Norman Sims' The Art of Literary Journalism helped me refresh my memory on what is Narrative Journalism and made me think of this new form of journalism in ways I never thought of approaching it. When I was first introduced to literary journalism, I saw it as a great break from news-writing, which I always found very objective and left no room for personal opinions on current events. With literary journalism, I had more freedom in choosing a story, who I wanted to interview, and deciding what would best fit the piece as a whole. And this freedom was really important to me because it gave me the opportunity to have people tell me about their lives and learn so much about life in general, through a narrative of experiences.
Ever since I was a little girl, people watching was one of my favorite things to do. I was very observant, I paid attention to the smallest details and constructed a whole story based on what I saw to share with my parents. So when Sims said "Literary journalists write narratives focused on everyday events that bring out the hidden patterns of community life as tellingly as the spectacular stories that make newspaper headlines" (Sims, 3), I completely related to that. However, once I started practicing this form of journalism, I realized that what I mostly enjoyed is interviewing. By simply having a good, progressive conversation with someone, I could somehow relate myself to that person as a human being in this world, even though we might have completely different backgrounds. I saw Narrative Journalism as the best way to learn about society by putting myself in positions that I would've never considered and embracing new ways of viewing all types of communities. Reading Sims definition and connotations of new journalism served me as practical tips and as a reminder of why I love journalism so much.
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