Dear Loyal Readers,
Michigan Radio finished their fund-drive this week, and pretty much everyone over there was exhausted and/or sick by the end of it, so we’re taking another week off from recording the weekly piece. (Good news: They reached their goals, so Michigan Radio will continue in all its glory. For the many of you who contributed, thank you!)
In the meantime, here’s a recent story from James David Dickson, reporting on a talk I gave last week on fighting writer’s block and other issues we ink-stained wretches must face — or anyone who has to write emails, for that matter. I’m a fan of Mr. Dickson’s work, and — although I’m obviously biased here — thought he did a very good job with this, even pulling in Mr. Wolfe and other luminaries. It ran as the top story of their hard copy this week.
And, just for fun, here is my favorite poem on springtime, something I came across reading Alan Watts (for you beatniks out there) while in college. I’ve come back to it every year at this time, and in the many years since Lao Tzu put it down, I don’t think anyone’s improved upon it.
Sitting quietly
Doing nothing
Spring comes
And the grass grows by itself
Of course, Lao Tzu failed to mention the fact that the grass did not cut itself, but my father had strong views on this when I was growing up, so he had that part covered.
Hope you all have a great day and week, savoring this incredible weather.
-John
http://www.heritage.com/articles/2012/03/14/ann_arbor_journal/news/doc4f60c2a99ee7e019573879.txt
Ann Arbor Journal > News
ANN ARBOR: How He Writes: Author John U. Bacon on battling the blank page
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
By James David Dickson, A2 Journal
jd******@******ge.com
Twitter: @JDK12Reporter
Turn to your left. Now, turn to your right.
Normally this would be the part when incoming first-year students would be told that, by the end of law school, one of the three people in the look left-look right game wouldn’t still be there. The University of Michigan Law School doesn’t do things that way, an orientation speaker explained, thinking he was putting the class at ease, but John U. Bacon had seen enough.
“I’m the guy who won’t be here,” Bacon said before standing up and walking out on one of the most prestigious law schools in America.
Later that week, while his former classmates were breaking the ice and making career connections, Bacon was in a press box covering a high school football game for $50 for the Ann Arbor News. The die had been cast. For better or worse.
On Monday night, Bacon, author and journalist (“Three and Out”, “Bo’s Lasting Lessons”), was the guest speaker for the U-M Sweetland Writing Center’s “How I Write” series. Bacon shared insights on his writing process before several dozen students and community members. The talk was held at North Quad (105 S. State Street).
BACON’S LASTING LESSONS
Don’t write because you need to write, write because you have to write, Bacon said. [Minor correction, since I was quoting the great Al Young: Don’t want to write. Need to write. Otherwise it will be too tough.]
Bacon’s first real piece of writing, back in the typewriter days, was a short story about some guys playing basketball in Burns Park. Before he knew it, he had 10 pages. Then another 10.
He knew he had a problem when he was talking to an attractive co-ed and found himself thinking more about the story than the girl. He’d been bit by the writing bug.
With 5 books and thousands of stories and innumerable drafts behind him, Bacon says he now has more ideas than he’d ever have time to handle. Material is no longer the challenge, nor is placing the stories, but finding the time can be tough.
Bacon recommended that writers spend at least an hour a day on their craft, and that consistency was better than marathon writing sessions. At three pages an hour, an hour a day, 5 days a week, Bacon said, a person could finish their book within a year.
Another trick Bacon uses is to work from coffeeshops to avoid the distractions of home: the beer in the fridge, the comfortable couch, the flatscreen television.
“When you’re at the coffeeshop, there’s pretty much nothing you can do but work,” Bacon said.
Few of the students in attendance indicated that they wanted to be writers or journalists for a living when Bacon asked.
Now, more than ever, journalism and writing are uncertain career paths. Even when Bacon decided to break into the business, in the 1990s, he gave himself a three-year window to either find success or move on, the same time it would’ve taken if he’d stuck with law school.
THE HARD PART
But what do you do when you’ve finally got a writing assignment — perhaps covering the Michigan football program?
Bacon recommended the use of both first-person writing and participatory journalism, and used both in “Three And Out” when he spent 6 weeks working out under the aegis of then-U-M strength and conditioning coach Mike Barwis.
So grueling were the workouts that Bacon’s body suffered hypertrophy, which Barwis describes in the book as similar to a car accident. But when Bacon’s pulse got back to normal, he found that his sweat paid off.
“Puking in that trash can was one of the best things I ever did,” Bacon said. He said it changed the way players viewed him. No longer was Bacon perceived as just another journalist taking notes, he was now one of the guys.
“You’ll notice my interviews got better after I did that,” Bacon said.
The workouts helped Bacon gain respect with the team, but what made it work as a story, Bacon said, is the gap between the expected result (Bacon had coached hockey at Huron High, worked out regularly, and thought himself in good shape before doing Barwis’s workouts) and the outcome (Bacon left so sore that to shampoo his hair, he had to squeeze the bottle and hope its contents landed on his head, because he couldn’t lift his arms that high). Writers call this irony.
Bacon said that writers have a choice: They can be the experts and write with authority, or they can be jackasses who have plenty to learn. Bacon said he’s consistently chosen the jackass route, ever since his first published piece in Automotive Magazine [actually Motor Trend, for what it’s worth] on his lack of proficiency with automobiles.
Author Tom Wolfe (“The Right Stuff”) has said that one of the reasons he wore white suits when reporting, aside from the fashion statement, is that people tended to treat him like a man from Mars. They’d let their guard down and become more talkative. Many a successful writer has gotten mileage from the “jackass” technique.
Bacon’s writing influences include authors such as Buzz Bissinger (“Friday Night Lights”) and John Feinstein, an access journalist whose book on Bob Knight, “A Season On The Brink,” Bacon studied before writing “Three And Out.”
In another piece of advice that Wolfe would’ve approved of, Bacon advised that reporting is more important than writing. Wolfe once said that a writer’s skill was only about one-third of the formula needed to success. The rest comes from having worthwhile material. Wolfe said that if every writer has one great story in them, their own, the only way they’ll grow is by reporting and telling other people’s stories.
Bacon paraphrased Kurt Vonnegut (“Breakfast of Champions”) to explain how reporting sets writers apart: Plenty of people can write better than I can, but they have less to say.
When he’s not writing books, Bacon is one of the more popular instructors at the University of Michigan and does public speaking. His class on the history of college athletics is so well-respected that Bacon was given the Golden Apple Awardin 2009, an honor bestowed each year to one of the most beloved educators at U-M.
As a college instructor, Bacon knows a first draft when he sees one and warned the students against submitting them. When one comes across his desk, he’ll slide it back to the author, unread, and say that he’d rather wait to read the real version. That’s not a luxury writers have in the real world, where sloppy copy is often rejected, often without explanation.
Despite having millions of words under his belt by now, Bacon still writes multiple drafts of his books, heeding Ernest Hemingway’s admonition that the first draft of anything is (a word unprintable in a family newspaper).
On Tuesday Bacon had a chapter due for the paperback edition of “Three and Out.”
The first draft came in at about 14,000 words. By the time Bacon submitted it to the publisher, he expected the final piece would be about 3,000 words. “Three and Out” took eight or nine drafts to get right and “Bo’s Lasting Lessons” took at least 7 — three written before Bacon had harnessed Bo’s voice, all written after Bo had passed.
Writing, Bacon explained, is rewriting.
Staff Writer James David Dickson can be reached at JD******@******ge.com. Text HERNews and HERWeather to 22700 to receive news and weather alerts to your cellphone. Msg and data rates may apply. Text HELP for help. Text STOP to cancel.
URL: http://www.heritage.com/articles/2012/03/14/ann_arbor_journal/news/doc4f60c2a99ee7e019573879.prt
© 2012 Heritage Newspapers, a Journal Register Property
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Your letters — I’ve not forgotten! A few need thoughtful responses from me which I’ve not had time to write up, and it didn’t seem fair to hold theirs up and run the rest, so you’ll be getting a nice flood of letters in a few days. Pardon my delay, and thanks for your patience!
Here’s a recent story from James David Dickson, reporting on a talk I gave this week on fighting writer’s block and other issues we ink-stained wretches must face — or anyone who has to write emails, for that matter. http://www.heritage.com/articles/2012/03/14/ann_arbor_journal/news/doc4f60c2a99ee7e019573879.txt
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/johnubacon.
“Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football” can be ordered now.
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