Been looking forward to @David_Dobbs & @deborahblum session abt shape & music as guides to #longform structure since announced. #scio12

at #scio12 #longform sesh @deborahblum: geometric shapes of stories: triangle (newspaper), diamond (classic magazine), narrative arc

at #scio12 #longform sesh @deborahblum: our language for describing stories is visual: broken line, zipped, braided narrative

at #scio12 #longform @deborahblum: refs Jon Franklin, unsuccessful narrative is "spaghetti': Mike Lemonick, complex narr is "onion braid"

at #scio12 #longform @deborahblum: complex narrative is geologic layers, or pancakes (paging @clasticdetritus)

at #scio12 #longform @deborahblum: a story can be a "turtle": sensitive core braced by evidence

now at #scio12 #longform @David_Dobbs is playing Jimmy Page, parsing musical line in real time. standard blues structure, 4/4 to 9/8 to 4/4

#scio12 #longform @David_Dobbs timbre tempo rhythm, they have these tools, we do too

#scio12 #longform @David_Dobbs "i became obsessed with structure... when i realized i wasn't using it."

#scio12 #longform @David_Dobbs need to understand entire sonata to play any measure well; understand story structure for any sentence 2 work

#scio12 #longform @David_Dobbs parsing sonata form, using Mendelssohn String Qt #1 Adagio

#scio12 #longform @David_Dobbs now using Schubert quartet 1st mvmt to illo tension between 2 contrasting narratives, violin against cello

#scio12 #longform @David_Dobbs Schubert: voices (narratives) cross, each picks up phrases from other, resolve in diff place than started

#scio12 #longform @David_Dobbs: used Schubert quartet for structure of NYT Mag piece "The Depression Switch" (2 narratives, doc & patient)

Listening to @David_Dobbs discuss how he writes stories reminds me why I trusted him when he wrote http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/05/free-science-one-paper-at-a-time-2/all/1 #scio12

Here's @David_Dobbs' masterful piece on the "Depression Switch." Fantastic lessons on #longform structure. http://nyti.ms/xt6Fsl #scio12

#scio12 #longform @David_Dobbs his NYTMag story uses typical mag-story pieces - anecdotal lede, big-picture pull-back - but broken up

#scio12 #longform now moving to q/a @David_Dobbs @DeborahBlum w discussion of power of rhythm of varying sentence length

#scio12 #longform @David_Dobbs: tends to write long sentences, explicit part of revision process is to go through & shorten some

#scio12 #longform @DeborahBlum: use long sentences to establish mood, shock of transition to short - boom!- for action, surprise

#scio12 #longform @David_Dobbs quoting Evan Ratliff, Atavist: when in trouble for ending, use the last action

#scio12 #longform @DeborahBlum a story is a river, with a flow, when you hit a rock your readers get out

#scio12 #longform someone refs Frank Deford's metaphor of story stringing bells on a clothesline, and ending should ring all the bells

#scio12 #longform @David_Dobbs refs Paris Review intvw w John McPhee: if you have the right structure, transitions will work themselves out

#scio12 #longform @scottros urges audience to think of, play w structure in blogging as well - not just for longform