If you’re reading this, chances are you’re signed up for the class. Welcome. It should be fun.
On the first day, we’ll take an overarching view of sports coverage and talk about storytelling, idea generation, and how to mine your own experiences. Each week thereafter we’ll deconstruct the work of the best in the field, examining how the journalist gained access, created rapport, and drew out a narrative thread. At the same time, we’ll be working to help you conceive and craft your own final narrative feature, one that goes beyond sports and tells a larger story. I hope you’re as excited as I am.
The First Assignment: Personal Essay
Your first assignment is to write a personal essay about your relationship to sports. It should be 600-1,000 words and is due to me via email at 5 PM on Monday, January 15th, the day before the first class*****. This allows us to hit the ground running, as we’ll be discussing the essays on the first day and using them as a way to explore story ideas.
What to Write About: Perhaps you rowed in high school or college and the experience taught you something surprising or valuable. Maybe you go to opening day every spring with your aging father as a way to connect. Maybe you spent your formative years hating sports. Maybe you still hate sports. You can write about the feeling of running your first 5K or your worst experience in Little League. Make the essay funny, or sad, or insightful. It’s your choice. You needn’t do any reporting. Note: If you took the mini-course last spring, view this as an opportunity to be creative, focus on another aspect of your life, or demonstrate how you’ve grown as a storyteller.
Approach: Provide a narrative: use details and anecdotes. Draw out a theme. Make us feel something. It can be a very simple tale; it can be harrowing. Give us one telling moment and embed the background. Whatever is relevant to your experience.
If you’re looking for examples, check out this, by Alison Overholt. Or this excellent piece, by “Henley O’Brien.” And to reciprocally provide a sense of who I am (and as another example of the form), here is a short essay I once wrote about my father and basketball. Any questions, let me know. If not, I’ll look forward to reading all your work on Monday night and seeing you on Tuesday.
Storytelling Through Sports 