Field Guide to Covering Sports. Joe Gisondi

       ▸ The Washington Post’s Dave Sheinin says he creates one-page outlines that he glances over during slower moments in interviews to remind himself of key points he wants to address. “I don’t like to stare at my notes and recite questions as if I’m reading off a teleprompter,” he says. “I like to keep eye contact during interviews.”

       ▸ Ask numerous follow-up questions in order to get enough information to write authoritatively about people, places, things, or issues. Don’t go on to the next topic until you have enough questions to fully understand an issue or to develop a detailed scene.

       ▸ The person profiled may be the last person you speak with. Gather stories first from others who are less guarded in offering information and insights. Friends and family are usually more than willing to gab about one another.

       ▸ Be candid with potential sources, letting them know what you want to learn, whom you’ve already spoken with, and what you already know. This approach can help build your credibility and also reveal that others are talking. “There’s a phrase I heard once: ‘The more you know, the more you’ll get,’” says Dave Hyde. “The more you know about a story and can tell the person you’re interviewing, the more that person is going to tell you. He or she will see you have some information and so won’t be so hesitant to talk.”

       ▸ Don’t hesitate to call sources several times for a single story. You might even want to end an interview by saying something like this: “Would you mind if I call back if I have more questions or need to clarify something?” Few people will decline this invitation to verify and clarify details.

       ▸ Don’t be afraid to ask questions, even about something as sensitive as losing a friend or being embarrassed about dyslexia. Readers seek stories that reveal these intimate and emotional aspects of athletes and coaches. In the piece on a Packers rookie running back, Dume kept asking questions, respectfully but persistently: “All I did was keep asking for examples and how he coped with the disorder mentally,” Dunne said. “How we did deal with each setback? How did he grow as a person with each setback? Sometimes it might be weird to ask somebody for minute details on what it’s like living in a car or what it’s like to read in front of a classroom but when it’s on paper, it flows organically. Details. Details. Get those and the story comes alive.”

       ▸ Keep talking until you find a major conflict. Once this person starts talking, listen for visual markers and other specific details that will enable you to paint the story more clearly. If this information is not supplied, ask for it: “What was the weather like?” “Where were you standing?” “Describe the trail you ran on.” “What did the heat feel like?” There are a million ways to write a profile or feature, but there is really one primary factor that drives these stories—conflict. So go find it. Your readers will be most thankful.

       ▸ For longer pieces, such as the 3,000-plus word “A Wonderful Life,” Sheinin prefers to create multiple sections, which essentially serve as mini-chapters. This enables a writer to more easily dive into multiple scenes and topics. The start and end of a story are most important, says Sheinin, but these other sections are equally important, enabling a writer to move toward a conclusion. “I tend to write top to bottom and tend to know the ending,” Sheinin says, “and then I try to get there.” Everything in the middle, he adds, is a means to this end.

       ▸ Jenkins put more emphasis on a feature’s opening paragraphs: “As long as I have a beginning, everything else will come.” Processes change among writers.

       ▸ Before you write, reduce your story to one or two sentences. If you have difficulty doing this, you’ll probably struggle to organize and to structure the story. Some writers, though, prefer to write more organically, letting ideas grow along the way—a method that can be both exciting and frustrating, depending on your level of writing and amount of research. Even if you use this second approach, go back and determine if you included a sentence or two that can serve as a nut graf. If not, write a few sentences and determine how this affects your story. Don’t be afraid to completely revamp, revise, move, or delete large chunks of the story. In fact, it would be shocking if you did not make such changes.

       ▸ Explain everything so readers won’t constantly have to look for clarification. So learn everything you can about the physics of a knuckleball, for example, before you write about this pitch’s sometimes unpredictable, fluttering movement. If you send readers to search engines, they probably won’t come back. Says Stout: “The temptation for readers to go to Google is there 100 percent of the time.”

       ▸ Write about places where most fans or other reporters rarely go. Yahoo! sportswriter Jeff Passan, for example, left the press box at Wrigley Field during Game 3 of the National League Division Series in 1985 to tell the stories of the six fans in the bleachers who caught home run balls hit by Cubs players, turning the game story into a feature story instead of a recitation of facts surrounding Chicago’s record-setting power performance in the 8–6 victory over the Cardinals.

       ▸ Think mobile, as in an audience reading these features on smartphones who pause at the bottom of the screen deciding whether to swipe ahead for another few paragraphs. As you revise, make sure every sentence has something that is instructive, entertaining, or newsworthy; otherwise even one small, uninteresting, poorly scripted section of a larger story can send readers headed elsewhere.

       ▸ Jenkins prefers not to start writing until he’s completed the reporting process, because he never knows what’s going to turn up late. He then reviews all of his notes, placing them on his desk where he decides what to include in the story.