The obituary

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Obituaries are a great way to tighten your writing by following one of several patterns. Today’s post will focus on the pattern found in most newspapers. A future post will examine a slightly different pattern.

A well-written obituary is a great way to honor someone. Unfortunately, many death notices released by organizations are written to wander all over the place. Keep in mind, it’s good to use the inverted pyramid, but not to get it mixed up with the idea of writing the story chronologically. The following is an examination of how the inverted pyramid pattern develops an effective obit. Just pick up a major market newspaper and see if this isn’t the case. (a example follows below)

Name, title, who they were and what they accomplished, died on [date] in [location] of [cause of death]. He was [age].

Several paragraphs of the significance of their life, in descending order of importance.

(About halfway or two-thirds the way through the story, go back to the very beginning, giving their full name at birth, their birthday and location born.)

Ansel Charles Oliver was born on July 14, 1900 in Sacramento, California, and graduated from Pacific Union College in Angwin.

Several paragraphs of their education and early career, and bring reader back to the point before they started becoming a success as noted earlier (or started becoming a spectacular failure, in the case, say, of Charles Manson).

End with surviving loved ones.

A lot of beginners write effective leads, but then mistakenly think the second paragraph needs to go back to the day they were born and deliver the rest of the story chronically. But that is not the inverted pyramid.

Of course there are exceptions. Still, it’s helpful to know this pattern in order to write obits that flow well. Here’s a great example, written by Arin Gencer of The Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun fame: http://news.adventist.org/en/archive/articles/2011/02/22/blue-zones-icon-jetton-dies-at-106

The Washington Post, as well as others, sometimes eliminate the second sentence of the first paragraph by putting the person's age between commas after the name: http://wapo.st/oOtWif

Also, if it's a long, feature obit, you can put another few paragraphs after the list of survivors. It ends on a sweet, literary note. Great example by Matt Schudel of the Washington Post: http://wapo.st/rkBBsG

A future post will examine other, more creative variances, which still follow their own pattern.