Suite T Nostalgic Moment with Cliff Yeargin

 

Monday, March 20, 2017

IT’S THE STORY, STUPID

By Cliff Yeargin


I am a storyteller. I work daily in network television and I write mysteries. The two are very different crafts. Television is more a collaborative process in the beginning while writing breeds solitude. But the two also share some very similar traits and challenges when it comes to telling a story. A story bubbles up from one person and as it flows downriver it can often get lost in the muddy waters of teamwork. In TV we have layers of producers, legal, show team executives and reporters that weigh in on each story. For a writer there are agents, editors and publishers to chime in as the story navigates the rapids.

The biggest challenge today in television storytelling is technology. When I first told a story for TV it was just me, one camera and the subject. Today we have a dizzying array of tools. Tiny cameras you can mount on a moving car or maybe a skateboard or even the head of a monkey. Add a drone in the sky and you can end up with hours of footage. Software in our editing process now makes it a snap to add almost any special effect in mere seconds. Once we spit out the final version we often stand around and pat ourselves on the back about how cool it looks. Except for one thing. One big thing. Sinking under all the muddy water of cool tools we have lost the STORY. Viewers at home aren’t as impressed as we are with our toys and all they wish to see and hear is the story. In television the best editing is editing those goes unnoticed by the viewer.

Telling a story in fiction can face challenging water as well. When you set out to write a book the first thing you think about is what story do I want to tell. You are not concerned with revisions, marketing or sales because at that moment you are just telling a story. Even that calm water can turn muddy if you spend too much time trying to turn prose into poetry when your skills don’t reach that level or imitating the style of your favorite writer instead of searching for your own voice. An overwritten fanciful sentence may delight your inner muse but no reader is likely to tell a friend about your book by saying “I just read one of the most beautifully crafted sentences.” They are however much more likely to tell them about a “great story” they just finished.

From the time of cavemen around the fire to the old man next to the pot-bellied stove at the general store, the person who demanded the most attention was the storyteller. We are the storytellers of today. Television or fiction the goal should be to steer clear of muddy waters and narrow our journey downriver to one simple thing…the story.


To paraphrase former President Bill Clinton’s laser focus on the economy…


“It’s the STORY…Stupid.”

Cliff Yeargin has spent his life as a “Storyteller”, the bulk of that in a long career in Broadcast Journalism as a Writer, Producer, Photographer and Editor. Most of those years were spent covering sports, particularly Major League Baseball, where in Baltimore he was lucky enough to cover Cal Ripken Jr.’s very first and very last game…and hundreds in between. He is the author of the Award Winning Jake Eliam ChickenBone Mystery Series.The books include the introductory RABBIT SHINE and the second in the series HOOCHY KOOCHY which was named The Georgia Author of The Year Silver Medal Finalist in the Mystery Category for 2016; then MUDCAT MOON, BIRDDOG BOOGIE, AND SWEET TATER TANGO. Today he has returned to his native Georgia and works at CNN. Follow Jake, Catfish and the rest in this Southern Fried Mystery Series. cliffyeargin.com

THE CRACK OF THE BAT

By Cliff Yeargin

This is my favorite time of the year. Baseball season. I write a mystery series steeped in baseball, led by the protagonist, a former professional baseball player. During my career as a broadcast journalist I have spent countless hours, days, even years watching and covering the game. The more I watch baseball, the more similarities I see to the craft of writing.

At lot of people say baseball is a boring game and it is built around tedium. Nine guys stand in the field and wait for something to happen. One man on the mound stares in at another at the plate…and they wait. Boring? Tedious? Not to the players or in the case of your story, the characters.

The players, like your characters, are busy during the tedious build up to action. An outfielder cheats in two steps, the shortstop moves four feet to his left before the next pitch, the catcher signals to the pitcher, a coach signals the hitter. Drama builds within the tedium.

Writing, like baseball is built on structure. You build characters a reader will follow during the tedious wait for action. A batter steps out of the box, the pitcher yanks his cap down, it could signal anticipation of what is to come. Is he scared? Is he angry? If the game or your story is good, you don’t notice the structure, you simply get drawn in by the drama.

All the work on structure, form, and wordplay become invisible. The plotting and character development fall away when the ‘ball is in play’ and the characters fight, flee, laugh or maybe gunfire erupts.

For a writer, like a ballplayer, the hard work takes place before the action. The hours it requires to build your line-up of characters, setting up the backstory, building the tension, creating anticipation, word by word, sentence by sentence. The tension built during these boring moments is what keeps a reader turning the page. And like in baseball, when the pitch is delivered, and the action begins, the result is always unpredictable. A ground ball, a strike out, a great catch or perhaps a long explosive home run. You don’t know what will happen until the moment it occurs. The mystery of the outcome at the end of each tedious moment is what keeps people watching the game.

As a writer, we should all strive for the same. Build anticipation that will carry your characters through the tedious times and keep your reader guessing what is going to happen at the next Crack Of The Bat.

________________________________________________________________

Cliff Yeargin has spent his life as a “Storyteller”, the bulk of that in a long career in Broadcast Journalism as a Writer, Producer, Photographer and Editor. He is the author of the Award Winning Jake Eliam, ChickenBone Mystery Series. The books include Rabbit Shine, Hoochy Koochy, named a 2016 Georgia Author of The Year Silver Medal Finalist and MudCat Moon. The latest book in the series BirdDog Boogie will be released this spring. Yeargin has returned to his native Georgia home and works at CNN. Follow the series @ cliffyeargin.com

     

ARE YOU PLAYING OUT OF POSITION?

By Cliff Yeargin

Here’s a question. If during the Super Bowl, the Head Coach of one team decided to move an offensive lineman to the Quarterback position or during a World Series, a manager made a move to have his Pitcher play 3^rd base. What would the reaction be? Fans would set their hair on fire and the coach and manager fired on the spot. Why? It’s simple. You don’t play people out of position. Each player has a skill set, training, aptitude and desire to play a position they can succeed in.

As a writer, are you playing out of position? Are you writing in your own voice and playing to your strong points? Are you playing at the best position to succeed as a writer? As a young man just out of college and starting out in broadcasting, I was given the opportunity to do the play-by-play for high school football on a tiny rural radio station. I dove in head first. One game I imitated ABC’s Keith Jackson, the next I mimicked a legendary local college announcer, another I copied Dick Enberg of NBC. Different voice every game. Some people told me I did great. My friends told me I stunk. 

Always good to have honest friends. Why did I stink? I was playing out of position. Rambling on in a forced voice, not of my creation and a hopeful career as a play-by-play announcer disappeared like a rabbit in a hillside of kudzu.

Years down the road I once again decided to dive in head first. Fiction writing this time and right off the bat I became a running back trying to play left guard. Out of position again. I tried to write flowery prose like James Lee Burke, create diabolical characters like James Patterson and capture the quirky humor of Carl Hiaasen. I thought it was great. Those same honest friends told me it stunk. So, I changed positions. I went back to playing where I felt comfortable. In my case, that was simply dumbing things down to my level. My ability with prose and plotting is limited. I am a simple storyteller. So once I grasped that reality, it led me to create characters and stories that fit my own simple voice. Their words and actions began to fit as comfortable as an old pair of work boots and soon I enjoyed spending time with them.

Are you playing out of position? We all can’t write the same as the famous writers we admire, but you can find your own voice and slip into the right position where you can succeed. It took a long time to find my own voice…now if I can just convince those honest friends that I no longer stink.

_______________________________________________________________

Cliff Yeargin has spent his life as a “Storyteller”, the bulk of that in a long career in Broadcast Journalism as a Writer, Producer, Photographer and Editor. He is the author of the Award Winning Jake Eliam ChickenBone Mystery Series. The books include Rabbit Shine, Hoochy Koochy, named The 2016 Georgia Author of The Year Silver Medal Finalist in the Mystery Category and the latest book in the series, the just released MudCat Moon. Yeargin has returned to his native Georgia home and works at CNN. Follow the series @ cliffyeargin.com Blog http://www.cliffyeargin.com/blog Facebook facebook.com/cliffyearginbooks Twitter @cliffyeargin   Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cliffyeargin/

IT’S THE STORY, STUPID

By Cliff Yeargin

I am a storyteller. I work daily in network television and I write mysteries. The two are very different crafts. Television is more a collaborative process in the beginning while writing breeds solitude. But the two also share some very similar traits and challenges when it comes to telling a story. A story bubbles up from one person and as it flows downriver it can often get lost in the muddy waters of teamwork. In TV we have layers of producers, legal, show team executives and reporters that weigh in on each story. For a writer there are agents, editors and publishers to chime in as the story navigates the rapids.

The biggest challenge today in television storytelling is technology. When I first told a story for TV it was just me, one camera and the subject. Today we have a dizzying array of tools. Tiny cameras you can mount on a moving car or maybe a skateboard or even the head of a monkey. Add a drone in the sky and you can end up with hours of footage. Software in our editing process now makes it a snap to add almost any special effect in mere seconds. Once we spit out the final version we often stand around and pat ourselves on the back about how cool it looks. Except for one thing. One big thing. Sinking under all the muddy water of cool tools we have lost the STORY. Viewers at home aren’t as impressed as we are with our toys and all they wish to see and hear is the story. In television the best editing is editing those goes unnoticed by the viewer.

Telling a story in fiction can face challenging water as well. When you set out to write a book the first thing you think about is what story do I want to tell. You are not concerned with revisions, marketing or sales because at that moment you are just telling a story. Even that calm water can turn muddy if you spend too much time trying to turn prose into poetry when your skills don’t reach that level or imitating the style of your favorite writer instead of searching for your own voice. An overwritten fanciful sentence may delight your inner muse but no reader is likely to tell a friend about your book by saying “I just read one of the most beautifully crafted sentences.” They are however much more likely to tell them about a “great story” they just finished.

From the time of cavemen around the fire to the old man next to the pot-bellied stove at the general store, the person who demanded the most attention was the storyteller. We are the storytellers of today. Television or fiction the goal should be to steer clear of muddy waters and narrow our journey downriver to one simple thing…the story.

To paraphrase former President Bill Clinton’s laser focus on the economy…

“It’s the STORY…Stupid.”

______________________________________________________________________

Cliff Yeargin has spent his life as a “Storyteller”, the bulk of that in a long career in Broadcast Journalism as a Writer, Producer, Photographer and Editor. Most of those years were spent covering sports, particularly Major League Baseball, where in Baltimore he was lucky enough to cover Cal Ripken Jr.’s very first and very last game…and hundreds in between. He is the author of the Award Winning Jake Eliam ChickenBone Mystery Series.The books include the introductory RABBIT SHINE and the second in the series HOOCHY KOOCHY which was named The Georgia Author of The Year Silver Medal Finalist in the Mystery Category for 2016. Today he has returned to his native Georgia and works at CNN. Follow Jake, Catfish and the rest in this Southern Fried Mystery Series.   cliffyeargin.com