Tell Your Story in Layers

Your story is more than the prose that you write. Your story is the full package of information and images that your newspaper presents to the reader. As the journalist whose name will appear most prominently and as the journalist usually with the largest investment of time and pride in the story, you have to assume responsibility for the full package and take an active role in its planning and production. Telling the story in "layers" presents the main points of your story to the hurried reader who will not take the time to read the full story. It also gives you multiple chances to lure the scanning reader. Maybe the headline alone won't draw the reader into the story. But a pull-quote or graphic makes the reader stop and read. If your interest in the tasks of presentation won't motivate your involvement, perhaps vanity will: More people will read and remember your story if your newspaper presents it in an eye-catching package.

Consider all the ways you can present information, in addition to your story. Each of these is a layer of the total story your newspaper presents to the reader:

• Staff photographs.
  Can your staff shoot pictures of the people, places and events of your story? How can photos help tell the story? How can they draw the reader's attention to the story? Plan early with the photo staff. Don't be bashful about making suggestions, but respect the professional skill of the photographer to come up with better ideas than you might suggest.
• Archival photographs.
  Check your files, paper and electronic, for historical photographs that may tell part of the story.
• Donated photographs.
  Ask the characters you interview for photographs they have taken that might show events or places where you were not present. Seek candid photographs and mug shots of dead or missing people you write about. Seek youthful photographs of people you write about, if your story will deal with that period in their lives.
• Illustrations.
  A staff photographer or artist might be able to create an effective illustration to help tell the story and attract the reader's eye. Or a character might be able to provide illustrations done by others.
• Artist's renderings.
  When your community is planning a new building or project, the architect, engineer or developer usually can provide an illustration showing how it will look when finished.
• Maps.
  A simple locator map might help the reader understand where an event took place. Or a complex map might show how and where an event unfolded.
• Diagrams.
  If the reader might wonder "how did that happen?" or "how does that work?" consider a diagram to provide a clearer answer than you can in prose. Again, you can produce a staff-generated diagram or you might come across a diagram in your reporting that you can use with permission.
• Timelines.
  A timeline places a specific event or series of events in context with other events. This can be simple text or you can turn it into a graphic or perhaps illustrate with photos of some of the events.
• Chronologies.
  A chronology details how an event unfolded, placing the steps in order. A chronology can be all text or can tie into a map or diagram that explain key steps. If you don't have a map or diagram, photos of key people or events might enhance the chronology.
• Glossaries.
  A glossary explains terminology relating to a particular issue. This doesn't absolve the writer from explaining some terms in context in the story, but gives an opportunity for more detailed definitions.
• Use-It Boxes.
  Pull out useful information for the reader into a box that attracts the eye quickly. This may be something the reader will be looking for later when she returns to the story. Use-it's, also called go-and-do boxes, might have date and time of an event, ticket price, location, a phone number for more information, how to make donations, how to volunteer, who can participate, Web sites, etc. Consider how the reader might act in response to your story. If you write a story that moves the reader to act, put the information that tells the reader how to act in one place that's easy to find.
• What's-next box.
  Especially in a running story, consider a box telling readers what to expect next. This is essential in a series.
• Tables, charts and graphs.
  If you have more than two related numbers, consider presenting them in a table, chart or graph. Numbers almost always work better in one of these formats than in prose. The more numbers you use, the more important that you simplify them for the reader in one of these forms.
• Statistics.
  Does your story include statistical information that can be presented in an understandable form as a separate element, such as a box score?
• Cast of characters.
  If the story involves several people, consider a separate element with mug shots of the characters and thumbnail sketches. This can be simple biographical information or it can include fun facts that don't really fit into the narrative but add to the character development of the total package.
• Bio box.
  If you're writing about a particular newsmaker, consider a box with some basic information - age, education, occupation, family and perhaps a fun fact or two. With both the bio box and the cast of characters, some overlap with the story is inevitable and desirable. But exact duplication is a waste of your space and the reader's time. Make the bio box or cast of characters mostly new information. Mug shots or even a wide candid shot add to a cast of characters or a bio box.
• Fact boxes.
  Sometimes, especially with a complicated story, a fact box summarizing key points is helpful to the reader.
• By the numbers.
  You can bring several disparate facts about a story together in an easy and eye-catching way in a "by the numbers" box that features the numbers in large type and explains them in smaller type.
• Comparisons.
  These can be informative, comparing features of an existing law with a pending bill, or humorous, listing what's in and what's out. You can do a comparison as simple text in two columns. But some photos or other art will make it more appealing.
• Lists.
  Lists almost always work better as a separate element, even if it's just text, than in the prose of a story.
• Pull quotes.
  Does a particular quote seem to sum up the story? Consider highlighting it in a box, perhaps with a photo of the speaker.
• Fresh quotes.
  Don't just highlight duplicated quotes that you pull from the story. You might present some quotes - either from characters in the story or person-in-the-street quotes from a news event - that stand on their own, giving the reader another layer of the story. These can run with or without photos of the speakers. You can also use quotes - fresh or from the story - as reefers.
• Rails and strips.
  You can pull a mix of these different elements together in a vertical rail or a horizontal strip that will help frame your package and give the browsing reader several layers to draw her into the story.
• Sidebars.
  Remember the old standby of sidebars. You can use a sidebar for any of a variety of reasons: Perhaps the information would disrupt the flow of the main story. Or maybe it would get lost in the main story and really deserves its own headline.
• Main headlines.
  The main headline will be one of the first layers that catches the reader's attention, many times the very first. It needs to convey the essence of the story in tone and information.
• Deck headlines.
  Secondary headlines known as decks help give the reader more information, another chance to draw the reader into the story. While the main headline is written in "headlinese," decks are increasingly written in full, conversational sentences. The deck should always provide additional information. If the main head raised a question or omitted an important point, the deck should address it. You can also do a series of deck heads, perhaps with bullets, summarizing various points in a big story. A deck can appear immediately below the main headline or can be dropped into the body type.
• Captions.
  The caption is the headline that ties the art into the total package. Often the photograph or graphic will carry a headline over the top. Consider how this headline works with the photograph or graphic and with the whole package. Watch for redundancy or contradiction between the caption and the headline(s) on the story. On a page-one centerpiece, the caption may be the only headline in the package above the fold. Consider how it stands alone to entice a potential reader to buy the paper.
• Cutlines.
  Cutlines, the words beneath a photo, need to explain the photo and tie it in to the story. Avoid cutlines that explain obvious action in the photo or that simply repeat content in the story. The ideal cutline will identify any recognizable people, answer any questions the photo raises, tie the photo in to the story and add a little information that's not in the story. All in a few words.
• Online layers.
  Your Web page gives more opportunities for layers, depending on your technological capabilities: slide shows, audio, links to related sites, database searches that allow the reader to find his own personal information, such as property tax increases. When you have extra layers online, be sure to plug them in the print version.
• Logos.
  Series, whether consecutive or occasional, call for logos, telling the reader this is special and reminding them of what has come before. Or you can use the logo of a company or organization as an illustration to help draw the reader's eye.
• Reefers.
  Direct the reader to stories on related topics or sidebars that run on other pages, maybe with the jump, or in other sections of the paper. On big projects, a what's-inside box can act as a table of contents.

Plan the layers

• Plan layers early.
  As you discuss a story with your editor at the planning stage, discuss possible layers you might use in the package. On major stories, consider a "maestro" meeting, where the reporter(s), editor(s) and visual journalists who will work on the package gather to brainstorm ways to present the package and coordinate their efforts. This makes the presentation integral to the story, rather than an afterthough. In the maestro meeting, everyone can talk about any aspect of the package, regardless of specialty. The maestro meeting replaces the traditional handoff from reporter to editor with a teamwork approach from the beginning. If the story doesn't merit a maestro meeting or if schedules don't permit, the reporter should talk individually with the editor and one or both of them should make assignments or at least give and early heads-up to photographers, artists and editors who will be involved.
• Plan layers as you go.
  However well you plan early, stories will change as you learn more about them. You will come across information you didn't anticipate in your maestro session. For a major change, you may need to reconvene a maestro session. More often, you can change plans with an individual conversation or two.
• Plan layers as you write.
  As you write the story, you may realize that some information will work better in a sidebar or graphic. Discuss these possibilities right away with your editor. Ideally your early planning will avoid last-minute changes in plans. But you should still try last-minute changes if they improve the package for your readers.
• Put the plan in writing.
  For a routine story, a simple budget line that details elements of the package may suffice. For bigger stories, you should follow the maestro meeting up with a written plan that details the elements of the package, the roles of the journalists in producing and coordinating the elements and deadlines for providing information and finished elements.
• Consider a story without a story.
  You might be able to tell your story in a different way than the traditional string of prose paragraphs. Maybe you work the writing into a graphic or tell a story entirely in photos and cutlines.

Review the package

• Look at the finished layers.
  At least one journalist who wasn't in on the planning should take a look at the final package before you publish. Read it like a reader. Do some of the elements clash visually? Does the information conflict? What draws your eye first? Have one journalist who was involved with planning read the whole package, too, asking the same questions.
• Look for problems.
  Try to make fun of the package. Do you have a headline that reads fine on its own, but looks silly when viewed with an accompanying photograph? You want to keep the laughs in your newsroom rather than publishing the package that way so Jay Leno can share them with the world.

Advice from Earl Swift of the Virginian-Pilot:

Once you have the story finished, you'll want to again redefine your job to include editing and design. Volunteer to write the captions. Offer headline suggestions. Proofread all the pages. Sit in on photo-editing sessions, so that you have a voice in what images are chosen to accompany your work. Collaborate with the designer assigned your story to ensure that the overall "feel "of the presentation matches the mood you've established; no matter how carefully you craft a story, your readers will be left emotionally befuddled if the packaging strikes a disharmonious chord.

I call this "Following the Story,"and, on a big series or feature, I will even drive to the plant at midnight to watch the paper come off the press, and hang with the pressmen to ensure the register is perfect on the photos.

Take similar pains, and perhaps you'll avoid the kind of unpleasant surprise visited on my colleague Fred Kirsch when his very first story was published by a paper in New Jersey. It was about a high school baseball team's deep pitching rotation. Unfortunately, some editor mistyped the headline, and the mistake got by the proofers; the story thus appeared under the announcement "Bull penis strong." You can imagine how Fred felt showing that off to his mom.

Other helpful resources

• Mario Garcia's "Hierarchy Within Headlines: Layers of Storytelling": http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=33&aid=3230
• Joe Marren's "Writing for the Web": http://poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=35378
• Josh Awtry's "Layering for the Time-Starved Reader": http://www.notrain-nogain.org/Train/Res/Write/layers.pdf