Friday, September 06, 2013

Toxic quality

"Once you realize you're not going to die or get covered in toxic sludge, it's pretty relaxing." *

Take it from there.

Try the 5+1Ws and 1H of journalism. (The extra W, the What if?, is non-standard for journalism but can help you did deeper.)

Who
Who is the speaker?
Who is the listener?
Who else might be listening?
Who else is doing this activity?
Who is interested in doing this?
Who is worried about the activity?
Who else might be connected to the place or activity?
Who is involved in this activity
Who else is asking questions about the activity?
Who is affected by the activity, by the questions and by the answers?
Who will benefit?
Who will be harmed?

What
What activity is relaxing?
What is this potentially covering toxic sludge?
What makes the activity deadly?
What created the sludge?
What created the area?
What makes the activity safe or prevents it from being deadly?

Where
Where is this toxic sludge that won't cover you?
Where is the place the toxic sludge was created?
Where is this place that looks deadly?
Where is the speaker?
Where is the listener?

When
When was this person speaking?
When did the speaker last do this activity?
When did the toxic sludge happen?
When did people start doing this activity?
When did some people start to believe it wouldn't affect them?

Why
Why is it assumed toxic sludge and death are connected to this activity?
Why is there toxic sludge?
Why would someone want to do this activity?
Why is this activity done here rather than in a place that doesn't look deadly?
Why is the activity okay here?
Why is the speaker telling a person or people about the activity?
Why do some people believe it's deadly?
Why does the speaker believe it's okay?
Or is the speaker lying? Why?

How
How did the toxic sludge and deadly quality happen?
How did the speaker come to try this activity?
How did the speaker and the listener(s) meet?
How do people do this activity?
How do they get to this place?

What if?
What if the toxic sludge hadn't happened?
What if the speaker hadn't tried the activity?
What if the activity didn't exist?
What if the listener hadn't asked?


* Quote from a news article. (I didn't include the article title since it might limit the free range of your thoughts.)

(Oops, sorry, this should have been the Wednesday post and the writer craft one on Friday.)

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