Writing on people with ALS - by Jeff Pearlman & Pete Thamel

I last Wednesday coincidentally came across two pieces of writing about people afflicted with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). Each work was really well done and showed both the devastating effects of the disease and the support received by each person featured in the respective pieces.

For the Sports Illustrated website Pete Thamel wrote "Dick Kelley gave his heart to BC; now the school is giving back" and as part of an ongoing Q&A series (100 and counting) on his blog Jeff Pearlman wrote "The Quaz Q&A: Adrian Dessi".

Thamel notes in his piece that Kelly has worked in Boston College administration since a BC freshman in 1983 and Dessi is the father of two of Pearlman's childhood friends (with a Pearlman blog post about one of them, Chris Dessi, self-publishing a book being one of the sources of inspiration for me to self-publish).

Both the Q&A by Pearlman and more traditional profile by Thamel are excellent and accomplish well the dual tasks of showing how horrible ALS can be and how great the support received by Dessi and Kelly has been.

Writing on economies in trouble - by Joel Stein & Stephan Faris

Two excellent pieces of writing from Businessweek recently shared the common theme of being about economies in trouble and what's being done in them. Published a little over a month ago in was "Screwed in Cyprus" by Stephan Faris and more recently, was the BW feature story "How Jerry Brown Scared California Straight" by Joel Stein.

Good writing in both and definitely interesting to read about how bad things have gotten in at least one area of Europe and what Brown working to avoid in California. Very reminiscent of the Michael Lewis book Boomerang which I noted in a Nov 2011 review as covering financial trouble for the cities of San Jose and Vallejo.

Jason Collins SI cover story & writing on Collins

While none of it as singularly impactful as the first-person narrative "Why NBA center Jason Collins is coming out now" that Collins did with Sports Illustrated writer Franz Lidz, there were some other excellent pieces of writing done on the heels of the announcement Monday by Collins.

About the piece itself was SI Senior Editor Chris Stone who wrote "The story behind Jason Collins' story: How it happened" and Lidz a day later provided "Jason Collins overwhelmed by enormous support for his announcement".

In terms of pieces published placed other than Sports Illustrated, Bruce Arthur wrote for the National Post the excellent "Jason Collins coming out a new beginning for sports" and specifically about the #98 jersey homage to Matthew Shepard, Sam Gardner wrote for Fox Sports "Collins' act wows victim's parents".

Additionally, "The meaning of Jason Collins' coming out" was written by Cyd Zeigler for SB Nation Outsports and "Just the Beginning" by Chuck Culpepper for Sports on Earth and the last piece to mention here was "The Decision" by Charlie Pierce for Grantland. Like many pieces I've seen from Pierce, it's extremely thought-out and contains the interesting idea that people shouldn't get caught up in basically congratulating themselves and society as a whole for being so accepting of Jason Collins on the heels of his coming out publicly.

Nice sports stories - by Posnanski, Culpepper & Vitez

Three different sports stories I've come across in the past few weeks stood out as being well-written pieces about stories that are just darn... nice.

Joe Posnanski is a writer who often produces work in this category of nice (and being incredibly prolific, he also produces lots of other great work) and he wrote "Ankiel: A Rare Player Reinvented" for NBC Sports. About former Cardinals pitcher and now Astros outfield Rick Ankiel, it's a fascinating look at someone who reinvented himself to maintain a career playing baseball.

Another recent story that brought a smile was by Chuck Culpepper for Sports on Earth. "Uniquely Memorable" was about Frosty Westering, the longtime Pacific Lutheran University football coach who died earlier this month at 85. It was an excellent piece from Culpepper on someone whose teams performed well on the field and were led by a coach that treated his players as people rather than just cogs in a football machine.

The last piece of writing to mention here was for the Philadelphia Enquirer by Michael Vitez. "Wilmington man, 88, got a late start and kept on running" was about Hugh Campbell and a very cool story of someone's achievements.

"Out in the Great Alone" on the Iditarod by Brian Phillips

There was really a remarkable story published today on Grantland. "Out in the Great Alone" was written by Brian Phillips and is close to 20,000 words about several weeks that Phillips spent following via small plane  the 2013 Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska.

I've previously linked to excellent pieces from Phillips on tennis and his writing in this Iditarod feature is interesting in that it seems a blend of colloquial first-person and what felt to be at times brilliant phrasing and scene building. It's certainly true that I'm interested in reading about Alaska having grown up there (and have posted on solid books I've read on Alaska), but the writing from Phillips very much helped make this a memorable piece.

Along with the aforementioned writing itself, the other noteworthy thing about this piece was the construction of it by Grantland editors. In addition to allotting an enormous word count to Phillips, they built the story into an interactive feature with lots of embedded images/video and a different way of scrolling through the story than would typically be found online. In terms of how it was built for the web, the feature was highly reminiscent of "Snow Fall" from the New York Times featuring the writing of John Branch and which I wrote about in a December 2012 post. 

Not to just keep throwing out links, but the other thing that this Iditarod feature made me think of was "Bleacher Report vs. Grantland: The Spectrum of Online Sports Media" by Clay Travis for his site Outkick the Coverage. In this October 2012 piece, Travis writes of how a site like Grantland is well suited to produce thorough journalism (which the features by Phillips certainly qualify as) because as part of the much larger organization that is ESPN it's not wholly reliant on revenue from said journalism to maintain a viable company. It's an interesting idea from Travis and seems to ring even more true to me after seeing what must have gone into producing something as expansive and well done as "Out in the Great Alone".

Writing on Boston & on Guns - by Charlie Pierce & Gabrielle Giffords

It's somewhat remarkable to me that conversation around the Boston Marathon bombing would be completely separate from the larger question of weapons (i.e. guns) and the ease in which people can get them, but that certainly seems to be the case over the past week. While many people (myself included) closely followed the aftermath of the bombing and manhunt yesterday for apparent co-perpetrator Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to block legislation strengthening background checks on gun sales.

On the subject of the Sentate actions (or inactions) were two great pieces of writing, with one from former U.S. Congresswomen Gabrille Giffords and one from Esquire writer Charlie Pierce, with Pierce more recently writing another piece that felt very much related.

The writing by Giffords was "A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip" published in the New York Times and an extremely direct and well written op-ed piece from someone in a position to write about gun violence.

From Pierce for the Esquire website the morning after the Senate inaction around background checks was "The Violence We Live With". It's a powerful essay that opines how we as American people seem to deplore horrific violence while at the same time accept that it's going to happen sometimes and not take steps that could curb it. It was a tremendously interesting idea put forth by Pierce and another Esquire piece of his published this morning had a similar notion in it to me.

"Guns Along The River: A Late Night In Watertown" was about the manhunt for Tsarnaev yesterday and exceptional writing.The thing that got me more than any other from his more recent piece was the repeated phrase "cops being cops" and Pierce writing of how capture of Tsarnaev means he can (and as he should) go to trial in our U.S. court system like any other criminal.

My thought out of this was that while the violence was much more high profile than that done by a "typical criminal with weapons", it's still violence resulting in the death of innocent people, just like the violence perpetrated by Jared Loughner in Tucson, James Holmes in Aurora or Adam Lanza in Newtown. It's a great thing that Tsarnaev will be tried for his crimes, but what will be interesting to see is whether the crimes committed have any impact on U.S. perception of violence or lawmakers reactions around violence through various means.

Would be a shame if the response is for Congressional leaders and other decision makers to either (A) accept that these things can happen and not try to look at additional ways to prevent it (basically what Pierce wrote in his essay about gun violence) or (B) put the Boston bombing in a specific bucket and try to stop that (i.e. make pressure cookers illegal). While this hypothetical option B may seem absurd, anyone that's had to pour out water or take off their shoes in an airport security line may recognize it as an approach that we've taken before.

Writing on the Boston Marathon Bombing

Not to simply list out great writing (well, actually, exactly to simply list out great writing) since the Boston Marathon bombing, there's been some amazing work done, both poignant and well reported with the pieces below being those that have stood out to me the most.

In the poignant essay category were pieces by Patton Oswalt and Joe Posnanski with Oswalt doing a Facebook post about good people and Posnanski's essay on his personal blog containing the same notion with his last sentence of "There are exponentially more good people than bad."

The piece of writing reported from the scene that I found most memorable was "In Grisly Image, a Father Sees His Son" by Tim Rohan for the New York Times. Recounted is the story of Jeff Bauman, a marathon spectator who lost both his legs at the scene. While the piece certainly contains a graphic image and some difficult to read text, it's also an inspiring depiction of helping others with Rohan's description of Carlos Arredondo (the subject of NYT piece from 2007 that Rohan links to) coming to Bauman's aide. Incredibly, there's a story that's come out just this evening on Bauman with "Boston Bombing Victim in Iconic Photo Helped Identify Attackers" by Asjylyn Loder & Esmé E. Deprez for Bloomberg.

The final pieces to note here contained details about the response of emergency personnel to the bombing and injuries with a New Yorker essay "Why Boston's Hospital's Were Ready" by noted author and Boston area surgeon Atul Gawande and "First responders to Boston bombings get relief, postgame beers from grateful Bruins" by Les Carpenter for Yahoo Sports.

Finally, it's of course not a piece of writing, but here was footage from the Boston Garden two nights after the bombing...

 

Writers on writing - wisdom, education and producing it for free

There's been a lot of pieces I've come across over the last 4-6 weeks on the subject of writing (which I love to link to pieces on) that I found interesting and which fell into a few different areas... writing wisdom, writing education and writing for free.

In the area of writing wisdom I've seen lately were pieces from quite a few different sources...

Starting things off was a string of tweets about a month ago by ESPN writer Kevin Van Valkenburg. In the first he linked to a Gawker piece titled "Billy Joel Stuns Vanderbilt with Once-In-A-Lifetime Answer to Student’s Question" on freshman Michael Pollack asking the singer if he could accompany him on piano for a song and subsequent tweets had Van Valkenburg's thoughts on the subject.

I was just talking to a journalism class last about why it's important in life just to ask. Sometimes people say yes. And you know what? If they say no, you've lost nothing. The world belongs to people bold enough to ask: Can I? Would you? Why not? The other thing I love about that Joel thing is that student was obviously talented, but also ready when his moment arrived. I spent several years thinking I was somehow unworthy of asking to write for ESPN. How silly was that? Be bold, be ready, and take a shot. Fear of rejection is a silly pair of handcuffs to wear in any field. If you obsess about your craft & work hard, maybe you ARE good enough.

Additionally, two fairly small stories with writing wisdom had the first from the website 22 words with "Writing advice from writers handwritten on writers’ hands [14 pictures]" and then "The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do" by Colin Nissan for the website of McSweeney's, the San Francisco based  publishing house started by Dave Eggers.

Two longer piece of writing wisdom of late came from authors Neal Pollack and Peter Richmond. Pollack wrote the book Alternadad (which apparently didn't sell well, but I enjoyed) and he did an interview for the website AV Club that resulted in "Neal Pollack on rebounding from massive hype and six-figure deals to online publishing". Some very interesting stuff put forth from Pollack, especially around him noting the importance of focusing on the writing rather than empire building around writing. Richmond is the author of Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders and he recently did an interview for the website TV Fury was "The Fury Files: Peter Richmond". There was some excellent material from Richmond and just yesterday I saw from him "Fit to Print?" for the site Alex Belth's Bronx Banter and about the need for journalists to responsibly cover tragedy as while they're trying to get the story, the subjects are actually living with the pain of the event. His words made a lot of sense and brought to mind similar thoughts by Michael Schaer in his piece "Interviews With The Survivors" for The Awl last month.

It very much could be included in the writing wisdom category as well, but around writing education last month was "Missouri School of Journalism Alumni Give Insights into Long-Form Stories and Reporting". The writeup on the J School website featured notes from a March 4th on-campus workshop with Mike Sager and Missouri alums Justin Heckert, Tony Rehagen, Robert Sanchez and Wright Thompson. A couple of shorter things I've seen recently within the writing education topic were the schedule for the July 2013 Mayborn Conference in Dallas, TX and "Ashland University Professor Launches Audio Podcast" about a writing podcast with Matt Tullis. Also, it's not necessarily anything I've seen new, but something additional around writing education is the UC Berkeley School of Journalism day-long workshop East Meets West: A Gathering of Literary Journalists last held in November 2012.

In terms of writing for free, heavily discussed and written about was the Nate Thayer blog post "A Day in the Life of a Freelance Journalist-2013" on him being asked to provide free writing for The Atlantic's website. It was definitely an interesting read and of the follow-up pieces I've seen by others on it, the one I found most of note was from Jason Fry who wrote "On Writing for Free" to his personal blog.

Outdoor writing for Outside & GQ - by McMahon, Fedarko & Grant

There's been three pieces of outdoor related writing I'm seen recently that I found particularly good and each from a writer I hadn't been familiar with.

I tend to link to and write about posts from a fairly small group of writers (as they're people who write for magazines I subscribe to, have twitter feeds I follow and whose writing I particularly like) so I enjoy reading something excellent from a writer who's new to me.

From the April issue of GQ was a feature by Bucky McMahon with "Heart of Sharkness" on surfers and sharks in the waters of Reunion Island off the coast of Africa. It was a solid piece that made me think of John Jeremiah Sullivan and his 2008 GQ story "Violence of the Lambs" (which was also included in his excellent book Pulphead that I wrote about here).

Two pieces from the May issue of Outside Magazine also stood out with one being a book excerpt about a 1983 whitewater rafting adventure and one a first person account of long-distance horse racing in Mongolia. The excerpt was by Kevin Fedarko with "Rocketing Into the Grand Canyon's Great Unknown" from his book The Emerald Mile and it struck me as compelling story of a near-death trip. The horse racing feature was an interesting one by Will Grant with "All the Jittery Horses: Racing the Mongol Derby" about Grant participating in a 9 day race across 1,000 kilometers of the land traveled by Genghis Khan.

Excellent sports stories - by Jones, Assael, Wertheim, Wahl & Mooney

There's been a few different pieces of sports writing I've seen lately that stood out as excellent with those to note here being from ESPN, Sports Illustrated and BuzzFeed (first time I've linked to and written on anything from BuzzFeed).

From ESPN The Magazine recently was an excellent column out of the April 15 issue and then feature story from the April 29 edition. The column was "Photo resolution" by Chris Jones and it looks at retired NFL player Ricky Williams working for ESPN as as a sideline photographer at the Super Bowl in New Orleans. I've previously posted on stories about Williams by Jones and he's definitely one of my favorite athletes.

The April 29 ESPN piece was by Shaun Assael with "Coming Down" about the impact of synthetic (and not necessarily illegal) marijuana on the Auburn football team and it's players. It was a fascinating read that reminded me of a 2011 Businessweek cover story "The Big Business of Synthetic Highs" by Ben Paynter.

From Sports Illustrated recently were two tremendously interesting pieces, one in the magazine and one posted to the SI website today. The Mar 25 issue of Sports Illustrated had "Seen Benny? Have Him Give Me A Call" with the writer, Jon Wertheim, chronicling his search for Benny Anders who 30 years ago played along with Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon on the University of Houston basketball team. Fascinating piece by Wertheim on the search for search for someone who appears to have willfully disappeared.

The piece from the the SI website was "One man's journey from Los Angeles to Real Madrid good-luck charm" by Grant Wahl. It's just a very nice story about L.A. city employee Abel Rodríguez and his whirlwind travel with and working for the Real Madrid football team in Europe.

The final piece of stellar sports writing to note here was "Lying Around With Brandon McCarthy" by Michael Mooney for BuzzFeed. I two weeks ago posted on writing by Mooney for D Magazine and this story is one of those cases of an excellent writer on a subject who's easy to like.

"Plan B" by David Kord Murray

Plan B: How to Hatch a Second Plan That's Always Better Than Your First by David Kord Murray may have taken a long time between purchase and reading for me, but was a solid business book.

I previously read and reviewed his Borrowing Brilliance and Plan B was an interesting follow up that lays out Murray's 11 "Principles of Adaptive Management." The principles themselves can be found in a book synopsis by Harvey Schachter for the Toronto newspaper Global and Mail and the ones that struck me as most interesting are the following...

Principle of Problems - The idea behind this was that an owner or employee should figure out what problem their business trying to solve. This very much reminded me of the book How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton Christensen, James Allworth and Karen Dillon with the idea expressed there (which I noted in a review of the book) being to consider what job a product or service fills. On the same topic of writing by Christensen, Murray refers to him the end of Plan B to  in a chapter on evolving plans and strategic evolution vs tactical alternations.

Principle of Solutions - This as described by Murray was about the the importance of tactics, especially as they align with strategy. Concept from the book is that too often tactics are overlooked in importance, and it's an examination of tactics that can reveal what will work in an endeavor... with the example given of finding the tactics that would be used to successfully return to Earth the Apollo 13 crew after an equipment failure.

Principle of Force - This was one of those situations where an idea from someone made me think of a similar concept I've seen elsewhere previously. Specifically, what I took from Murray in this chapter was the notion of being expert at the most niche thing possible. I may have seen other writers expound on this as well, but the person I recall who covered it was Tim Ferriss is his book The 4-Hour Workweek (which I reviewed here).

Principle of paper plans - Concept simplified was that the important thing isn't the plan itself, but the thinking through of the business idea that's required to actually write the plan.

Principle of Multiple Futures - This somewhat ties into the idea of paper plans and them not being the end-all, be-all, but the idea I took from Murray in this section was the best way to make predictions is to make a lot of them and best way to plan for outcomes is to consider a lot of them. Basically, things won't often turn out exactly like we expect so multiple outcomes should be considered along with potential reactions to them.

Writing on & by Roger Ebert

Such a shame, the passing of Roger Ebert a few days ago. There's been a number of great remembrances written (and I'm sure still to be written) and below are the ones that touched me the most... along with some of the great Ebert writing I've come across in the past.

It's certainly not an end-all, be-all list, but the remembrance pieces I've found particularly noteworthy (all fairly short and with some including links to longer past writing about Ebert) have been the following: "Will Leitch on Ebert" by Marcus Gilmer (and Leitch) for the Chicago Sun-Times, "I'll Let Roger Do the Talking" by Chris Jones for Esquire, "Million Dollar Movie" by Peter Richmond for Alex Belth's Bronx Banter, "Roger Ebert Hails Human Existence As 'A Triumph'" for The Onion and finally "A statement from Chaz Ebert" on the passing of her husband.

The pieces by Ebert himself that I've been struck by in the past (and linked to and ruminated on in blog posts) included his memoir Life Itself and four different blog posts he wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times: "All the Lonely People" on... that, "The Storyteller and the Stallion" on Bill Nack, "Video games 13,823, Huck Finn 8,088" on Huck Finn vs. video games and finally "How do they get to be that way?" on racists and racism.

Just a solid legacy of great writing about and by Ebert.

Writing on the HMS Bounty sinking & Tim Hetherington documentary - from Outside, The Awl & Nieman Storyboard

There were two pieces of writing from the April issue of Outside Magazine that were excellent on their own, and which led me to other interesting work.

The largest feature story from the issue was by Kathryn Miles with "Sunk: The Incredible Truth About a Ship That never Should Have Sailed" on the HMS Bounty. The boat went down during Hurricane Sandy and claimed two lives, that of Captain Robin Walbridge and crewmember Claudene Christian. Related to the feature by Miles on the Bounty were two additional pieces from sources other than Outside. For Nieman Storyboard, there was an interview with Miles about the writing process and from The Awl was a piece by Michael Shaer titled "Interviews With The Survivors" about his process of writing the eBook The Sinking of the Bounty, and seeking out for a feature story people touched by tragedy.

The other piece I found of note from this edition of Outside Magazine was by Matthew Power with "Sebastian Junger Shoots for the Truth" on the documentary Which Way is the Frontline from Here: The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington that premiers April 18th on HBO. Hetherington was the filmmaker and and Junger the writer behind the excellent war documentary Restrepo (which I wrote about here) and the HBO show a tribute to Hetherington, killed along with fellow American photographer Chris Hondros by a motor attack two years ago in Libya.

April '13 Esquire stories - Jones on Hugh Hefner and Percy on his life

There were two really excellent stories in the latest issue of Esquire that stood out to me. The first was "Gentlemen, Gentlemen, Be of Good Cheer, for They Are Out There, and We Are in Here" by Chris Jones on Hugh Hefner. It's a thorough account that's got some tremendously interesting anecdotes about Hefner... especially around the long-standing relationships he's made with both friends and employees.

The second was "How a Percy Gets Old", an essay by Benjamin Percy on the writer and people from his life. There's great material throughout, but what really struck me was the section below on his neighbor...

"He understands how things work, how to put them together and pull them apart, in a way that I do not. Maybe this has something to do with his job as a family physician at the Allina Medical Clinic in Faribault, Minnesota. The body is just another machine to him. Blood replaces oil, tendons replace wires, joints replace gears. He buys the best brands — and maintains them — because he wants them to last. He eats the best food — and exercises religiously — because he sees every day what happens to people who don't take care of themselves. Dave says there are two types of aging: physical and psychological. Physical aging is what we see, but psychological aging is what we feel. They don't always advance together. Often the mind gives in before the body. Once the indestructibility of youth is gone, people start to feel old even though their body remains quite capable. 'Often this happens to people in their late twenties and early thirties,' Dave says. 'Like you.' And that, he says, is the beginning of the end. People gain weight. They stop conditioning. They prepare their body for the chronic disease that will knock them out years later. 'You are,' he says, 'your own worst enemy.'"

Positive sports stories - on Elena Delle Donne & Mike Matheny

About a week ago I came across a sports story about things more important than just winning or losing and more recently saw (and was reminded of) another athlete's story in the same vein.

The piece from a week back was about St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny and coaching of youth baseball. Written by Joe Posnanski for NBC Sports, "Matheny's Message: Sports Can Be Joyful For Kids" starts off four years ago with a recently retired MLB catcher Matheny being asked to coach the team his 10-year old son would play on. Posnanski writes of how rather than simply accepting the coaching offer, Matheny wrote a 2,556 word document with his conditions for him agreeing to coach. The idea behind Matheny's words (which he also covered in a meeting with parents prior to accepting the role) was that youth sports should be played a certain way, with respect for the game and opponent and free from overbearing parents. While it's true that Matheny as a former MLB player had the leverage to spell out and get people to agree to his coaching approach, it's great reading about it.

The other story I've seen recently on sports and approaching them with perspective was on University of Delaware women's basketball player Elena Della Donne. ESPN ran during Sportscenter a profile about her path from sought-after high school recruit to the women's powerhouse program at the University of Connecticut. The piece details how Della Donne then left UConn shortly after arriving and returned back home to be closer to her family, including older sister Lizzie who was born blind and deaf and has both celebral palsy and autism. Della Donne enrolled at the nearby University of Delaware and after time away from the sport, began playing basketball again and became one of the best women's NCAA players.

I've previously linked to articles on Della Donne with a 2009 column by Selena Roberts for Sports Illustrated and 2012 SI feature by Jon Wertheim and the ESPN segment was more excellent storytelling on Della Donne. The same day I watched it, Delaware was eliminated from the NCAA tournament 69-62 to Kentucky, with its star player scoring 33 points in this loss as well as in each of the Blue Hens first two tournament games.

Seeing the ESPN segment on TV sent me off in search of the video online and along with the below version of it was a Mar 2012 ESPN Outside the Lines feature article by Graham Hays. Providing more detail than could simply be in a short video, it's an excellent look at Della Donne and choices made in pursuit of the things that matter to her.

Feature writing by Mooney, Power & Chivers

There's a few pieces of writing to note here that may not share huge connection with one another other than they're all exceptionally well done.

For Field & Stream in Jan, C.J. Chivers wrote the fairly short piece "Pain" about a Grizzly Bear attack on hunter Chris Ott in the British Columbia wilderness. The story was one of eighteen outdoor pieces by different writers for Field & Steam and features absolutely riveting language and tension building from Chivers.

Another exceptionally well done piece of writing I've seen lately then led me to an additional great piece by the same author. Michael Mooney earlier this month wrote "The Legend of Chris Kyle" for D Magazine and I then went and read "When Lois Pearson Started Fighting Back", published May 2012 in D Magazine. I was familiar with Kyle from the Time Magazine story "Killer. Healer. Victim" (which I briefly wrote about) after Kyle's Feb 2 death and Mooney provided additional excellent writing on his life. The Lois Pearson story is very different than that on Kyle in that she not known publicly, but contains one of the things I love to come across in great writing... a story that blends together well pathos with a positive story (with the latter of these coming at the very end of Mooney's feature on Pearson).

Final piece to mention here was a tremendously interesting one by Matthew Power for the March issue of GQ Magazine. "Excuse Us While We Kiss the Sky" chronicles Power's time spent exploring with people who go places they're not allowed (whether those be on top of bridges and buildings or in tunnels under cities) for the experience of it. It was fascinating writing on this concept known at times as urban exploration or place hacking.

Businessweek features - by Greenfeld, Hannan, Ricadela, Vance & Leonard

Over the past few months there's been some excellent Businessweek features to note here.

The Jan 10 edition cover story was "Can Meg Whitman Reverse Hewlett-Packard's Free Fall?" by Ashlee Vance and Aaron Ricadela. Very solid piece with the additional data point since it's publication being that HP stock has risen 37%.

Two other interesting stories of late were on very different companies in Huy Fong Foods and Walt Disney. The Feb 21 issue featured "Sriracha Hot Sauce Catches Fire, Yet 'There's Only One Rooster'" by Caleb Hannan and Mar 7 cover story "How Disney Bought Lucasfilm—and Its Plans for 'Star Wars'" by Devin Leonard. One company little known except for their signature hot sauce and the other known pretty much everywhere, but excellent pieces on each.

The other story to mention stood out to me both for the subject as well as writer of the piece. In the Feb 28 issue of BW was "Bill McKibben's Battle Against the Keystone XL Pipeline" and I've previously written on and linked to stories about McKibben and done posts on work by Karl Taro Greenfeld who wrote about McKibben and his efforts.

Baseball writing - by Jordan, Kepner, Sargent & Jenkins

As MLB Opening Day approaches, there's been some excellent writing on baseball I've come across lately.

For the SB Nation Longform website close to a month ago, Pat Jordan wrote "The pain and pleasure of spring: How I lost my fastball but learned to love spring training." It's a beautifully written piece that covers from Jordan's time as an aspiring major league player through his career as a sportswriter. Really lyrical writing that makes me interested in reading his book A False Spring, rated #37 on the 2002 Sports Illustrated listing of the top sports books of all time.

In a similar vein of baseball writing leaning towards the sentimental was a recent piece by Bruce Jenkins in the San Francisco Chronicle. "Glove love never dies, it just falls apart" was on major leaguers and what for many of them is a cherished tool of their trade.

Another tremendously interesting baseball piece was by Scott Sargent from the Cleveland and Ohio State sports website Waiting for Next Year. "Trevor Bauer: Eccentric or just smarter than the rest of us?" was on the 23 year-old pitcher I first heard about from a 2011 SI profile by Lee Jenkins and who was traded this off-season to Cleveland from the Diamondbacks. Bauer is someone that takes a different approach than many to the game and it'll be interesting to see how his career progresses.

The last baseball piece to mention here also involves the Indians, but on a much older player trying to make the team. "Giambi Reinvents Himself, and Baseball Is Intrigued" was by Tyler Kepner for the New York Times and is a tremendously interesting profile of Jason Giambi, former steroid-using superstar and now well-respected managerial candidate.

Nieman Foundation talk with Clayton Christensen & David Skok

As someone interested in not just great writing, but also the production of great writing, I found of note a recent videotaped discussion hosted by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. The Feb 27 session was on the topic of "Disruptive Innovation in Journalism" and featured Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen and 2012 Nieman Fellow David Skok along with Nieman Foundation Curator Ann Marie Lipinski.

Christensen is a renowned business author I was familiar with from his latest effort, How Will You Measure Your Life? co-written with James Allworth & Karen Dillon. I enjoyed the book quite a bit and was interested in watching this Nieman talk with Christensen as one of the featured guests. Lipinski notes early on in the session that it follows up on an Oct 2012 Nieman Report by Christensen, Skok and Allworth titled "Mastering the art of disruptive innovation in journalism" and in terms of the recent talk itself, there was some fascinating points made by Christensen and Skok. While certainly not all-inclusive of what the two discussed, below are some of the things I took from the session...


Sustaining & disruptive innovations

Christensen spoke of how sustaining innovations are about making good products better and disruptive innovations, on the other hand, transform something that used to be complicated and expensive and make it accessible to a whole new mass audience.

One example of this is in the general field of higher education, and specifically that provided through the Harvard Business School. Along with the competitiveness in getting accepted, resulting caliber of the graduates and high cost of attending, Christensen noted how many HBS graduates wind up in Financial or Professional Services firms. With few few operating companies (such as GE or GM) recruiting at Harvard, these firms instead often focus on creating exceptional in-house educational systems. The result of this becomes a disruptive force in education along the same lines as online learning available outside of a corporate ed department.

One key point made about disruptive innovation is it's something that has to be incubated outside of a current sustaining business. The reason for this is disruptive innovation needs to be worked on at the same time current business continued and if the disruptive business done by the same people or even in the same space as the sustained business, the disruptive business will lose its differentiation and become like what's already been there. Closely related to this idea of separating disruptive from sustaining business is someone can't bring about disruption by simply changing the tasks done within a sustaining business.


Jobs to be done

One concept discussed that sounds to be a hallmark of Christensen's lecturing was that of jobs to be done. Two things I noted out of the How Will Your Measure Your Life? book were personal focused ideas with "the two fundamental jobs that children need to do are to feel successful and to have friends- every day" and the encouragement that people should “think about what jobs your spouse is looking to you to do.”

The basic idea of consumer or jobs to be done as I understood it was an argument against demographics as the driver of choices made and for the idea that people spend money or support causes to get specific jobs done. Companies shouldn't worry so much about the customer or technology used, but rather on the job that needs to get done. Then along with this identification of the job to be done comes perpetual efforts to get the job done better, with focus on both enhanced value of the job to be done and at lower cost.

As an example of disruption based on jobs to be done, Christensen cited Apple under Steve Jobs (who was known for not focusing on demographics or research into existing markets) as a company that introduced the iPod as a better way to fulfill the job of making music available and accessible easily.


Newspapers and their future

What got newspapers as an industry to its current difficult business state was discussed with Skok noting how many of the things that used to make up pieces of a newspaper got picked off by companies that focused exclusively on those areas, with products for sale going to sites like Craigslist and help wanted to a Monster or one of the other job sites.

What remains for newspapers is the same basic question that all companies in all industries face, what jobs do newspapers serve? Skok and Christensen discussed how the job fulfilled may be that of providing truth, may serve the job of helping someone unwind, may be to help start the day for people or may be something different. Either way, newspapers just like any other industry need to hone in on what job they serve and focus on fulfilling that.



Four elements to a business model

Christensen talked about every venture has a business model with the elements being the following: (1) Value proposition – there’s a job to be done and we’re trying to get people to hire our product to fill that job. (2) Resources – have to have these to deliver a value proposition. (3) Processes – as the people in a company do things in support of filling a job, processes emerge. (4) Profit formula – how do you get money to cover resources?



Changes that occur with disruption

Skok and Christensen noted that when a business becomes commoditized, new jobs to be done open up. It was said that as a general rule, when disruption occurs, the market booms and the interesting point made that if the top of the market drops off, the bottom will rise. Related to the field of journalism... if print dies, online writing fees should rise as there would be no more two-tier system with much higher compensation for print pieces.

Writing on interesting places, writing on nice stories and writing on mental health

There's been some excellent writing I've come across lately that seems to link together with two pieces being about interesting places, two about people with stories that can be described as exceptionally nice and two about the important subject of mental health.

In terms of interesting places, the March 2013 issue of Outside Magazine had a fascinating feature story written by Rowan Jacobsen. "Chef Blaine Wetzel's Quest to Become the Ultimate Locavore" was on the just-now-turning-27 Wetzel and his Willows Inn restaurant on Lummi Island near Bellingham, WA. It was one of those pieces of writing that stood out in part because I wouldn't have expected it to.

Another interesting place story recently was also from Outside, with the Outside website having a piece noted as originally appeared in the Spring 2013 issue of OnEarth Magazine. About the Chicago River, Matthew Power wrote "Is it Possible to Save the Waterway That Made Chicago Great?" Very similar to the feature on Wetzel and the Willows Inn, I wouldn't have expected to find this story that compelling, but it really was... and included Power describing the river by writing "levels of E. coli bacteria in non-disinfected wastewater sent from Stickney into the canal have registered 700 times above the legal limit for swimmable water."


In terms of nice, two stories that have stuck with me recently were on adoption of an abandoned child and a kayak journey. Of particular profundity was "We Found Our Son in the Subway", a first-person account from playwright and screenwriter Peter Mercurio posted to a New York Times blog. It's just heartwarming reading of a story that as Mercurio writes "began 12 years earlier."

It may not have the gravitas of the account by Mercurio, but another feel-good story written well was from Tampa Bay Times writer Ben Montgomery. "Kayak trip from Minnesota to Key West cuts through Tampa Bay" was about Daniel Alvarez and his solo kayak trip from Minnesota to Key West. The journey was financed by a $10,000 Outside Magazine (again with Outside Mag!) prize and Montgomery recounts how the 31 year old left behind his corporate law gig (which came out of a Yale law degree) to do... exactly what he wants to be doing.


The mental health writing was first a Chris Jones column for ESPN and then short interview with him about what he wrote. "Status update: A tennis player quits because the cost of a public life feeds her depression" is on 22 year old Rebecca Marino and then the Q&A piece "ESPN The Magazine columnist Chris Jones relates with young tennis star’s bouts with depression." In the interview, Jones references writing on the subject of his own depression a Nov 2011 Esquire piece (that I wrote about along with a similarly important Mike Sager piece) and his statement that "mental illness is something we should talk about" just seems to ring so true.

Hockey writing by Jeff MacGregor, Tim Rohan & Sarah Hampson

I've lately come across a few pieces of writing that stood out as excellent which all dealt with the sport of hockey, just different things related to the game.

The first piece to note here was about the sport itself in "The Hockey News" by Jeff MacGregor for ESPN.  Written about his experience as first a young and now adult hockey fan, it's a short and thoughtful column that makes me think of the Chris Jones column "Best Day Ever" about time with the Stanley Cup.

The second hockey piece I particularly enjoyed was by Tim Rohan for the New York Times and dealt with potential greatness. "A Prodigy on the Way to Stardom"  is about 16 year-old Conner McDavid, currently playing in the Ontario Hockey League and expected to be the first pick in the 2015 NHL draft. I love coming across and posting about writing on sports phenoms and with McDavid having already drawn favorable attention from the likes of Bobby Orr (his agent), Sidney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky, he's definitely in the phenom category.

The third piece to mention here was a poignant look at someone in the game by Sarah Hampson for the Toronto Globe & Mail. "NHL veteran Dominic Moore opens up about his wife, their life and her death" is about the former San Jose Shark whose wife Katie was diagnosed during the last Stanley Cup Playoffs with a rare cancer and passed away in January. Very well done writing from Hampson that brought in the history of both Moore's brother Steve whose career ended by Todd Burtuzzi and and Katie's father who died unexpectedly a year before her passing.

Esquire pieces - Bin Laden Shooter by Bronstein & Kutcher profile by Chiarella

There were two pieces from the March 2013 issue of Esquire Magazine that stood out as particularly interesting and thought-provoking. The first was "The Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden... Is Screwed" by Phil Bronstein and second "The All New Ashton Kutcher Story!" by Tom Chiarella.

The Bronstein feature is about the the unnamed Navy Seal who shot and killed Bin Laden and his challenges (both financial and otherwise) assimilating to civilian life after leaving the military. The piece is a fascinating one in that the Bin Laden shooter was in such an elite group in Seal Team 6 and did such a high-profile thing, but it makes me think of his difficulties as part of the much larger population of all returning servicemen and women and challenges faced. I've written on and linked to a number of pieces by Mark Thompson on the subject and the experience of the Bin Laden shooter is both fascinating to read about and just a shame for both he, his family and other veterans who have a hard time after returning home.

The Chiarella profile of Kutcher was of course about someone in an area of much less heft, but the piece towards the end had two different things from the actor that struck me as compelling. Specifically, Chiarella closed the profile around Kutcher discussing how he spends his time by saying "I kinda only do what I like to do" and a bit prior to that had a quote from Kutcher about Steve Jobs that I found fascinating...

"There was this one speech that I found where he said, 'So when you grow up, if you spend your life trying not to bounce into walls, just inheriting what you get, you gotta know your life can be a lot broader than that. Once you realize one simple thing: Everything around you that you call life was made by people who are no smarter than you. And you can change it. You can influence it. You can build your own things that other people can use.' And I heard that and I knew exactly what the niche for making the movie was, what the social need for making the movie was. For people seeking purpose. I remember growing up and looking at the world and going, Okay, how do I live in this? instead of How do I create it? How do I build it? How do I make something? And the empowerment of these ideas, I think they make an important story." 

Basketball writing from Sports Illustrated - by Jenkins & McCallum

There's been three pieces of basketball writing I've seen recently (all from Sports Illustrated) that struck me as particularly interesting.

The Feb 25 issue featured two of them with "Rondo" by Lee Jenkins and "Chaos Theory" from Jack McCallum. The Jenkins piece is a long profile on Rajon Rondo and does an excellent job delving into the extremely competitive injured Celtics point guard. The McCallum story was on the Los Angeles Lakers and what stood out in this piece was the construction of it. After an introduction in which he set the stage with expectations for the team going into the season measured against performance so far, McCallum threw down the sentence "Herewith, the main story lines and characters" and proceeded with short sections that had the following italicized titles...

No Country for Old Men - on former (and incorrectly assumed to become current) coach Phil Jackson
The Departed - on owner Jerry Buss who recently passed away
The Adjustment Bureau - on the team under new coach Mike D'Antoni
The Tao of Steve - on point guard Steve Nash and his play
13 Going on 30 - on mercurial (and perhaps immature) center Dwight Howard
The Dilemma - on the integration of all-star Pau Gasol into the offense under D'Antoni
The Italian Job - on Lakers guard (and one of the greatest players in the game) Kobe Bryant
It's Complicated - on the question of what exactly need be done to get the team playing as it should

Just a very innovative approach the story by McCallum and it felt to work perfectly.

The third piece of excellent basketball writing to mention here was also by Lee Jenkins and for the Sports Illustrated website. "Lakers' success a testament to best owner in sports history" was published online the same day Jerry Buss passed away and, in the same vein as he did on Rondo, Jenkins wrote a story which showed a great deal about the person it covered. Detail leading to with greater meaning all done with writing that flows well... very good stuff.

Cinequest 2013 Writers Celebration event

I recently came across a fascinating Vanity Fair article "When the Spec Script was King" by Margaret Heidenry about the ups and downs in the market for selling screenplays and the timing of seeing this feature dovetailed with an event I attended this weekend.

Each year the Cinequest Film Festival is held in San Jose, CA and four years ago I went to (and wrote about) the Cinequest Day of the Writer event and for this year's iteration, Writers Celebration, there was some tremendously interesting takeaways from the three different parts.


Part one - screenwriting wisdom

In the first session, talent manager Diane McGee and writer James Dalessandro spoke and answered audience questions about successful screenwriting. While both speakers excellent, Dalessandro probably spoke more and passed along a number of his thoughts and experiences as a successful writer and teacher of screenwriting. Some of his past work includes 1906: A Novel that he optioned for a large amount of money to be made into a film and the 2010 Playboy Magazine story "Petrosino v. The Black Hand", now slated to be a 10-hour TV mini-series about Joseph Petrosino, the turn of the 20th Century New York City Police Detective.

Some of the main takeaways from Dalessandro and McGee were as follows...

Structure in writing - Repeatedly spoken of was the importance of outlining a screenplay... with the idea that both plot and subplot should be done in the outline prior to actually writing the screenplay. Not in opposition, though, was also that someone should be willing to write out of sequence if stuck. Basically to write a section that is clear as a writer and then go back later, the phrase used for this was "letting the puddles run together."

Formula in writing - Formula as a concept was referring to as repeating dumb ideas, but it also noted that formula can be a jumping off point with taking what people have done and then putting a twist on it. It was said that there's little out there that's completely original, but can certainly be things presented in a new way that will get attention.

Writing for television - It was mentioned that if something can't get made as a movie, a TV show is a great alternative as film can be considered a directors medium and TV one for writers, and there's simply more opportunities in TV than film.

Writing detail - Dalessandro noted that a writer shouldn't write details if they don't know any of them to be correct and he does a lot of research as many of his ideas are based in reality. Included along with this was his quote that "a writer is a storehouse of useless information."

Importance of character in writing - It was said repeatedly that while a plot idea or concept may be the first thing a writer has, a story need to have an interesting main character... otherwise, who cares? Part of the concept was that a character has to have two problems, one internal and one external. On a progression, the steps for a writer could be viewed as (a) premise, (b) character, (c) rising conflict and (d) resolution.

Approach towards success at screenwriting - Dalessandro said both that first novel was rejected by seven agents and thirty-seven publishers and 1906 abandoned as a movie project by a prominent director and may not ever get made. Regardless, though, you just keep working at it. One point made was that screenplays a foreign language compared to books and articles so if someone wants to be a screenwriter, they should read a lot of scripts (with Fargo mentioned as a great one). It was also mentioned that scripts are now 95-100 pages only and screenwriting competitions a great place to take a first script. Additionally, two sites for aspiring screenwriters noted were The Black List and The Tracking Board.


Part two - selling a screenplay panel

The second session also featured Dalessandro, this time along with producer and management company owner Sean Davis and was moderated by San Jose State professor Barnaby Dallas. It featured 6-8 different early in the business people who pitched their screenplays (which had fared well in a competition) to Davis and Dalessandro as if they were studio executives. 

It was said by Dalessandro and Davis that a pitch should give enough information to make someone understand the concept and want to know what happens next... as opposed to wanting explanation of what the concept actually is. Basically the intent would be to address the story questions of who, what, when, where, how does it affect the lives of the characters? 

Additionally noted as being good to include in a pitch was brief personal information about the screenwriter. Along with that was mention that it's completely fine (probably a good idea, in fact) to be up front about someone's level of experience pitching if they're new it to and to have a backup in case the primary idea not of interest. Finally, it was said that query letters are tough route to try to get a script noticed because so many come, but competitions are a good route to go through... and two more sites to be aware of as an aspiring screenwriter are Without a Box about film festivals and competitions and the screenwriters resource site InkTip. 

Part three - Maverick Spirit Award with Chuck Palahniuk

Palahniuk is a writer best-known for his novel (and basis for the classic film) Fight Club and this session first featured a viewing of the short film Romance based on story by Palahniuk and then there was a Q&A that began with him receiving the 2013 Cinequest Maverick Spirit Award.

Palahniuk noted that he's not really in the world of Hollywood as his model is more to write books or stories (with his most recent being Phoenix, a $.99 Byliner Kindle Single) which may get optioned and eventually developed for film or television. What stood out the most to me from him, though, was what he had to say about his work put in, both by himself and with other writers. Palahniuk said that Fight Club originally only sold a few thousand copies and prior to becoming a successful writer he worked at Freightliner for 13 years making trucks... and wrote while at work. 

He then mentioned Joy Williams as one of his favorite writers and talked about the writing workshop group he's been in since 1990. There's nine people that meet weekly and Palahniuk noted the benefits of immediate feedback and accountability towards goals stated out loud. Also interesting (and related at least somewhat to the writing group mention) was his statement (which echoed one from Dalessandro) that creative work doesn't have to be all your own original ideas, it can come from other people and their ideas, just with your own take.

Between the three sessions there was a lot of great ideas put forth, with of course the most profound one being to put in the work and see where it takes you.

"After Friday Night Lights" by Buzz Bissinger

After Friday Night Lights was a compelling eBook from Buzz Bissinger that followed up on his bestselling Friday Night Lights book written 22 years, one feature film and one television series ago.

The original book was an excellent read and a past sports book from Bissinger that I also enjoyed was Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager about Tony LaRussa and the 2003 St. Louis Cardinals. Additionally of interest to me was his publication last year of Father's Day: A Journey into the Mind and Heart of My Extraordinary Son, from which there was a really captivating excerpt that I wrote about and linked to in a post on great writing on raising kids.

This most recent After Friday Night Lights was a short book published through Byliner and about Boobie Miles, the main character featured in Bissinger's original book. After reading of what Miles went through as a high school football player, it was then fascinating seeing the path his life has taken in the two decades since.

Miles certainly hasn't been without his faults and self-inflicted difficulties, but reading of him one gets the sense of the long odds he's faced towards having something resembling a normal, productive-member-of-society type life. Told well by Bissinger was how Miles treated by many others, ranging from his high school coach to those at Universal Studios who paid him $1,000 to use his character in the movie. Really what seems to be inherent in his story is the reconciliation between wishing for something and making the best out of what is.

Also terribly interesting from the eBook was Bissinger's writing on himself, both as a writer whose best-known work was done at the age of 35 and as someone who formed a connection with Miles that's carried forward to today.

I enjoyed After Friday Night Lights quite a bit and it's short enough to be read in one sitting, basically like a long and very well done magazine feature.

Mr. Rogers in words 10 years later - by Tom Junod & others

I earlier today saw on Twitter two posts from Esquire Magazine writer Tom Junod that struck me as powerful and sent me off in search of more about Mr. Rogers as the subject...

"Fred Rogers died ten years ago today. I've only met two or three great men in my life, and he was one of them." 

"Fred Rogers used to bring crowds to tears by asking them to be silent for a minute, and to think of someone who made them who they are. RIP."

Just captivating words from Junod and they reminded me of how I previously had seen the profile "Can You Say... Hero?" he wrote on Rogers. Published by Esquire in 1998, I read it last year linked to from Oregonian writer Anna Griffin and her blog of great writing. I didn't write about the Junod piece at the time, but seeing the depth of feeling conveyed in these tweets from Junod compelled me to read it again this morning and it really is a powerful story about Rogers.

In addition to the tweets and actual profile (which isn't on the Esquire site anymore as the profile included in the 80 Greatest Esquire Stories eBook- hence the odd site linked to), I found several other compelling pieces about Mr. Rogers both by Junod and related to his profile written. For the Nieman Storyboard series on great writing done, Susannah Breslin wrote "Why's This So Good? Tom Junod on Mr. Rogers and Grace" and I found noteworthy the following passage from Breslin...

"The story works because it speaks to you as if you are the child you once were. It refuses to be snarky and dares to move you."

Going back to Rogers himself were two other pieces of writing that reinforced the depth of caring in the man. The first was by Junod again with his 2003 "Remembering Mister Rogers" and the second was by Brendan Vaughn in 2006 for the New York Times. Titled "Rogers and Me", it's about the book I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers by Tim Madigan and an interesting story on Madigan and his relationship with Rogers if for reason other than it's from someone in addition to Junod writing about who Rogers was.

To this point, video of the 1997 Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award speech by Rogers that Junod references was compelling (and not just to see the hairstyles worn then) and insightful about the man, what he tried to do with others and the impact that had on people...

Writers on writing - Jones, Montgomery, Lake, Tullis, Lamott & Gilbert

I frequently post about writers on writing and there's been a few recent compelling pieces about writing from three different sources to note here.

The first was "Getting the Story: A roundtable discussion", an e-mail discussion from the magazine Creative Nonfiction moderated by Matt Tullis with writers Ben Montgomery, Thomas Lake & Chris Jones. Topics covered all dealt with nonfiction writing and while the entire piece had some great content to it, below are some of the notions that stood out the most to me:

From Tullis on whether creative nonfiction and journalism operate on different ends of the nonfiction writing spectrum...

"Some of the best creative nonfiction I've read over the last five years was actually journalism, and by that, I mean stories written about the lives of other people, reported by people who know how to report and synthesize what they have reported, then craft a story that captures a place, a time, a person—sometimes all three—to give readers an experience they won’t soon forget, one that reaches truths which fiction and memoir strive for but often fail to reach."

From Montgomery on the question of whether the right term for this type of writing is "creative nonfiction" or something like "narrative journalism"...

"I’m not really concerned with how we categorize it or what we call it. Seems like there’s a new name for it every year. In the end, it’s a stack of facts and reported detail and dialogue ordered to give life to a story. It’s journalism. Narrative journalism seems redundant."

From Jones on the import & process of reporting...

"True nonfiction, the sort of nonfiction that might last and has a chance to matter, is built on a foundation of reporting. And not just a little reporting. Whenever anyone asks me what I do, or whenever I have to fill out a form that asks for my profession, I usually answer “reporter.” A writer can be any number of things. A reporter can be only one thing: a finder of facts. That’s what I love most about my job, that’s what I think I’m best at, and that’s what I most want to be. I want people to read my stuff and think, That guy’s a reporter."

"Reporting really is a two-step process: find your sources, and then mine your sources for material. I usually try to make a list of the people I want to talk to. That list will change because it’s useful to ask the people you talk to who they might talk to if they were writing the story, and they will give you names that you've never heard before. And then I talk to people, a lot."

From Lake on when to stop reporting...

"When you see the story in your mind, from beginning to middle to end, and you can write down that structure on a blank white sheet of paper and there are no gaping holes. I should clarify: This does not actually mean you stop reporting. What it means is you can start writing. But you keep reporting as you write because the act of writing reveals these little pinholes in the reporting, these places where you don’t know quite as much as you should. So you keep making phone calls right up to the end. You solidify, you deepen, you seal all the leaks. You may never actually be done until the thing shows up in print."

From Jones on writing a story...

"I usually have a rolling Word document filled with contacts and ideas and sentences that have popped into my head. I don’t outline, but like Ben, I write from memory first. I don’t go back to all that stuff until after I have a first draft. Then, I go back and correct my mistakes and find plaster for the holes. Otherwise, I get too bound up, reading back over everything. I want my story to feel natural, not constructed, if that makes sense."

Excellent content from this piece for Creative Nonfiction Magazine and another interesting piece on the subject of writing was from Gretchen Rubin who wrote the self-help bestseller The Happiness Project. On her Happiness Project blog Rubin posted "14 Writing Tips from Anne Lamott" with wisdom from Lamott's book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. The tips from Lamott that Rubin passes along are very solid and reminded me of reading and reviewing Bird by Bird last year.

Final piece on writing to note here was from Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love, with her essay for the website Bookish. Gilbert offers a response to novelist Philip Roth who spoke of how writing an "awfulish field" to work in. Roth is a renowned author of many books, including The Plot Against America that I enjoyed quite a bit, and it's certainly his prerogative to be down on the field of writing, but was also interesting to read Gilbert's thoughts in support of writing as a profession. The part that struck me the most was the following...

"Writing is a voluntary act. Becoming a novelist, then, is not some sort of dreadful Mayan curse, or dark martyrdom that only a chosen few can withstand for the betterment of humanity. Writing is just a thing. It is a lovely thing, mind you, and it personally means the entire world to me, but I still recognize that it is just a thing. It is a thing that you can choose to pursue with your life because it excites you, or because you have a flair for it, or because it seems more rewarding than toiling away in an office. Sometimes it even works. Not always, but sometimes. If you're lucky, you might be able to make a small living out of this thing. If you're exceedingly lucky, other people might come to appreciate your gifts. If you are phenomenally lucky, you might become lionized in your own lifetime, like the great Philip Roth himself."

Some really great material on writing and the producing of it from these three sources.

Best writing linked to in 2012

Rather than repeat the lateness of my post that went up on Jan 7th, 2013 titled "Best Writing Linked to in 2011", I'm noting here my favorite writing linked to in 2012 less than two months after the year over! With that preamble...

Best writing on writing linked to in 2012

"Writing" by Scott Raab for his personal blog. Written on and linked to in Jan 2012.

"Some thoughts and musings about making things for the web" by Matthew Inman for his site The Oatmeal. Written on and linked to in Nov 2012.


Best writing on adventure linked to in 2012

"The Ballad of Johnny France" by Richard Ben Cramer for Esquire and reposted to the site Alex Belth's Bronx Banter. Written on and linked to in Jan 2012.

"Why Noah Went Into the Woods" by Mark Sundeen for Outside Magazine. Written on and linked to in Apr 2012.

"The Devil on Paradise Road" by Bruce Barcott for Outside Magazine. Written on and linked to in Sept 2012.

"Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek" by John Branch for the New York Times. Written on and linked to in Dec 2012.


Best writing on sports linked to in 2012

"Mourning Glory" by Chris Ballard for Sports Illustrated. Written on and linked to in Oct 2012.

"Stand Up, Speak Out" by Gary Smith for Sports Illustrated. Written on and linked to in Dec 2012.


Best other writing (longform) linked to in 2012

"How One Response to a Reddit Query Became a Big-Budget Flick" by Jason Fagone for Wired Magazine. Written on and linked to in Mar 2012.

"The Hazards of Growing Up Painlessly" by Justin Heckert for the New York Times Magazine. Written on and linked to in Nov 2012.


Best other writing (short) linked to in 2012

"John Hickenlooper's Long, Hot Summer" by Robert Sanchez for Esquire. Posted on and linked to (along with an excellent Elon Musk profile by Tom Junod) in Dec 2012.

"Are You John Lennon?" by Jimmy Breslin for the New York Daily News and reposted to the blog Ralrika. Written on and linked to in Dec 2012.

"Running and Hoping to Find a Child Safe" by Jim Dwyer for the New York Times. Written on and linked to in Dec 2012.

So much great writing linked to last year and there was of course a ton of excellent pieces I've overlooked, but these stood out as particularly well-written and ones that seem worthy of this (highly arbitrary) "Best Writing" designation.

Compelling sports stories - by Wright Thompson, Greg Bishop & Ryan O'Hanlon

My favorite pieces of sports writing come across recently were three that stood out for wildly divergent reasons.

The oldest was one a few weeks back from Outside Magazine and (perhaps logically given the source) really less of a sports piece and more of an adventure travel one which came about because of sports. "Soccer in the World's Most Violent City: The Great Mall of San Pedro Sula" was written by Ryan O'Hanlon and is a tremendously interesting riff on his time in Honduras for the U.S. Men's Soccer World Cup qualifying match. Just a different world there than most people in America familiar with.

A second excellent piece was done a week ago by Greg Bishop with "A Leg Rebuilt, a Life Renewed for Jay Williams". Written for the New York Times, it's a profile of the former Duke basketball star who was selected second in the 2002 draft by the Chicago Bulls and then saw his career all but ended by a motorcycle crash following his rookie season. Bishop wrote a thorough look at Williams and his life that certainly still carries a measure of what could have been, but at the same time seems to be on a really solid path.

The most recent story to note here was an ESPN feature by Wright Thompson posted Friday. "Michael Jordan Has Not Left the Building" is just an incredibly well-done look at Jordan, his life and psyche as he turns 50 on Sunday. Jordan is by many accounts not a terribly nice guy and heavily driven by his grievances and resentments over slights both real and perceived (as detailed in a Thomas Lake feature for Sports Illustrated) and Thompson portrays this side of him, but also shows how the public life Jordan has led (including his father being killed as a result of Jordan's fame) makes his life so far apart from others. Thompson has done some tremendous pieces of writing for ESPN I've previously seen and one of the things that made this story exceptional was how it revealed so much detail on Jordan, but still left it to the reader to evaluate him as they may.