The Writing Process

Link to example article: https://www.sportsblog.com/mtvhottakes/lebron-james-era-set-to-begin-in-los-angeles/

In terms of my own writing process, I like to simplify as much as I can. The simpler I can formulate the structure of my writing, the easier it is for me to put words onto paper. Whatever it is that I’m writing, I try to strategize how I’m going to begin, contextualize, and eventually end my piece. However, since this is the case, most of my time spent writing is before I even put any words down. This strategy has an up-side and a down-side; the advantage resulting in myself being extremely organized, the disadvantage being that I sometimes find myself overthinking my writing process. At times, I think back to my middle and high school days when I was given a strict time limit to write. I would get myself all worked-up and worried about what I was even going to write about, that I had little time to put the piece together. Now however, once I figure out how I’m going to structure my writing, it then becomes much easier for me to put the words onto paper (or the computer screen for this matter).

When writing on a deadline, there’s no doubt that I think my writing process changes a bit. Opposed to having ample time to write, having a deadline pushes me to basically compact my writing process. I’ll be the first one to admit that I fall victim to procrastinating more times than not, but then again that’s something I’d love to improve on. When on a deadline, I establish the due date, plan on when I’m going to conduct interviews and get camera footage, and outline how I’m going to put the story together. My writing process also depends on the deadline itself. If the deadline is in a couple weeks, I prefer to give myself a couple days to a week to write my story. If the deadline is the next day, I love to get started as soon as I can. I first plan on how I’m going to write my piece, (what angle am I going to put on it? How am I going to structure it? What’s the message within the story?), then I continue to plan on what it is exactly I’m going to write within the story. This goes to back to the easier the structure, the easier the writing process.

The writing example I have included is a good example writing that is required for a deadline. With the NBA season underway, almost all of its fan’s attention is on LeBron James. The writer, Michael Vesci, structured the piece in a way that flows nicely for the reader. He starts off by writing about the subject at hand (LeBron’s first game as a Laker), but then also gives some background information about the previous season. The intro did a great job establishing what this piece is about, and what the reader can expect in the following paragraphs. His use of a rhetorical question at in the closing sentence aids in the flow of the story.

As the story moves on, the writer goes from the broad landscape of the NBA to more of a central focus on the Lakers themselves; the way they performed last year and the teammates the James will be working with this season. He then reverts back to the broader focus of the Western Conference of the NBA, and eventually closes out the story by sharing his thought’s on how the Lakers will fare this upcoming season. I really liked the flow of this piece. His structure was clear, and very easy to translate to the reader. Michael Vesci took the story from a broad angle, and used his structure to focus in on a narrower issue such as the Laker’s players themselves. It goes to show the impact that structure has; in a way, flow and structure go hand in hand.