What should I tell a 15-year-old NBA blogger?

Technology can be taught, especially for someone who is 15. Great writing is a craft that some people are able to, with plenty who can't. But even if you aren't great, there is a newspaper out there that will hire pretty much anyone with a journalism or communications degree. It all depends where you want to live and how low you are willing to be paid in someone's quest to be a sports writer.

 

Learning today's technology certainly won't hurt. It can build a foundation for the emerging technologies, like doing things in InDesign vs. Quark. Videos? Blogs? Podcasts? New ways to tell the story. But getting out there, covering things and meeting people is still the essence of what we do. Been a while since I've read resumes or gotten clip/link packages from anyone, but I tend to cringe when I see Bleacher Report and similar sites listed, since I know they're most likely watching the game on the tube and giving it their spin, instead of learning the basics.

 

Not necessarily. I learned Quark in high school and it didn't change substantially by the time I went to college (or much since come to think of it). I went into school with a leg up and I was able to teach classmates the program and get ahead with the campus papers as a result.

Like others have said, learning basic design rules, etc. never hurts either ahead of time.

 

The 15-year-old blogger e-mailed me Monday night with questions about the questions he plans to ask in an interview for his blog.

Among the things I want to tell him are:

1. The first rule of journalism is get it right. This applies to columns and bloggers too. He had gotten a fact wrong in his most recent blog entry, something someone with a paid outlet who has been around a little longer would have gotten right.

2. The key to good writing is providing details. This was told to me years ago by a top person at The Associated Press.

What are the next rules of writing I should share? At one metropolitan daily I wrote a key rule was, "More of you, less of them," which told people beginning work there, "The longtime tradition, begun by our legendary columnist and sports editor, here is not to rely too much on quotes." The basic rule was use quotes when it advanced the story and said something you could not simply write without a quote or attribution.

I also want to share the importance of avoiding one-source stories.

What would your suggestions be on what I should share today? I don't want to tell him too much, because then he would become overloaded. It is like telling a new player only part of a team's offense when he joins the team.

 

What's the name of his blog? I'm interested in seeing how he runs it. Anyway, I'd mention the "Keep it Short and Simple" theory. Keep what you write simple and don't try to overdo it to make your writing look better. Your style will develop over time with practice, that type of thing.

I'm not sure how he writes his blog, but I have a suggestion. I'm guessing that he only posts the interview on his site. Why not work those quotes into a story with stats, a lead, that type of thing? It'll help his writing a lot more in the long run. That would probably be a good suggestion. Wendell Maxey Jr.'s site, Beyond the Beat, is a good example of what I'm talking about. This kid should look at that and get some ideas from the site on how to run his blog.

But, he still should try to write with a paper. You can't replace the experience of reporting a game for yourself rather than writing a story based on a TV.

Good luck.

 

I just received word of a media availability of a high-profile athlete I may pass along to the 15-year-old blogger.

I am thinking it would be a good learning experience for the 15-year-old to take part in this, including learning that asking questions of high-profile athletes isn't all that great.

Thoughts?

 

Part of me wants to tell the 15-year-old his blogging isn't accomplishing anything.

 

You've changed your original plan a lot, Mr. X. At first it looked like you wanted to help the kid and now, it seems as if you want to disillusion him and break his spirits. Choose one.

 

I just don't think there is any point to his pontificating about the NBA.

Part of me thinks I should just tell him forget about the NBA and Major League Soccer and the U.S. men's national team and what would be best is to write about his high school's teams for a newspaper.

 

Tell him he can't live in his mom's basement for the rest of his life.

 

Both these. At 15, he's not getting first-hand information on any of these teams or players. I suspect he's warming over what he's reading in the papers or online. But getting out and telling the stories is still the essence of what we do. If he can grasp that, your job is done.