brief in the Times-Union that one of the local high school marching bands had advanced to the state finals. I contacted the band director and asked if I could ride along with the students to cover the event. I went down to the high school one evening before the finals to watch the band practice and talk to some of the kids and the director.
Then, that Saturday, I met them at the high school and rode with them on the bus to Indianapolis. I interviewed several kids in the traditional way, but mostly I took a lot of notes, just watching, listening, observing on the bus and once we got to Indy, right up to the performance.
The story, of course, had the news hook of a local band competing at state (they won!), but I used my observations to weave vignettes of events leading up to the competition with live reporting once they got to Indy and took the field and until the results were announced.
Because they won I would have had a nice little traditional story anyway, but by spending some time with the band - a few hours on Tuesday and all day Saturday - I had a good story with some depth - all the humor, excitement and emotion the students were feeling leading up to their big day.
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