{"id":11331,"date":"2024-06-11T19:46:58","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T19:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2024\/06\/11\/obituaries-profiles-nonfiction-writing\/"},"modified":"2024-10-18T13:36:49","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T13:36:49","slug":"obituaries-profiles-nonfiction-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2024\/06\/11\/obituaries-profiles-nonfiction-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"What fractals \u2014 and obituaries \u2014 can teach us about writing"},"content":{"rendered":"    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Iawoke on a recent morning thinking about death. Not morbidly about my own \u2014 though at this age, the clock ticks more loudly, so that\u2019s not a far reach. These thoughts were about the too-many friends I\u2019ve been visiting who are seriously ill and the too-many others who are already gone. What that had me pondering \u2014 besides those big questions about the meaning of life \u2014 is how we tell stories about those who have died or are dying.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>In my world of newspaper journalism, obituaries are standard fare. But in the sub-world of that world, I\u2019ve noticed that obituaries and eulogies by journalists of other journalists \u2014 members of the tribe \u2014 are anything but standard. Nor, frankly, should any obit be, because no life is standard to the person who lives it or to those who has been touched by that person.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>It\u2019s not unusual within our family of writers to tap people in advance to write your obit when the time comes. I hold one such chit, and have done formal eulogies at four funerals for fellow journalists. One of my friends, who has a progressive disease, has already assigned his obit to a former colleague, including a list of other colleagues\/friends he wants to comment \u2014 complete with a max word count on how much each of us can say. (I am on his list, and can tell you I labored of those 150 words as much as any big project I\u2019ve done. I can also tell you that we, as cheeky journalists, think maybe he should just \u2014 or also \u2014 write his own. Some of the most authentic obits I\u2019ve read have been penned by the main subject; one of my favorites is the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fniemanstoryboard.us9.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3D5776bbdcabe9b960b10ae1302%26id%3D4d0c1ba6a2%26e%3D3a00fb30a3&amp;data=05%7C02%7Cbanaszynskij%40missouri.edu%7C93a6223cd89f4eff24fa08dc8a4cb1fa%7Ce3fefdbef7e9401ba51a355e01b05a89%7C0%7C0%7C638537309224934042%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=IpTQNOlaoJIXRGgqWO5HkILsXbUjAxhwhcqx4hcrn20%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">self-obit Ken Fuson<\/a>&nbsp;(Des Moines, Iowa, Register and Baltimore Sun) wrote in advance of his own separation from the keyboard.)<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>I have been circling back and back to these musings this morning, and find my thoughts are like fractals. I haven\u2019t narrowed them to a singular center yet. Or maybe that\u2019s what makes them fractals: The structure is elegant, but dimensions of it are too many and complex for me to grasp in the moment. One explanation I found, from the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fniemanstoryboard.us9.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3D5776bbdcabe9b960b10ae1302%26id%3Dbb371a2bc3%26e%3D3a00fb30a3&amp;data=05%7C02%7Cbanaszynskij%40missouri.edu%7C93a6223cd89f4eff24fa08dc8a4cb1fa%7Ce3fefdbef7e9401ba51a355e01b05a89%7C0%7C0%7C638537309224946512%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=HY7nVP93xsgsvqKBcVo6UFfzxJDb9UObxMgR3egEHy0%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fractal Foundation<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><em>A fractal is a never-ending pattern. Fractals are infinitely complex patterns that are self-similar across different scales. They are created by repeating a simple process over and over in an ongoing feedback loop. Driven by recursion, fractals are images of dynamic systems \u2013 the pictures of Chaos. Geometrically, they exist in between our familiar dimensions. Fractal patterns are extremely familiar, since nature is full of fractals. For instance: trees, rivers, coastlines, mountains, clouds, seashells, hurricanes, etc.<\/em><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Whew! And yet, so apt. They are all around me \u2014 in the ferns unfurling in my rockery, the random-but-not patterns of colors in the art a friend makes with alcohol ink, maybe even echoed in the paisley pattern on one of my scarves. And, I guess, in the lives we each live.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>For now, I will end with the suggestion that writing obits is the best way to learn to report and write profiles. They should go beyond the bullet-list of civic accomplishments to the character of a person, the footprints they left, the other lives they shaped. The details and even wording should reflect the person\u2019s personality. And they better damn well be accurate.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>I also suggest that the care we take with stories about our friends and families should guide our work when we profile people in the broader array of journalism.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The editor muses on writing &#8220;life stories&#8221; on the occasion of someone&#8217;s death, and what it reveals about the layers of authentic storytelling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"topics":[],"authors":[3],"issue":[],"class_list":["post-11331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-editor","authors-jacqui-banaszynski"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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