"All good things must pass" -- A reflection on Writing Sports Literature

Well, friends, it's been a ride.

Reading:
1] I've read many a pretentious "how-to-write" book in my day, and Writing True was the complete opposite. The book managed to be both helpful and encouraging, offering a variety of "Ways In" that encourage the writer to be original, rather than, "Follow this format because it's the proper way to write."

2] Several stories resonate from the collection we read: "Dirty Moves," "What Goes Ninety-five Miles per Hour for Seventeen Days...," "The Shadow Boxer," "A (Fishing) Hole in One" (yes, I actually liked that one), and "Raising the Dead." For me, these stories were the most engaging while smoothly combining research and issues. All effectively presented a non-mainstream sport in a way to engage an audience unfamiliar with the rules of wrestling or the dangers of scuba diving.

Class time:

Although we all groaned, writing on the chalkboard did indeed illustrate the structure of the stories: the issues at hand and how they moved, the details, the resolution. Variety during class, though, would help maintain the students' interest: perhaps having a group of students be responsible for illustrating a particular story for the class, or having the class direct the professor as he diagrams the story. Otherwise, the groups focused on their own section of the board without interacting with the other clusters.

The grammar presentation, especially the section about active v. passive verbs, was informative. (Ahh! There I go with a passive statement...) The presentation, however, would have been better timed had it been given before or right after Paper 1, instead of in the midst of Paper 2.

The few classes we had to simply work on our papers were the most effective for me. I could read over my own story or pass it to a friend if I so chose. While workshops are an integral part of the writing process, having the professor look over my paper was most beneficial to me. Sir Emerson took the time to sit down with each student and glance over his or her paper, although many other students waited.

Writing:

The blogs were a fine idea and, from what I've seen, successful. I like blogging.

I appreciated our professor's heavy emphasis on the importance of research: a necessary evil, indeed. The papers I've written for other classes usually include heavy citations from a story/poem, or are entirely creative pieces that don't need any sort of "tangible" foothold. And alas, my writing has drastically improved through the necessity of research. (The Prof. should subtitle this course as, "'Research' is Not a Dirty Word.")

Research was much easier with topics that I had little to no knowledge of -- after all, I was starting with nothing. I struggled with research in my second paper because my search queries were often too specific. Plus, having done gymnastics for many moons, many facts have become internalized over the years.

When I edited that assignment, however, I suddenly found new openings: ways to incorporate general research into a specific topic, thus making the story (hopefully) more relatable to non-gymnast readers. The ability to find, and utilize, such research has most certainly improved my writing. Who wants to read a story that they can't connect to?

The professor's requirement that we all submit to a publication (yeah, Transition!) made our writing a whole lot more "real." We weren't merely writing for a grade, but for (hopefully) a much wider audience. I'm not certain that the New York Road Runner will want to read my Paper 1. Someone out there, however, just might. Perhaps some high school girls on a bus somewhere to a meet...

Miscellaneous:

I learned how to play chess, which I probably wouldn't ever have had the time/motivation to do on my own. And whaddaya know? I really enjoyed playing, which allowed me to enjoy...writing.