THE CRAFT OF WRITING

part eight–Converging Narrative, section two

(If you are new to this series, please check  the archives for previous selections in THE CRAFT OF WRITING)

In the previous selection in this series, I introduced the idea of Converging Narrative as an organizational form–that is: two (or more) related stories run independently until they converge–or come together as one story–in what is usually the final pages of the composition. In this segment, I’m going to talk about the writing of my short literary nonfiction story, David’s Journey.

My specialty in those days (early to mid-1990s) was short literary nonfiction for magazines and newspapers, so I was always on the lookout for good stories. Just to review, literary nonfiction is defined as “real stories about real people and the dramatic events in their lives, using the techniques of fiction.” This does not mean, however, that literary nonfiction is a hybrid of fiction and nonfiction. That “hybrid” simply does not exist in the formal literary world.

Anyway. I had done a story about an organization in Portland, Oregon, that matched  veteran parents of disabled children with parents of newborn children who were born with disabilities. As part of the story, I interviewed a cranial-facial surgeon. I mentioned to him that I’d like to do an in-surgery story with him–meaning I would follow the progress of a surgery from inside the operating suite. A few weeks later he called  to let me know he would be doing a surgery on a child, now seven years old, with severe facial deformities.

The little boy’s name was David, and he was born to a first generation Mexican family who lived in Springfield, Oregon–which was about a two hour drive south of Portland. In the weeks preceding the surgery, I drove to Springfield several times to interview the family. What I found was Read the rest of this entry »