How do you approach game coverage?

[Bob Slydell]

Oh, since this got WAAAAAYYYYY off topic. If it's two teams you cover, go with the winner angle.

If not, go with the your team lost or your team won angle.

Oh, and it's always best to start with play-by-pay from the first quarter and and go from there. The end of the game should be at the end of the story. Right?

 

[shotglass]

And if so, THAT'S why people lose interest in reading, every story reads the same ****ing way.

THAT'S thinking I hate to hear from a writer. You write with CLEAR words, and you'll be readable. There's nothing worse than the writer who tries to find 37 different synonyms for the verb "scored."

so shot, are you suggesting the phrase: Jimmy Douchbag CLEARED the boards in a formidable manner and finished with 16 rebounds?

Only if you refer to him as a "cager." Until the spring, when he becomes a "thinclad."

 

[fishwrapper]

There are so many better synonyms to use:
My favorite: spirit away.

abduct, catch, clutch, collar, gain, glom onto, grapple, grasp, grip, jerk, jump, kidnap, nab, pluck, pull, rescue, seize, snag, spirit away, steal, take, win, wrench, wrest, yank

 

[Dale Cooper]

In terms of interesting writing, I think the priority should be on active verbs. Always better to say "scored" 14 points instead of "had" 14 points; and as far as rebounds, do the desk people here approve of anything other than "had"?

 

[MC Sports Guy]

Oh, since this got WAAAAAYYYYY off topic. If it's two teams you cover, go with the winner angle.

If not, go with the your team lost or your team won angle.

Oh, and it's always best to start with play-by-pay from the first quarter and and go from there. The end of the game should be at the end of the story. Right?

With game stories, to me it's best to lead with a crucial point in the game, explain why it was crucial and what happened and then do recap based on how much space you have.

 

[spnited]

I never said I had a problem with grabbed.
I also never said using corralled made Sue Me a bad writer, just that using words like that is bad writing.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

I always find it best to break the game into halves or quarters.

One of my most used ledes is: It was a tale of two halves.

Works every time.

 

[shotglass]

You know, that can work with teams or cities, too.

 

[spnited]

Isn't every game a tale of two teams?

 

[shotglass]

That's why it's gold every time.

Keep up.

 

[spnited]

I'm still working on your well-written/well-designed idea from that other thread.

 

[shotglass]

Yeah, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn sometimes.

 

[Songbird]

Why not grabbed? Some of you guys are so ****ing anal about little nitpicky things people write to not be so mundane. Sure the word isn't going to win anyone an award, but it isn't going to destroy the language either.

Thank you.

 

[Bob Loblaw Law Blog]

Let's not oversimplify this thing. If you're writing a 100-200 word gamer on deadline, then yes, clear and concise is the way to go. Avoid confusing or misleading words and please leave your ******* thesaurus alone.

But not everyone is doing that for a living. Some of us work at weekly or bi-weekly rags, and we may be condensing two or three of Podunk High's games into one 800-1,000 word article. If that's the case, sooner or later you're going to start running over the same words too many times and readers find that boring. A little creativity never killed anyone. I'm not saying you should use a different synonym for "scored" or "grabbed" each time, but mixing in something different could give an ordinary article a little more character.

That said, I would still never use the word "corralled" to describe rebounding. Christ, that's horrible.

 

[Boobie Miles]

Still haven't seen what's wrong with grabbed. Sometimes synonyms work and sometimes they don't ... I don't believe there's a hard and fast rule whether or not to ever use them. Sometimes it's necessary to break something up. You don't want to write player X scored xx points, player Y scored xx points and player Z scored xx points. I think you need to break that up a little, player Z added xx points or chipped in with xx points. Same thing with 3-pointers. I'm not saying you should say dropped some bombs from downtown, but saying he was 3-4 from beyond the arc or whatever is better than just saying 3-pointer over and over if it's in the story a lot.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

There are so many better synonyms to use:
My favorite: spirit away.

abduct, catch, clutch, collar, gain, glom onto, grapple, grasp, grip, jerk, jump, kidnap, nab, pluck, pull, rescue, seize, snag, spirit away, steal, take, win, wrench, wrest, yank

The refs cornholed Central High last night. [/boots]

 

[SF_Express]

Sigh ...

 

[DyePack]

What's best are obscure references that confuse. Example:

Like the mythical hydra, Northburg's basketball team just kept coming. Whenever Westville East would cut off one of the heads, two more would appear.

Then Elmer Cummings became the Iolaus to Llove Torres' Hercules. Cummings held the torch as Torres lopped off the heads. Soon Northburg's Southerners were the equivalent of a flailing, headless body.


Coaches like those analogies, too, especially the ones that refer to jail, prison, crime or theft.

 

[Tom Petty]

Like the mythical hydra, Northburg's basketball team just kept coming.

more with the hookers in the barn, eh dye?

 

[Trey Beamon]

Let's not oversimplify this thing. If you're writing a 100-200 word gamer on deadline, then yes, clear and concise is the way to go. Avoid confusing or misleading words and please leave your ******* thesaurus alone.

But not everyone is doing that for a living. Some of us work at weekly or bi-weekly rags, and we may be condensing two or three of Podunk High's games into one 800-1,000 word article. If that's the case, sooner or later you're going to start running over the same words too many times and readers find that boring. A little creativity never killed anyone. I'm not saying you should use a different synonym for "scored" or "grabbed" each time, but mixing in something different could give an ordinary article a little more character.

That said, I would still never use the word "corralled" to describe rebounding. Christ, that's horrible.

Nicely put, though I disagree that different synonyms add "character" to a story. They do little, good or bad. And they're certainly not the journalistic abomination some posters have implied.

Well, until your slip "caroms" into a prep roundup.