As I’ve mentioned before in class, my favorite writer is the sports writer Rick Reilly. The man has been voted national sports writer of the year 11 times, so when he offers any sort of advice on writing it’s a good idea to listen. When being interviewed on how an upcoming writer could take his job Rick Reilly said, “[his] No. 1 goal in writing is to never write a sentence you’ve already read.” Now this may seem rather simplistic for such an accomplished journalist, but by following this style he makes outrageously interesting analogies, comparisons, descriptions, and the like that make his writing nearly impossible not to like. In that same interview he went on to say that, “[he sits] there for an hour sometimes trying to find another way of saying 'he beat the crap out of him.” Granted, Reilly is getting paid millions with the sole responsibility of turning in one page long weekly column for the back page of ESPN the Magazine. He doesn’t have guidelines or constraints, but has reserved for him the back page of one of the most widely circulated magazines in the country. Therefore, spending an hour on each sentence still makes for a pretty good work week.
The advice definitely has influenced my writing, especially when the writing is of a similar genre. Clearly there are many scenarios where writing a somewhat bland but succinct and to the point sentence is completely necessary. However, if creativity is involved in the piece I find it incredibly useful when both writing and editing papers to pick apart various things I’ve written and find a way to say a very common phrase in a unique manner.
It may seem strange with all the English classes I’ve taken and grammer I’ve been taught that the one piece of advice that really stuck came while reading about sports. However, this little bit of advice from my favorite author is foremost in my mind while writing any sort of piece requiring creativity.
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