Narration & Description: Real World Writers
Bill Walsh
Hopefully a scouting report has few generalizations. Because your experienced player has find those very key
elements that are important to him. So you try to be as concise as you possibly
can. Descriptive. And terms that are used must be
illustrative enough, or graphic enough that people can visualize them. Flaws or voids or weaknesses that athlete may, at least, appear to
have, it's certainly descriptive, and certainly it's all in written form. So yes, descriptive writing is an absolute key.
Steve Shanesy
Clear description is a very difficult thing to do, I think.
It's one thing just to wade through a description. It's another thing to say it
succinctly so it's logical, so that the reader can follow it
step-by-step-by-step so that he is actually creating in his own mind a picture
of what it is you're describing.
Joseph Wambaugh
Virtually everything a cop writes, if the police are
successful, ends up in a courtroom. And everyone knows how lawyers nit-pick
everything. So detail has to be there.
Janet Turner
Description is everything. Because in your
reports, you need to paint a picture. And that means, that's not only
for you, for if you have to go to court later, because some of these cases, you
don't go to court, it could be six months, to three years later, it depends, so
you need to paint a good enough picture, so when you read that report, you are
right back there at that scene. You need to use a lot of description, because
you want to know how hot it was, how cold it was there, what the lighting looks
like, how many people were around, what the suspect, every action. You're
recording from the minute you go to that call to the minute you leave the call, you're recording every minute detail in your mind, during your description of
the search. And then once you describe your search and everything you
found, and you go through your arrest.
Richard Aregood
It's the feeling. I mean, it's not looking up five different
ways to say "poor." You don't have to
say somebody's poor, you just describe where they
live.
Frank McCourt
I'd get their attention in writing classes, by bringing in
the New York Times on Friday and reading Mimi Sheridan's restaurant review.
She'd write about the ambiance, and she'd write about the courses, and she'd
use adjectives for the gravy like, 'satiny' or 'lemony.' And she'd describe the
fish, the meat, how well it was done, the vegetables, how well it was served
and so on. And then the service, and the price, and the wine. And that always got their attention. Then I'd have them go and do likewise, I'd
have them review a dinner at home. Last night's chicken. And I said you, à la
Mimi Sheridan, review the dinner at home. And they'd come in with these
wonderful adjectives. But then I'd say review, review the food in the cafeteria
one. It's predictable. You always sneer at the food in the cafeteria. Now,
imagine you're a kid from some slum in Mexico, or from some distant tribe in
Nigeria, and you come to this cafeteria for the first time. Describe it now. From their point of view. And that was a hell of an exercise
for them. So food was, what do they say, the way to a man's heart is through
his stomach. The way to writing skills is through the stomach.