Writing a complex news story?:

Go for the pyramid of pyramids technique

Gaston de Rosayro

In our earlier articles we saw that the basic shape of the news story is the inverted pyramid. This means that the most newsworthy key point comes first in the story, in the intro. This is followed by the other key points, in descending order of newsworthiness, so that the main detail comes first and the minor detail last.

The inverted pyramid format turns traditional storytelling on its head. In a short story or novel, the most important moment - the climax - typically comes near the very end. But in news writing the most important moment is right at the start in the lead.

We do this for several reasons. First, readers have a limited amount of time and short attention spans, so it just makes sense to put the most important news at the start of the story. Second, this format allows editors to shorten stories quickly on deadline if needed.

After all, it is a lot easier to trim a news story if you know the least important stuff is at the end. The editors will love you for following the basic configuration because it makes their work easier by allowing them to lop off the article anywhere from the bottom.

The other thing to remember is to keep your writing tight, and your stories relatively short. Say what you need to say in as few words as possible.

Many students take journalism courses because they like to write, and many journalism courses focus a lot on the craft of writing. There are a few basic rules for writing and structuring any news story. If you are accustomed to other types of writing - such as fiction - these rules may seem odd at first.

But the format is easy to pick up and there are very practical reasons why reporters have followed this format for decades.

Highlighting the most important fact in the lead

But the great thing about news writing is that it follows a basic format. Learn that format and you will be able to write news stories, whether you are a naturally talented writer or not.

As we learned earlier in this series the most important part of any news story is the lead. The lead is the very first sentence of a news story. In it, the writer summarises the most newsworthy points of the story in broad brushstrokes. If a lead is well-written, it will give the reader a basic idea of what the story is about, even if he skips over the rest of the story.

This is a good basic pattern, and works well for simple news stories. This 'shape' of the news story, with a 'broad' top and a 'narrow' base, is in the weight of the news itself. You can look back at some of the examples, how the first paragraph of the news story is the biggest news, and how the story begins to taper down towards the minor detail.

Remember the first paragraph, which is called the intro, contains the most newsworthy part of the story - the newest, most unusual, most interesting and most significant - told clearly and simply. This is followed by a full explanation and all the details. The most newsworthy parts of the story will be written nearest to the top of the story.

The later part of the story - the tapering point of the inverted pyramid - contains detail which is helpful, but not essential.

However, when you have to write a more complex news story, a more complex structure is necessary.

We have already seen an alternative structure in making a news story simple. That is by telling the story in chronological order. The order in which things happened, from the first to the most recent.

This is an especially useful way of telling stories about sequences of events, rather than single events. When the Minister of Transport opens a new bridge, there is one simple event to report. This story can be reported as a simple inverted pyramid.

However, when a group of angry landowners breaks up the ceremony, fights the police who are on duty and stones the Minister, it is better to tell the news as in inverted pyramid intro, followed by a telling of the story in chronological order. We shall tell the reader or listener at the beginning what the news is going to be in the story, and then tell the story as it happens.

There is still one more story structure to discuss, however, and it is an important one. It is one which is widely used to tell complex stories. It is one which you will need to master.

We call it the Pyramid of pyramids. When a story has a number of different facets to it, it is better to tell the story one part at a time than to jump backwards and forwards between the different parts.

This means that you go to the end of one part, telling the minor details about that, before moving on to the major details of the next part.

This story structure is a pyramid of pyramids, in which each part of the story is told in a mini-inverted pyramid of its own. The sequence of these mini-pyramids will depend upon the newsworthiness of each one. The most newsworthy part of the story will come first, followed by the other parts in decreasing order of importance.

Just as you have to rank key points in their order of newsworthiness in order to write the intro, so you have to rank these mini-pyramids into their order of newsworthiness in order to write a complex story.

The story will start with an intro, followed by two or three paragraphs written as though the story was going to be a simple inverted pyramid. In other words, you start by telling the most important key points in their order of importance.

After a few paragraphs, you will have introduced the most important parts of the story. You can now concentrate on the first part of the story, told in its own mini-pyramid. When you have finished that, you can move on to the next part, and so on, until you have told the whole story.

You will then note how each mini-pyramid is smaller than the previous one. The story is still basically structured like a pyramid, going from the most important to the least important.

How many mini-pyramids there are will depend upon the story. There may be only two - perhaps a minister's announcement of a new policy, followed by opponents' criticism of it.

There may be three or four or five mini-pyramids, if there are that many parts to the story.

The important thing is for you to understand the story clearly and then to tell it clearly.

To summarise: Use the inverted pyramid style of news writing to give your readers or listeners the most important facts first.

If you need to tell part of the story in the order in which events happened, use chronological order after the opening paragraph - the intro - or first few paragraphs.

If a story is complex with lots of different sections, speakers or issues, use the pyramid of pyramids style.

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