-
“A Life After Wide Right” (31 Longreads in 31 Days, Day 24)
I’ve always felt in awe of field goal kickers at any level, when the game comes down to a final kick, the hopes of both teams hanging on the outcome of the swing of their leg. It’s hard to imagine the pressure they face, knowing that a thousands of fans are watching in the stadium,…
-
“Walking His Life Away” (31 Longreads in 31 Days, Day Eleven)
A year ago, a good friend send me a copy of Gary Smith’s book, Going Deep, a collection of his longform articles from Sports Illustrated. Smith is a masterful writer who mostly covers sports. But that’s misleading: he writes about people. Some are pro athletes; some never make it to college. He writes about the…
-
Great paragraphs: “Mom let her be who she was”
One skill I’ve learned to appreciate is the crafting of really good paragraphs. Sounds simple, but great writers can craft a paragraph with something that lesser writers would use pages to accomplish. So I’m going to start noting and writing about examples of insanely well-written grafs… First up, I noted this amazing graf in Gary…
-
Fine writing in unexpected places
One idea my instructors at Johns Hopkins hammer home is the notion that to be a great writer, you need to “read like a writer.” More and more, I see what they mean. I read newspapers and magazines differently these days, dissecting paragraphs and words as I go, noticing small bits of writing technique and…