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Of everything you've written, what's gotten the best response?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by forever_town, Jun 25, 2008.

  1. SportsDude

    SportsDude Active Member

    I wrote a column a day after Dale Earnhardt had died. I did it from the perspective of a Ford fan (Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison fan) talking about Earnhardt from the other side. I couldn't count all the e-mail I received. I was pleasantly surprised.
     
  2. cgsports12

    cgsports12 New Member

    I wrote a column three years ago describing everything my wife and I did with our dog, Lady, on the day we had to have her put down because of a tumor. It was all the fun stuff we did that day -- the places we went, the special food treats, her last car ride -- and all the tear-jerker stuff. June 23 marked the three-year anniversary.
    I've written 7,000 stories in 15 years, and it remains my favorite: "Saying goodbye to my special Lady"
    I received close to 100 e-mails/cards/voicemails from people who said it made them cry. I also got a bunch of "Rainbow Bridge" poems sent my way.
     
  3. Jim_Mora

    Jim_Mora Member

    I covered a boys high school basketball game between two rivals last year. The home school was naming the gym that night after a former coach. However, a week before, one of the more well-liked kids of the home school had died in a car accident. It was the first home game since his death. The away school was ranked in the top ten in its classification while the home school was having a rough season. One of his best friends came off the bench in the 4th quarter and drained like five three-pointers in the final quarter and OT. This was a short, skinny kid who didn't get much playing time. He ended up scoring 20-something points out of nowhere to lead his team to the win. After the game when the guy from the other paper and I talked to him, he held back tears, claiming "tonight was for reese." Not to mention the first time the two teams played earlier that season, the other school won by 25.

    That may sound like an air bud movie, but you knew there was something bigger going on than a basketball game in that gym that night. It was one of those rare instances where all the elements came together for a great story and it pretty much wrote itself. The kid's father emailed me to tell me thanks for it.
     
  4. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    At the weekly paper I worked at, I covered a H.S. football game in which the home fans were just ripping on their own quarterback, shouting at him, yelling at the coach to bench him and some other nasty words.

    I wrote my typical straight-forward gamer. But on the front page of the weekly was a community notes column, featuring sights and sounds around the small town. I wrote a brief (4-5 inch) note, ripping the fans for being poor sports for their remarks about the QB.

    Next game, fans were much quieter (team and QB did play better, so I'm sure that had something to do with it). After the game, the coach came up to me and thanked me for writing the brief.

    For the rest of the season, win or lose, there was barely a word against the QB, who was a pretty nice kid too.
     
  5. Rosie

    Rosie Active Member

    Writing a weekly column for as many years as I did, I've had lots of comments about them. But one that arguably had the most impact, one I received comments about well after a year past its publication date was one I wrote when I was still shaking from anger and scared-to-deathness.

    My son was in grade school at the time, and as he and his sister went to get on the bus that morning, some #(*$& ran the flashing stop arm and nearly hit my son.

    I wrote about it.

    As an aside, to this day I am convinced 100 percent that there are guardian angels. Nothing will change my mind after what I saw. My son should have been hit by that car.
     
  6. Oh, and anytime you write anything about animals expect about 50 responses.

    I once wrote a story about a dog who died while saving a couple and their baby in a fire. The response was so overwhelming from pet owners that I had to write stories the next few days. I even had to cover the doggie memorial service. At first I thought it was a cool story, but by then I was like, "Give me a break."
     
  7. Bob Slydell

    Bob Slydell Active Member

    When I was an intern at an Army paper in college, I wrote a feature on a guy who ran a kitchen in the Army for many, many years and had his own business as well. He was retiring and I did a feature.

    I went over to see him a few days later and he cried and hugged me. That was pretty cool. Very nice man.

    I wrote a column about my first father's day this year and got some good response on it.
     
  8. JLaff

    JLaff Guest

    I wrote a feature earlier this year on a soccer player that got me a really nice email from her mom. The article wasn't anything too spectacular, but it was nice hearing from parents who actually read the articles and appreciate when their kids get into the paper, instead of expecting it.

    Opposite end of the spectrum... I wrote a news story about a graduation. Got an angry email from a parent that said I was biased against the school. Still trying to figure that one out.
     
  9. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    When I was in charge of a weekly youth sports section for the hometown paper, I tried to write a feature story about my old Legion coach -- one of those gruff baseball lifers, MLB scout types, who scares the shit out of you when you're 16 but then you learn to appreciate how much better he made you. Never a word of praise ... until you least expect it.

    He had opened up a baseball academy in our town, and I was going to write a story about it. But god bless him, the man just flat-out refused to talk about himself. He'd talk baseball with me all day long, he'd talk about the kids who attended, talk about players he used to have ... but gave me the evil eye whenever he thought I was steering the conversation back to being about him.

    At the end of the day, he told me, "You write the story you want. I don't have to like it, but you can write it."

    I didn't write the feature -- how could I? He didn't give me any material. So I personalized it and wrote a column instead. It's still one of my favorite pieces -- a wonderful tribute to a man who meant a lot to me.

    A couple weeks later, I got a letter in the mail from him. He had superimposed it over an old picture of me from when I played for him and, in it he wrote, "The subject matter was poor, but the writing was superb. I'm proud of the man you've become. Thank you."

    Still have that letter, all these years later. Of everything I've written, that's the response I treasure most.
     
  10. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    I wrote something after 9/11 that was therapeutic and drew a ton of positive feedback. Tons and tons of emails from people I'd never heard from before as well as some of my best friends and even one guy who I hadn't heard from since we were in the same fantasy football league in 1994. My parents called me the day it appeared and complemented me (they've always been 1,000,000% supportive of me, but they don't call me every day to rave about every single piece). I went to my wife's grandparents' house a few days later and her grandma had printed it out and put it in a folder.

    I'm still very proud of the piece, but wish I'd never had to write it.
     
  11. joe_schmoe

    joe_schmoe Active Member

    Mr John Doe:

    Pleas consider this my resignation from the Podunk Times effective February 11.

    Signed,
    Joe Schmoe

    I thought my ex boss was never going to stop celebrating.

    Otherwise, I wrote two columns that both got good response. One was on a high school baseball team and it's run to an almost perfect season, the other on a hockey player who was 100 percent no class on and off the ice.
    Anytime you rip a guy no one likes anyway, you always get the "it's about time you guys had a story on that jerk," type responses, so it's hard to count the hockey thing.
     
  12. Mediator

    Mediator Member

    I spent a lot of time with a family running marathons to raise money for a foundation after their 9-month-old daughter died. My daughter was about a year at the time, and I sat with the parents for hours getting the details right.

    When I sat down to write it, the story just flowed like water. I'm not a religious person, but it was like a muse was helping even though I was crying the entire time.

    When it came out, the mom wrote me and said the story was so true that she felt she had her little girl back for a moment while she was reading it.

    It was the strangest experience I've ever had in this business, and that story means more to me than the award winners.
     
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