Tomato Can Blues, or how to transform an ordinary burglary story into an immersive masterpiece

It is one of these stories that you don’t remember on TV; a burglary that does not end up very well, so common now that they vanished in the quick feed of the news, one after the other.

But by treating it from a personal and human point of view, the New York Times managed to create enough immersion and even compassion to the character, even if he’s a criminal, and by the time you finish the article, you’re in shock. Is there a magic recipe ? Let’s found out.

This article counts 4000 words, categorising it as immersive piece of journalism. The headlines and sub-lines are written as chapters titles, often very short.

At first, it’s hard to think this is actually an article, because it is written as a fiction, even as a thriller novel : preterit, a character’s perspective, and a great pacing.

Mary Pilon, the author of this long-form article decided to use a strong mimesis : the narrator is effaced, like any third person-led story, exactly as a novel. In fact, this story doesn’t feel journalistic (in the traditional sense) : what matters isn’t the story in itself, but the way it is told.

The pacing is also well-measured : the story seems to begins slowly to set up the location and a couple of character, but after the first chapter, the story begins and takes a quicker pace. The author also uses a lot of cliffanghers to generate eagerness and immersion.

The iconography is a strong feature of the article and makes it look like a graphic novel. Images appear and move slowly as you scroll down to make it even more immersive and visual. This style works particularly well for this thriller story.

By focusing on the main character, Charlie Rowan, and his internal demons and situation, the author created empathy for him, which sounds unlikely for a bulglar.

The end of the article, sad and shocking, reveals of the humanity of the character, finishing by these words : “It’s like we just died.”.