Using Anecdotes

The author used anecdotes in her story to show the reader what the daily life of living with a child with the disorder is like. She did not just tell the reader the problem and the proposed solution, instead she walked the reader through this problem from they perspective of a family that has struggled with this very thing.

To get these kinds of details she interviewed the families that battle this disease first hand. That information grabs the reader’s attention and can possibly change their perception of the disease, almost as if it is giving a face to the disease.

The author also goes into detail the parent’s struggles and their determination to help their daughter to overcome this illness. When the author does this it also makes the disease more real. The love that the parents have for their child is obvious by the sacrifices that they are willing to make on behalf of their daughter. This part of the story plays a part on the emotions of the reader and especially any parents.

To help me improve in using anecdotes in my writing, I think that approaching the interview in a light-hearted way would be helpful. In other words do not make the interview all business. Talk about funny experiences that the subject has had with the subject matter, and then translate that into the story. This allows the reader to see all sides, not just the professional and sometimes boring “do this and not that” type of writing.

The problem I have is that I usually write the same way I talk. Which can be crazy at times and not using verbs, nouns, and pronouns in the correct order. That is the way my mind functions and it takes a lot of work to force my writing to make sense to someone other than myself sometimes. So getting that under control will allow for the anecdotes to work well within my feature.