This tiny but power-packed entry comes from an outstanding blog called Gangrey that describes itself as "prolonging the slow death of newspapers." It highlights great writing from papers across the country. The entry appeared on 03/14/06:
This Fresh Air interview with David Mamet and Shawn Ryan is instructive for storytellers in any medium.
Mamet ...
The trick is to leave everything out. That's the whole trick to drama. It's like the ability to hit the fastball, it's the ability to leave out the narration. You've got to leave the narration out because anybody can say, "Well, Jim, welcome back from Antarctica. We haven't seen you since we cured cancer together in 1985. How's your wife? Is she still an albino?"
If you take out the idea that you can overburden the show with narration ... then the question is: What information is really, really needed? And what information can we really do without?
