Week Four

Follow-ups from class:

• Now that many of you have preliminary ideas, you should be honing them, testing them, and making sure you’re investing your time and energy in a story you care about, can pull off logistically (with regards to access, etc), and has the potential to make you better as a storyteller. This week, please keep working on your ideas. I can’t overstress how important this part of the process is: You should be putting a fair amount of energy into this, as it will save you time later. I’ll be either emailing or talking to each of you about your ideas in the days to come. Some of you will be generating new thoughts, others doing preliminary reporting. Don’t hesitate to reach out or come to office hours next week if you have questions/want to bat around thoughts.
• Good questions for Mina on Tuesday. Her perspective was so valuable, and I loved how she viewed her job as both important, creative, and fun. She reinforced a lot of what we’ve been talking about: Writing about people instead of topics, being true to yourself, trying to see the world through the eyes of your subjects, and the value of original ideas (unicorns!)
• Regarding Eli Saslow. Do yourself a favor and read at least this story of his, about Newtown. It’s sad and depressing but also a towering feat of reporting: details, empathy, persistence. Here is an interview about how he did it.
• Next week’s guest is Grant Wahl. Grant is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, the author of two books on soccer, and a commentator on Fox Sports. You can read a fascinating narrative excerpt from “The Beckham Experiment” here. For an example of his college basketball writing, this story, about the out-of-wedlock children of athletes, is deftly done. Three other stories Grant recommends for discussion can be found here , here, and, here (a good example of an explainer story, in this case with hoops). Please familiarize yourself with his work and prepare questions for next week. He’ll be able to talk to us about navigating the world of pro sports, building trust, and mastering a topic. He’s likely the foremost American soccer expert.