Columnists must always tell a story...

Chief sports writer Kevin McCallum says that in all writing it is important to imbue a sense of place. EPA/PATRICK B. KRAEMER

Chief sports writer Kevin McCallum says that in all writing it is important to imbue a sense of place. EPA/PATRICK B. KRAEMER

Published Sep 7, 2015

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I’m not a good teacher. I don’t have the patience to mentor or train. I can only ask, “Do you understand?” once with care and meaning, before frustration and weariness take over.

Some time back a colleague asked me for advice in writing columns. I was stumped.

Many a Sunday morning have washed away in a flood of blankness with nary an idea of what to say and how to say it. It’s not writer’s block, but more a fear of sounding the same. The rut is an easy and dull place to roll through, but dastardly to escape from.

I told the colleague to wage a war on cliché and to always develop his point from start to end. There are too many out there who will begin by writing their one-paragraph argument, and then repeat it in different ways in the same column. I told my friend to look around him, to find the absurdity and beauty in daily life, to draw parallels and intersections with your topic. I told my friend to never forget to tell a story.

I told him that an interview can be used for a column, that the line between feature and opinion can be blurred and when the opinions of others make more sense and are clearer than your own, there is no shame in giving them the spotlight. It will still be your writing.

I told him to keep a file of his old stories nearby. You never know when they may come in handy, when, say, you need to fill up some space on a Sunday afternoon. I told him of sitting on a pavement outside the swimming pool in New Delhi at the Commonwealth Games writing a story on Cameron van der Burgh as I waited for the media bus to arrive. Wait, I have an extract from my files …

“As I typed a Commonwealth Games volunteer and his mate came up to me and asked if they could watch. I looked around.

‘Watch what?’

‘Watch you what you doing.’

‘Er, sure …’

They sat down and watched. I started to flap away again with two fingers – Ke Nako this, Cameron van der Burgh that – and then came a tap on the shoulder.

‘You type very fast. How fast you?’

‘Er, I really don’t know …’

‘100? I think you 100. You very fast. You speak little Hindi?’

‘No. Sorry. A little English, though.’

I started typing again. Then plugged in my iPhone to listen to the interview I’d had with Cameron van der Burgh. A tap on my arm. I looked up. A crowd had formed. Three cops with rifles had wandered over to see what they were looking at, joined by a man with a whistle, who shouted at the bus drivers to move and a few more volunteers. Writing a sports story had become a spectator sport. I had more people watching me than at some of the venues at these Games.

‘Music?’

‘No. Interview.’ I took out the earphones and turned up the volume they listened to Van der Burgh saying ‘Ke Nako – it’s our time to shine’. They all nodded and talked about it to each other. I was waiting for them to hold up scorecards with points on them. I started typing again. Another tap on the shoulder.

‘My friend has request. Can I ask for him?’

‘Sure.’

‘Can he watch movie on your computer now?’

‘No, china. Sorry. I’m very busy. Another time. Work. Deadline. Boss. Angry. Sorry.’

‘Okay. See you tomorrow. Movie then.’ “

I told my colleague that in all writing it is important to imbue a sense of place. As sports writers we get to see and experience things and places many of our readers will never get to.

I told him that the best way to learn a city is to walk it and drink with the locals.

I told him I was rubbish at teaching people about how to write because there were times when I forgot how to write myself. I told him sometimes you need to start writing with an empty mind and no ideas.

I told him that sometimes you might even have to fill up your 700-word column with nonsense about how you are not a good teacher and sometimes struggle to write on a Sunday morning.” 

The Star

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