Mitch Albom on Writing

1.   In the speech Mitch Albom spoke, he mainly talked about how to write a good story that would be featured on a news paper or just in general. He went into details with leads, middles, and endings. He eleborated a lot on how to keep the readers attention and not drowning them with information the entire article. Yet instead paint a picture to let the reader view the story and relate, with out them falling asleep. 

2.     In the leads, he said that you should include "how old somebody is, where they live, what they did, what they’re charged with", and have to make it sound a lot less, informational to keep the readers attention. Albom, also includes an alternative that is possible just in case you can't or don't seem to find a way without drowning the reader with information, and suggests that you paint a picture with words. He also gives the advice as making the lead as a movie trailer film, like giving the plot, yet not giving the ending and how. Albom, also said that if your story is pretty long and can't seem to be summarized in those ways to, "do it straight ahead with information, but if you’re going to do that, see if you can come up with some gimmick or some visual. Follow the path of a bullet that goes through this and goes through that. It’ll hold the reader’s attention that much longer". 

     In the next to sections, Albom didn't have much to say for middles and endings as much as he had to say for leads. However, in the middles he suggest just a couple of tips. One is to look and tell the story beyond of what you see in front of you, and to tell the story at different angle. Basically, move out of the 1st person point of view and look at the others who are also being affected, step out of the box. 

     In the endings, Albom states that you shouldn't have to feel like you should end with such a strong and huge and amazing ending but yet just summarize it. He suggests that you shouldn't tell the reader what is wrong with society and how they should fix it or what to do to fix it. But just paint a picture just like you did in the beginning.

3. 

"you can do it straight ahead with information, but if you’re going to do that, see if you can come up with some gimmick or some visual. Follow the path of a bullet that goes through this and goes through that. It’ll hold the reader’s attention that much longer"

This was on the topic of leads. I really like and agree with this quote and that's one of the reasons I choose it. But mainly because I struggle a lot with leads and this just makes it have more sense and reason on why I lead should be there. The paint a picture idea is genius and it's something I definitely have to try. 

"You’ve got to say how old somebody is, where they live, what they did, what they’re charged with, all the rest of it, it’s hard to put a lot of pizzazz"

Connects to the statement and my comment from the last quote, not only because it was from the leads but because this is exactly what my problem is, which made me relate and intrigued more into the reading. It's so hard to put some "pizzazz", I tend to state everything as if I were answering some questions, and this is why I choose this quote because k agree and relate to it a lot!! 

"what I did was like a movie preview. In one minute they give you all these scenes from all throughout the movie and you have a general pace of what’s coming up"

Probably another method I would have to try, it seems exiting to think about writing more in the movie way than in the stating information way. I love the way Albom uses this example that makes you want to visualize things in a way that you think is beautiful but put it into words. I so agree with this choice!!!  

"tell the story in a different point of view"

I have seen this been done before and has worked successfully every time I read an article like it because originally a reader doesn't really think about  different perspectives except for the main characters  because that's what were used to reading as kids.  This is kind of stating that you should step out of the box and see the big picture. Another thing I will definitely have to try.

 "Trust your readers, they’re pretty smart. They know how to read, they’re already ahead of most of the rest of the country"

 I've never thought of something like this before. We always seem to tell stories  as if you were talking to a five-year-old. Now what I write I will probably keep this in mind because I do need to understand that my readers are smart and will understand the context of the story without Meeks having to explain it. Something I definitely agree on with Albom.