Jeff Frantz' column today on York Catholic's girls' basketball team does more than perfectly capture a milestone in the girls' lives by using their dialogue. It also is a classic example of showing, and not telling, something that is at the core of the story.
As you'll see, the team's coaches had a great feel for how to run the team's last practice. But Jeff never writes that -- never even comes close to writing that. He simply puts you at courtside, lets you in on a little conversation between the coaches, and writes about what they do and say. You have not been told what's happening; you've seen it happen, experienced it.
Great storytelling.
Kudos, Jeff.
I'm curious to know how Jeff was able to catch everything they said. Super-fast writing? A recorder?
ReplyDeleteExactly. In addition, what I like so much about this column, is how Jeff gives us a glimpse of teenage girls and what they talk about, think about, care about. It's the classic "fly on the wall."
ReplyDeleteThanks for kind words.
ReplyDeleteTo answer the question, I just used a notepad and pen. I wrote down a lot of stuff, but I also missed a lot. Basically, I wrote until someone started to say something that sounded more interesting, than I started taking notes on that.
During the drills, I went through my notes to make sure I could read everything.