Deck 11: Writing the Story

Question 1

You should begin writing even before you exhaust all your possible sources.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Experienced writers write three drafts when writing a big story.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

If you simplify a complicated story, it won't be convincing.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

A chronological story works best when you can re-create events that led up to a problem.

Question 5

To make your story convincing, you need to give readers as many examples as possible.

Question 6

Where should you put the important information in your story?

A) At the top.
B) In the middle
C) Woven throughout
D) In the nut graph

Question 7

In what stage should you fill as many holes as possible?

A) The first draft where you make it complete
B) The second draft where you make it clear
C) The third draft where you make it convincing
D) The fourth draft where you make it compelling

Question 8

In what draft should you come up with the central characters?

A) The first draft where you make it complete
B) The second draft where you make it clear
C) The third draft where you make it convincing
D) The fourth draft where you make it compelling

Question 9

To eliminate the nonessentials, you must ask this central question:

A) What will make my reader care?
B) What does my reader need to know?
C) What is most relevant to my reader?
D) What are the most compelling details?

Question 10

To give a story scale, you should do which of the following?

A) Show readers how weighty an issue is
B) Put information into historical context
C) Make information as vivid as possible.
D) Bring it down to a size that they can understand

Question 11

Why do some valid investigative stories never get completed?

Question 12

Why won't an inverted pyramid structure work for a big story?

Question 13

What are the two things that, according to New York magazine publisher Clay Felker, people always want to know?

Question 14

What is the difference between simplifying a complicated story and telling a complicated story simply?

Question 15

In what ways are first drafts ugly?

Question 16

What does it mean that you need to write for the reader?

Question 17

What is the point of gathering more information than will end up in a story?

Question 18

How do you give your story scale?

Question 19

What is the point of adding back to your story details that you had determined earlier weren't essential?

Question 20

What is rising action?