Today marked the 5th anniversary of my journey to becoming an independent sports writer. Throughout the best half-decade of my short life, I have met some incredible characters, from creators on Twitter aggregating original reporting to journalists going through college or pursuing a path similar to mine, but not a single one has been failing at what they do for as long as I have, and this is why I am committing to a 6-12 month sprint to success.
Disclaimer: This list will not include any monetary or status-improving benefits, such as increased follower counts or financial gains from writing. Yes, these hedonistic ways of life are important (why are we all working and improving constantly, then?), but making them your goals, and the only reason to work, over enjoying the art of mastering your craft is not sustainable, for me at least.
If you are simply a writer attempting to pursue more in your life or trying to quench the thirst that you have of just writing because you love to write, or if you are a journalist/reporter writing articles, newsletters, scripts, or posts for the same purposes, then this highly broad but practical list will be of a huge help.
Know More Than You Can Write
Have you ever listened to a basketball podcast or read an in-depth 3,000-word article and noticed that the reader knows exactly what he is talking about? This is what this chapter is all about: the knowledge gap that separates the truly great writers from the rest of the pack.
Before you begin writing your next article or recording another podcast episode, use this simple framework to sound smarter, form more logical and deeper debates, have your own deep opinions on subjects, and potentially even learn a thing or two in the process.
Research beyond the obvious: When you see the latest NBA news appear on your X feed, don’t just arrive at the conclusion that reading a handful of tweets and a few articles makes you completely knowledgeable about the story. Go deeper than you are required to by adding statistics, watching interviews, going through the history, and performing deep research for perhaps the first time in your career.
This is not only beneficial for having more to talk about, but it also helps you build context on top of the information you have already stored. This profound understanding of the subject can help formulate better and more arguable opinions and analysis on topics, something that will be discussed later in the blog.
Accumulated knowledge is a “wealth of understanding, insights, and information” that has been gathered and stored over time through a large level of experience, study, and exposure to a subject or topic. In the NBA, the longer you have been in the game, the more you know of the history, patterns, rules, and evolution of the league; not even Skip Bayless could argue that.
If you have been writing for 5 years, as I have, you build a certain level of base understanding and advanced knowledge in topics surrounding your focus area. For me, the NBA and basketball as a whole is a place where I feel at home; writing and reporting is my 2nd set of brothers, but let’s say, for example, galactic astrophysics, I have absolutely no experience or exposure to it, even in the slightest.
Knowing what to leave out is another skill that requires a certain level of experience to truly understand and implement. I personally hate leaving out any morsel of facts and stats, but in order to write a great story, it is a vital step. Good writers know what can strengthen a story, and what can kill it.
Reading widely and seeing what other writers are doing is also an underrated tactic for gaining intel on your competitors and using their own strategies against them. Steal their vocabulary, information, and wording like an artist, but never plagiarize or blatantly copy and paste someone’s writing. This concept can sound contradictory at first, but through time and effort, you will learn what this phrase truly means.
Read Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon and The Craft of Research by Wayne C. Booth; both books are incredible and will help you in your journey.
Don’t Just Tell Me What Happened. Tell Me Why It Matters.
Back in the day, when a major trade or a blockbuster signing happened, I would be one of the first to go ballistic about the news, but I never seemed to get any traction with my writing because of the topic’s virality. The simple fix to this issue is to go beyond the news and tell readers why it matters, why it happened, the causes and effects, other related rumours or pieces of news, even the statistics or other people’s reactions; it is better than simply repeating what every major and minor outlet already said 10x faster than we smaller creators could.
In journalism, you are taught the inverted pyramid structure, which most reports and columns to this day follow. The basic idea of the pyramid is to include all the critical information the reader needs to know (or already knows), followed by supporting details in descending order of importance. Finally, the non-important but interesting details are left at the end.
I like to lead with the major news at the start and slowly develop and bait the story into my own opinion or analysis piece, but for simple blurbs and reports, adding context and showing your “fans” why you are different from the other, much larger reporters is the most critical part of success.
While most of the people reading may not be interested in journalism at all, you can simply adopt 2 writing methods that will guarantee that you will stand out amongst the thousands of other writers attempting to make a living or a name for themselves in the world of writing:
Cause and Effect: Cause and effect writing is exploring the reasons why a certain topic happened, and the effects of that cause and how they benefit or damage other related topics. In sports writing, for example, let’s say a trade happened. Exploring why the trade happened and what the team that traded for the player can expect is far better than just writing about the trade itself.
Ask the Tough Questions: When asking the tough questions, I am talking more about the questions no one answers or that are not directly related to the topic. Going back to the trade example. You could ask why the player got traded, or how the team chemistry is affected when adding a new player. Asking these deeper questions over surface-level things can help add a new angle to the topic and, as a result, create you a decent article.
Another way you can write better is to give the reader something that they can take away from the article that they wouldn’t otherwise get from a simple box score or a headline of a larger news company. Our value as writers comes from interpreting the information and relaying it to the public, explaining it in a way that can benefit the reader.
Develop Your Own Voice and Opinion
Whenever I start writing a project, article or book, looking at the statistics to see if it was a good idea or if people would actually read it is right at the end of my to-do list. Worrying about others’ opinions on your writing is how you kill confidence and motivation instantly, which subsequently ruins your chances of becoming a unique writer.
Never write what you think people want to hear; write what you truly believe after conducting your deep research, and stick to your word even through adversity and chaos. JK Rowling, the famous billionaire author of the Harry Potter series, faced issues throughout her entire writing journey. After being rejected by a dozen publishers, do you think she just gave up and wrote about what the people wanted?
She pursued and stuck to her original story, eventually landing a deal for her first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which turned out to be a massive success and turned the Harry Potter series into one of the best-selling series ever. To date, Harry Potter books have sold more than 750 million copies worldwide and are regarded as one of the best book series ever written.
“If you asked the public what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” – Henry Ford.
No reader asks the writer to write about this topic or adjust their angle to fit their sterotype. The greatest writers in the world, espeically in the sports world, stick to what they are arguing or defending, so why do you have to change the way you write just because a certain group of readers don’t like it?
Many will read this and confuse being a complete contrarian with being original, spoiler, they are not the same thing. If you know you are wrong, especially when the facts in sports are so easily obtained throught numerous sources and databases, than spin your originality into a different position, not following the same path that leads deeper into the unknown forest.
One last point for the chapter is learning. In order to create, you must consume. Without a consumption of media or inspiration, than you are relying on your exisisting knowledge bank to fuel your ideas. This can work for some time, but eventually, you will have to read again.
When reading other sports writers or writers in general, try and adopt some of the things that they have mastered, whether that be storytelling, vocabulary, structure, whatever, and leave out the things you don’t like to add to your new personality. This way, you are copying what works, but adapting it to yourself without plagerising.
This could also include what you write about. When I first discovered both business and philosophy, I was instantly intrigued, consuming everything I could about the new topics and loving every minute of it. How does this fit into sports writing? Adding your own spin onto topics can include using your other strengths, which can be interest areas where you have knowledge, and combining the two to create a new topic.
For example, imagine that their was a major fight in the NBA and a few players got suspended. Instead of writing about the fight itself and the consequences of it, you could go deeper and write about how the fight could affect the team exconomically, or how patience and temperence could have been shown by the players to stop the fight entirely.
You see how, with a bit of engineering and continuity, you are able to create a completely unique and interesting angle on a topic that would have ottherwise sounded the same as the other writers? Including your other intrests, what ever they are, can give you a perspective that other writers in the industry don’t have.
Your voice won’t develop instantly, and neither will the results. In order to be successful, you must take the small, yet visable steps towards the finish line. All great things take time and effort my Father says, and with enough reps, you will finish the set.
Embrace the long game, enjoy the process, and never give up on your dream, because if you never give up, then you never truly failed.
Dimitri is a Sports Journalist and Writer with over 5 years of experience in the field. If you want to support his independant writing journey, then follow his X page, where he posts daily reports, stories, analysis and stats for his 1.5k followers.