Welcome to journalism. Everything you thought you knew about writing is wrong.
Holy cow. I’ve just completed the first month of being in a new position as the sports journalist for a local newspaper in northern Idaho. There’s a lot to cover.
On the second day of work I received a phone call from a member of the community asking, “What’s your view on gun rights?” I was so taken back I didn't answer. He proceeded, “Are you anti-gun rights? Because you haven’t been writing about us.” Ohhh this is about coverage, maybe, but not actually.
Later that week I posted the COMPLETELY wrong photo of the swim team in the paper. Same colored uniforms; 100% different team. A concerned citizen called in and ripped me out about it asking “How do you not know who’s on the team?!” I’m so sorry, it’s my first week of work ma’am and no one is going to be harder on me about this than myself.
I’ve learned that the hours are chaos, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. then 5-11 p.m. (if you write the story quick enough) and that it’s not my job to have an opinion. My job is to get the facts, report the facts, and refrain from adding fluff. In a nut shell, don’t write pretty, no embellishing, just explain what happened from A-Z.
A few more things I’ve learned:
— Articles are written in very short paragraphs. Like two to three sentenced short.
— Numbers zero through nine are always typed out unless you’re referring to a date, time, or surly something else I have yet to learn.
— All months are abbreviated except for March, April, May, June, and July.
— Quotes always have their own line.
— When quoting someone you first use their whole title then proceed to quote them using just their last name from then on. Example: “I like tennis balls,” head coach Dudley Nightingale said. THEN “But I prefer Chuck-Its,” Nightingale said.
— There are no two-letter abbreviations in copy.
— The hours are rough. All sporting events either happen in the evening or in the middle of the day on a weekend. If girls basketball starts at 7 p.m. you’re probably going to be up until 10-10:30 p.m. writing an article and gamer.
— When writing time, always write it as a.m. and p.m. not am and pm.
— Gamer. These can be fun to write if you can get a legible scoresheet from the game keeper. If not, enjoy a brief moment of panic followed by some googling then eventually concluding that the information has to be left out.
— Team is an “it”, not a “they.”
— Towns/cities are an “it.”
— Mascot’s are a “they.”
And those are the things I CAN remember. Imagine all of the grammatical errors my brain has decided to let slip by or the writing nuances I have yet to come across. Intimidating, fun, exhausting, intriguing.
I’m looking forward to seeing what the next month has in store (although I'm a bit nervous about how much time I’ll get off over the holidays. Two days in a row would be lovely).
The good news, I’ve got to talk to some pretty bloody cool people like Shannon Maher, bad-ass ski extraordinare and Jason Welker, Exec. Director of Pend Oreille Pedalers (POP). These are the people and stories I hope to continue covering. Women in sport, alternative sport, and the ways people are creating opportunity for their communities.
Know anyone I should talk to? Any stories you think are awesome? Let me know.
Cheers until next time x