New Sports writer would like advice

What blacktitleist said about writing the final score down. Some schools will turn off the scoreboard seconds after the final buzzer and better to be sure than going back and relying on stats you wrote down.

Basketball scorebooks exist. I've never used one, but I've worked with people who swear by em'. To add to other people's homemade scoring techniques, I'll jot down circles for free-throw attempts and put an x in them if they're made.

If you fall behind or your stats don't seem to add up, you can always find whoever is keeping stats for the respective teams and double-check your numbers with theirs.

I'm on the talk-to-players train if you have time. It'll only help your interviewing technique and sometimes with prep kids their honesty can be refreshing from all the coachspeak.

Like it has been said, get the final score in there and get it in fairly early. To expand, avoid getting another score -- or too many numbers, for that matter -- in before the final. (Don't say: 'The Bumfuck High Basketball team trailed 55-50 to Douchebag High before using an 8-0 run to eke out a 58-55 victory on Friday night.')

Good luck.

 

I'll take this to another level. First NUMBER you mention should be the final score.

Go online, find stories that you thought were EASY to read. Go through then mark what each paragraph was about. Was it about the game? Was it some background color about the player through the season? Was it about his favorite music or an expression the player made when he hit a big shot?

Go here: http://apse.dallasnews.com/contest/contest.archive.html

Click on the winning entries and read the stories. What did they do? I'll be honest. A lot of times the stories won because the writers were handed the best story. But a lot of times too the writers MADE it the best story.

Also, PM me and I'll email you some things I have from people who helped me in the past on this board.

 

I will respond individually to as many people as I can but I just wanted to thank all of you guys. I had no idea I would receive this much feedback.

What a great forum.

 

I agree. What I meant by being a creative writer was that I don't want to write a boring play-by-play with stats. Like bob said, I want to find an interesting angle to the story and then mix in key stats, quotes, etc.

 

hahahha i saw that topic, and it made me laugh. I'm still a rook but I think it's newsworthy

 

It's fair that you would say that. It's true that I don't have a journalism degree (yet), and I don't have any prior experience in the field.

How I got the job:
I didn't even apply. What I did was email the sports editor of the newspaper and asked him how he got into the field and if he had any advice for me. He wrote back and told me how he got to be where he was today. I emailed him back and thanked him and told him I would take all of his advice into consideration, and that I would be working hard to one day to be a sports journalist.
A few weeks later, a part-time position opened up at the paper and he said my name just popped up in his head. He liked my determination, and asked me if I would be interested in a job.

As for covering so early, I think it's just because I have been working my ass off at the paper these last 3 weeks. I have been doing multiple agates a night, while still finding time to write good roundups for high school and college games (3-4 paragraphs). My editor said he really likes my writing so far, so that's why I think he is giving me this shot.

Believe me, I was surprised too when I saw my last name next to the game on the schedule.

I think I will be just fine though, you guys are extremely helpful here and have calmed a lot of my nerves.

 

You caught the inmates on a good day, kid.

Just remember, it's a learning process. Some of us have been at this for longer than you've been around and are still learning new things.

Edit: Don't let a lack a journalism degree hold you back. Some of us learned this business from the bottom up (like me), and for me personally, it's refreshing to see in this day and age that there are still SEs out there willing to give a newbie a shot.

 

So does everyone here agree with keeping your own stats vs. keeping an official book? I am leaning heavily toward what blacktitleist said. I think I am going to just find my own personal way to keep stats and keep a play-by-play. It seems easier and an overall more productive way to go about it.

 

Be careful you don't get TOO creative. A lot of rookies try to make their stories "interesting" and fail miserably. They put together a terribly cliched five-paragraph lede and forget to mention the score.
A good rule of thumb I always preach is the first six graphs of a gamer should be able to stand alone as their own story. There's room for creativity in there, but make sure you tell people what happened. Despite what some folks think, not everyone reading your story knows what happened at the game.

Also, on the topic of recorders, if you're doing an interview in the gym itself (not in a locker room or office), make sure you take notes alongside the tape. You'd be amazed how a few conversations or basketballs bouncing in the background -- or, god forbid, a band -- can turn the interview into a blur of white noise.

And you might want to scroll down a page or two. There was a good topic last week on methods of keeping score and play-by-play for basketball.

EDIT: Adding the link to the basketball thread
http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/75245/

 

Is it wrong that I think some of these "Hey, young sportswriter looking for advice! Please help!!!" threads are fake?

Maybe not this one, but . . . I guess I'm just surprised there are still so many of these.

Either way, good luck, kid. Lot of good advice here.

 

Very good advice. As far as writing a lede, does anyone have any specific advice? I've been told that is the most important part of the story.

 

Piotr Rasputin:

I can't vouch for any fake threads on here because I just joined, but I am in fact a real person just looking up to people who have been in the business for years.