Deadline Narrative

Lance Griffin came to Tom French's seminar at Poynter a few months ago on doing narrative on deadline. He got the chance to try it out last week when an armed man shot up a medical practice.

Here's his sidebar narrative in the Dothan Eagle: Remia Robertson sat at her second-floor desk at PrimeCare Monday morning. A day’s worth of Medicare paperwork rested beside her. She had just gotten off the phone with an insurance claim when she heard a door slam downstairs.

What followed was a single gunshot, she said. Everything got quiet upstairs. She looked at her two coworkers, wondering if they heard what she thought she just heard.

Before she had time to determine exactly what it was, Jason Murphy opened fire downstairs. Then, there was no doubt.