#appellatetwitter is obsessed with Formula 1.
A longtime sports fan, I had zero interest in car racing but was intrigued. Everyone said to watch S1 of @Netflix's
Drive to Survive (DTS).
Wow! What a show.
In it I saw a number of lessons for lawyers & storytelling.
Quick 🧵
1/ Good storytelling can make anything exciting.
A lot of law can be dry. Rules. Technicalities. But #legalwriting must be engaging nonetheless.
I mean really. Car racing could not be intrinsically less interesting to me and in 10 short eps DTS I am obsessed b/c of the story.
2/ Chronology is overrated as an organizational device.
S1 starts with Race 1 & ends w/ Race 21. Beyond that eps. don’t proceed chronologically. Instead relevant chronology is conveyed within eps based on topic. #legalwriting tip: stop starting each paragraph with a date.
3a/ Contextual Detail > Comprehensiveness.
After 10 eps I have no idea how the sport is scored. I have no idea how many laps each race is. I don't know how old the sport it.
And it doesn’t matter.
Instead the audience gets only details necessary to tell the story of each ep.
3b/ When I was practicing this was always a challenge. We wanted to tell the Judge EVERYTHING in the intro but in reality only some of that information was significant. We needed context for our arguments not comprehensiveness about interesting but non-legally significant details
4/ Just in Time Details.
Relatedly, DTS is masterful at giving the audience facts "just in time." E.g. talk about importance of money in F1 as part of story about richer teams v. poorer teams. It doesn't try to handle in abstract in advance. Good #legalwriting does the same.
5/ Let Your Sources Speak.
We teach in first year #legalwriting to put things in your own words. Don't block quote.
But sometimes hearing the key statement from the person makes the story far more compelling than an omniscient narrator. Shwo Don't Tell. DTS does this in ♠️ .
6/ Tell One Story at a Time
A problem I see in #legalwriting is trying to cram too many arguments into a single section. The reader benefits from seeing each topic in one freestanding section.
DTS does just that. It tells ONE story (and only ONE) per episode. Viewing pleasure.
7/ See How It Writes
The amazing part of the show is that they get footage all year. They can't know exactly where its going in advance but once they have the raw material they can build a season.
Do the same in #legalwriting. Build good research. Then see how it writes.
8/ Visuals Matter
One of the coolest parts about F1 is the 🌏 aspect. Hard to convey. But DTS used a common visual to give the audience a feel of each race location.
#legalwriting and visuals are becoming more intertwined. Done well they can be a gamechanger for a document.
END/ I hope you enjoyed some random musings on a show about car racing and #legalwriting. Thanks to @bethwilensky for giving me the idea to look for #legalwriting tips in a Netflix documentary.
Looking forward to watching S2-S4 and picking a driver to support for the next season
PS. If you are more of a musical fan than car race documentary fan, I put together some lessons for #legalwriting I learned from @SongExploder's episode with @lin_manuel on the @HamiltonMusical song "Wait for It" here 👇
twitter.com/JonahPerlin/status/1476574376405262340?s=20
And let me know if these lessons for #legalwriting from pop culture are enjoyable. I find them a nice break from grading and other tasks and they help me think about new ways to teach and write. Would love to see others do the same if interested.
Maybe a cooking show next . . .