Run, Spot, Run
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Run, Spot, Run
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I love writing about people. Every story I'm assigned to cover in my job as a newspaper reporter turns out to be about interesting people. All I have to do is really listen. This page has links to two of my favorite Lancaster Newspapers stories from my over 20 years of writing for LNP. Both of these stories turned into first-person "as told to" magazine stories. I like to think that the same ability that allows me to "climb into a characters skin" when I'm writing fiction allowed me to think-and-feel right along with these two exceptional women, and tell their stories as if they were my own.
Written originally in 1985 as "Avian Flu Diary," the first story won a Penn Ag first place in the annual agricultural writing competition and was later sold to "Guideposts" and then included in a "Guideposts" anthology. Click
The second article was written on the occasion of Lorie Lapp's senior college recital, and was headlined, "The Sound of One Hand, Playing." Like "Avian Flu Diary," it was such a dramatic and moving story, I couldn't let it drop, and eventually sold this "as told to" version to "Campus Life." Click
Click here to go to the Sunday News web site. You sometimes find my most current articles among those posted weekly by the Sunday News, and you can also find me in the archives by typing "marty crisp" in the search slot. THINK ABOUT IT: Have you ever met anyone who has had to overcome the odds to accomplish something? Why do some people give up -- and other people never give up? What do you think the chicken-farming family in "Members of the Flock" learned from their terrible experience? Why do you think Lorie Lapp was so determined to be a piano player when everyone told her she couldn't? Why do reporters ask so many questions? Is it rude of them to do so? What do you expect to learn about an event when you read about it in the newspaper? What kind of news do you think reporters should cover? How do you think a reporter should act? Have you ever had your name in the paper? How did you feel about it? If you ran all the newspapers and TV stations in the world, how would you cover the news? How would that be better than the way it's covered now? Writing for a newspaper has strengthened my "writing muscles" enormously over the years, and I'm still newly fascinated every week by people's stories. Being a reporter is a lot like a license to be nosey! And I can't think of a better way to tune into the human condition I try to use in my fiction than with the pursuit of non-fiction. Besides, both fiction and non-fiction have the same Number 1 rule: Don't be boring.
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to read "Members
of the Flock."
to read "The
Performance."
It's
nice work if you can get it!