Pulitzer Prize winner speaks about his life in journalism

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and alumnus Tom French spoke to about 25 students and faculty Sunday night in the School of Journalism about his work, experiences, writing style and writing techniques.\n"I love storytelling. I've always been interested in storytelling," said French, spring 1981 IDS editor in chief.\nFrench's interest in storytelling and writing, he said, can be traced back to when he was a child and would climb up a tree in his backyard and look into other families' backyards. He said he knew each house he looked at had its own history and language and was so different from all the others. French said he would imagine what it would be like to spend time in other peoples' worlds.\n"It is our job (as journalists) to be interested in other peoples' lives," French said.\nFrench is a projects writer for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida. He started off at the Times covering police and court beats and then moved on to write news and features. French writes in a serial narrative form. \nFrench said he likes to use the serial narrative form of writing, because he feels stories need to unfold for themselves.\n"A lot of times journalism is about rushing, but a lot of stories need to be unfolded, to let readers see what is happening," French said. "Some news needs to be reported right away, but other stories need time."\nIn his writing, French said he becomes engrossed in the story that he is telling, and he loves how stories work and unfold.\n"Tiny little details reveal so much abut people's worlds," he said. "You have to be paying attention all the time."\nThe key to good storytelling and writing, depends not only on a eye for detail, but also a clear understanding of what moves the story, French said.\nSophomore Dana Parker, who attended French's presentation, said, "Very few people out there are so passionate about their work and passionate about life, like (French) is." \nShe said French gave her a new outlook on journalism and he helped her see that writing goes beyond what you learn in the classroom.\nIn his Pulitzer Prize winning narrative, "Angels & Demons," French traveled to Ohio and to the farm where the women who were murdered in Tampa lived. French talked to Hal, the husband and father of the victims, on many different occasions. By talking to Hal, French said he could begin to understand the story and understand the family's life. "You need to travel into their universe," he said. \nFrench said he feels this is the only way a person can understand how others deal with life. \n"I want to take the reader inside the secret garden," he said. \nThere is a official and unofficial version to every story, and as a journalist, he said his job is to go after the story behind the story. \n"The unofficial story is much more interesting, chaotic and messy," he said. "You have to look for how things really are, and not how they seem to be. We have to see how people live their lives, capture how people deal with things."\nFrench said he has many ideas for future stories.\n"There are just fabulous, vivid stories waiting out there," he said.\nFrench said he wants to do more daily narrative pieces, but continue with long narrative series as well. He said he believes we live in a sea of stories and that narrative is crucial to understanding ourselves.\nFrench is working on a first person serial narrative about his family.\n"It is terrifying to write about myself, but it is also very interesting," he said. "You are absolutely naked when you are writing about yourself. You don't have any distance from it."\nFrench's speech was sponsored by the IU chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the IDS.