This is the link to my profile choice for the week:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/theater/09meriwether.html?ref=todayspaper
I picked this piece for a couple different reasons. One, it's only 1,004 words. Let's be clear, though--I didn't pick a piece that short so that you all would have less to read, but because there were a lot of people last week who said that they didn't think that they could adequately convey a person in only 1,000 words. Personally, I think that excuse is lame. Is it hard to convey someone in 1,000 words? Yes. But is it possible? Of course--it just depends on how hard you're going to work at it.
In Part V of Telling True Stories, Jon Franklin writes the following: "While the writer must draw a true portrait of the character, it can't ever be a complete one; no writer can capture a whole person. Every person is involved in many parallel, consecutive stories...The reporter usually ends up choosing just one facet of a person's life" (127).
Is this the best profile I've ever read? No. But I do believe that it is a good example of a short profile that does what Franklin is talking about--it highlights one facet of Elizabeth Meriwether's life (the chaotic-ness of her career) and yet seems to also convey a sense of her personality (at least as it relates to this). I also think that there are certain aspects of it that are really strong: the beginning does a good job drawing readers in (with the reference to being fired from Obama's campaign--now, everyone wants to know why), and it gets across general aspects of her life (age, alma mater, what she wears/looks like) in a way that isn't boring. While there are parts of it that seem a little promotion-like, I do think that it remains very focused on her, and that overall it does a good job of illustrating this one section of this woman's life (I do begin to feel like I know her, to an extent).
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Yeah, I agree, I got a pretty good sense of Meriwether's life and personality from this profile. Of course I wished I knew more about her history, but you're right, Jess - this is pretty darn good for 1000 words. It definitely drew me in with the hook and made me want to see Meriwether's stuff. I wanted more quotes from Meriwether to show her quirky humor (wish the author could have included that campaign email), but I think this article is accomplishing what it sets out to accomplish: a concise introduction to a screenwriter who's coming into the spotlight, and an overview of her work.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really great example of a short profile that worked in conveying the personality of its subject. What helped the author (David Rooney) do this was three things. First of all he had a compelling past situation where Elizabeth Meriwether had to make a big character defining decision. She chose to stick by what she thought was funny at the loss of her job. Not a lot of people would do this, but she did. Immediately the reader gets a sense of what type of woman she is. Second of all, Rooney uses descriptions of her creative work to paint a picture of her. Inevitably someone's creative work is going to reflect on who they are as a person. Finally Rooney uses quotations, not just from her but from other people. This is a standard, but he did it well. Overall it was a well-written and organized piece, but he also had access to her creative work and a character defining scenario which added to it. Interesting to note is the use of a picture at the beginning of the article. Of course the way a person looks is going to affect our perception of them. With seeing Elizabeth Meriwether's picture before starting on the article I had already begun trying to decide her personality (since we do that automatically with any information we have about a person). Still there is a paragraph devoted to what she looks like that also had this information, but it's interesting to note the use of photography in this piece- that she's standing in front of an exposed brick side of a theater in a trendy new york neighborhood, wearing hip clothes, the expression on her face, etc.
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