Writing Exercise: Fictional Articles

The Idea

            In the short story I am writing, the main character, Caw, is a journalist researching the origins of the fable of Dan McCann. At the end of the story, I plan on “quoting” parts of his investigative piece. As I was thinking about writing the piece, I realized that this could be a great writing exercise, for anyone from high school students to aspiring authors. When working on writing this fictional article, I have to create settings, people (and aliens) and sources for Caw to use. Additionally, I have to adopt the tone of an investigative journalist as would be appropriate for such a piece. Teachers if you want your students to learn about the parts of writing an article, while giving them the option to be a bit more creative, this exercise would work well. Aspiring authors, even if your story doesn’t need a fictional article, this is still a great writing prompt to expand your skills and give you the chance to dive deeper into a world you created.

            The steps that follow don’t necessarily have to occur in this order, but if stuck on how to begin or continue with this writing exercise, I hope they can be helpful.

Step 1: Setting and Topic

            First the writer needs to pick a setting for the fictional article and a topic. The setting could be from an already existing world, or one the writer invented. With my fictional article, I picked an Earth approximately 300 years into the future where aliens have introduced us to space travel technology. As I already mentioned, the topic I chose for Caw to write on is the fable of Dan McCann, an incredibly popular figure that seems to represent almost anything to anyone. Of course, there is no requirement that the writer choses a fictional fable for the topic of the article. The writer could talk about disasters, discoveries, politics, or anything imaginable.

Step 2: Research the Norms

            Once the writer has selected a setting and topic for the fictional article, they need to decide what format the article will take. Mine is an investigative article. However, it doesn’t have to be an investigative piece. The writer could also select an event that happened in the world and write on it from the angle of a news reporter. They could write a fictional opinion piece on a hot button topic in their world, or anything in between. Once the writer decides upon a format, they need to research the norms of the genre in order to answer questions like:

·      How long is one typically?

·      What types of sources are used?

·      Does it typically stick close to the facts?

·      Are anecdotes permissible?

·      How are sources cited?

Once the writer has fully researched the format, they can decide how closely they want to follow the norms. While I don’t plan on, nor do I recommend, copying any existing piece, it is important to complete research into how different article formats operate.

Step 3: Brainstorming and Writing

It’s time to start writing! Draft the fictional article and edit it as many times as necessary. I also included brainstorming in this step, because some people might to come up with fictional sources and facts before beginning the draft. Others might add it in with later drafts.  Finally, some might find themselves in a cycle of brainstorming ideas, writing, brainstorming different ideas, and writing again. But each writer is different and needs to use whatever method works the best for them.

Samples

Here are a couple of sample passages from the fictional article I plan on using in my short story. I don’t know what order they will be in yet and I only have a couple of fragments, but perhaps they will give a clearer idea of what this type of assignment will look like when finished.

(a)

I set out to answer the question, “What is Dan McCann?”  “Where did he come from?” It turns out the answer to that question depends on who you ask and where you’re asking. In short, he’s everything. He’s an idea, a whiskey, a symbol, a story, a legend, a man…

(b)

My editor wanted to know: What would he think about the war? The individual I returned my ship keys to at the rental place asked: What does he think about legalizing (or criminalizing) the drug trade? Others asked more questions and after this piece is published I suspect will probably ask hundreds of even more questions. My answer to all of them is as follows: I don’t know, but he’d want there to be a conversation going.

(c)

Dan McCann’s life is much like the planet on which he lives: if you didn’t know better, you would think that the miraculous events were due to some supernatural magical abilities that he supposedly possess. But in reality there’s nothing that happened, which can’t be explained in logical understood phenomena. Of course, this doesn’t mean the thing itself isn’t spectacular. The planet is like this because of the new stars forming nearby. Dan McCann’s life is so exciting, so interesting, so legend-producing because of where he was and what was going on at the time. Some were coincidences or luck whichever you want to call it, others he admitted to having planned at least part of what happened, but all are explainable by the fact that during the Wild West of the galaxy Dan McCann was “a regular ol’ Space Hopper”

How did it go?

Let me know how your fiction article went whether it was on your own, in a group, or in a class. What format did you pick? Did you find any difficulties at any stage? How did they turn out? Let me know down in the comments!

Notes:

Sources:

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