A variety of styles aids my writing

After hours of searching, I grew discouraged. I didn't think it would be so hard to find a long magazine story related to heroin and addiction. Lucky for me, I found one from a magazine and another from a newspaper. Bethesda Magazine, a publication I wasn't aware of until this week, and the New York Times published articles related to heroin. Bethesda featured moms who lost children to overdose while the Times focused on how white families affected by addiction are changing the conversation. It couldn't hurt to read two different styles related to the same topic.




I started with the Times article "In Heroin Crisis, White Families Seek Gentler War on Drugs" for the sources. Some are out of my reach, like the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Others like Eric Adams, the former narcotics detective, are more within my grasp.




I thought there was a slight disconnect between the article and the headline. While it is mentioned that white addicts now experience compassion when years prior black addicts were jailed, I feel the emphasis is on lack of treatment centers and how to combat that. Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw mentions how treating blacks with such compassion back then could have prevented "the devastating impact of mass incarceration." I see a story in that. Why didn't black families feel empowered enough to challenge the policy around drug use? It bothers me that addiction had to invade powerful white families before change happened.

Because the Times article is a newspaper story, it's a dryer read. But that's good in my case. As I read through, I was making mental notes where an anecdote, scene or more detail would transform it into a magazine story. Then I switched to the regional magazine story.

Bethesda Magazine's "A Mother's Heartbreak: Heroin's Toll in Montgomery County" uses the faces of about five mothers and their children to demonstrate the rise of the heroin problem in one county. What seems like a daunting task to me became a lovely magazine story. The mothers meet as a support group. Some are connected through their now-deceased children. Using five random moms who each lost a kid to addiction wouldn't be as effective; the story wouldn't flow well.

The writer, Cindy Rich, uses scenes that have an emotional impact. Rich recreates the 911 phone call in which a mom is desperately trying to keep her son alive while the paramedics rush to the house. In another, one mom asks another how she's doing. She doesn't know why she bothers asking when she knows the answer. I hope I can recreate some powerful scenes when I write my long story. My focus going forward in my reporting is detail. Detail to hold the story upright and leave readers feeling something.