At other times, however, too much information is provided. Joyce offers a few tricks on how the professional adapts to this particular complication. Michael Jordan might have been mentioned in this context. Sometimes interview subjects do not talk much at all, except to exclusive friends. An artist who, in hitting the pavement in the process of writing a story, might have to frequent the kind of bars that have two sections to accommodate tobacco laws: “smoking and chain-smoking.” Gare Joyce is more of an artist than a quant, a short story writer who uses fact rather than fiction, writing stories set in, or at least around, the world of sports, rather than in an office or a battlefield or a bedroom. He mourns how many of today’s writers are what in the financial world is referred to as a quant – someone who understands life through the language of statistics and equations, which leaves a lot of room for what is not understood. What I see in Joyce’s writing is his wonder of the human predicament. The same happened with Joyce, as he learned the newspaper business is, well, a business.īut still, one does not commit oneself to a line of work for 40 years and more without having some affection for the process, the infatuation of youth graduating into a more mature form of love. Mark Twain loved the Mississippi River when he was young, worshipping the riverboat captains as he dreamed of becoming one, worshipping them until he grew up and began working on a boat himself, when he learned boat captains were only human beings, and that piloting a ship was more work than romance. Gary Joyce has a knack for learning more about characters, and sharing that with potentially interested readers (and listeners) The Newspaper Business, De-Romanticized Henke is an avid outdoorsman, meaning hunter, and Joyce is introduced to such delicacies as “squirrel on a bun” and “chili con raccoon carne,” realizing that “ if only dogs could have treed Kirk Gibson, the Jays would have a World Series banner.” Often this is humorous, but sometimes it is not.Īn early adventure involves the vegetarian Joyce spending a few (probably a few too many) days with Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Tom Henke, interviewing the ball player for a profile. Gare Joyce takes that lesson to heart, beginning with a job as a copy boy, a position lower than working in the proverbial mail room, and we learn along with him that our heroes – whether they be athletic or writerly – can certainly be gifted in a special perspective of life, but outside of that particular arena, are often the same flawed, sometimes failed, people as are all of us mortal beings. “The worst job in a newsroom is better than a degree from the best university,” he said. Once in, Earl McRae, a guest lecturer who wrote for Sport Magazine, tells the students that studying journalism is a waste of time. The beginning chapters describe Joyce’s childhood love affair with newspapers, knowing even as a kid that being a reporter was his calling, and his muddled, sometimes confused, early efforts in the reporting business, including persistent attempts to be accepted into journalism school. “How to Succeed in Sportswriting” reads like the offspring of Jim Bouton’s Ball Four and Richard Ford’s The Sportswriter – belly-laugh funny but also introspective, occasionally even poignant. The author of thirteen books, including a mystery series, Gare Joyce clearly has writing chops. Joyce was a long-time reporter for the Toronto Globe and Mail, and wrote for ESPN The Magazine for eight years, so the guy who openly admits to have wanted to be a sportswriter since childhood has paid his dues. The title of Gare Joyce’s “How to Succeed in Sportswriting (without Really Trying)” is, of course, a play upon the well-known movie and play, “How to Succeed in Business,” based upon Shepherd Mead’s satire of the business world.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |