As a baseball fan, I’m saddened by the death of Yogi Berra. He was one of the greatest catchers of all time. Even if you didn’t much like the Yankees or Mets (count me in that number), you had to appreciate Yogi’s career as a player and coach.
But what I really loved about Yogi was his way with words. The man who brought us “it ain’t over till it’s over” was the source of so many great lines that he became my inspiration as a writing coach.
What did Yogi say that applies to journalism? Let’s begin.
“Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical.”
Same goes for what we do. Most of our game is mental. To do our best work, we have to lose the attitude. Hate your assignment? Get over it. Apply Yogi’s rule. Find a way to tackle the everyday and make it memorable. How?
“You can observe a lot just by watching.”
How often do we roll up to an assignment, jump out of the car and start shooting? Take a minute or two and just observe. You might spot an angle to a story that one one else has; someone whose personal experience will bring a story to life.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”
Well said, Yogi, and especially true for writers. If you haven’t figured out what your story is really about before you start writing, you’ll most likely wind up with a confusing mess. Knowing how you will end before you begin raises the odds that your story will have a point, that it will be more than a bunch of facts strung together.
“It’s like deja vu all over again.”
Not what you want to hear, is it? Our stories should NOT be like deja vu–been there, done that, seen that, don’t want to see it again. And yet so many stories are told predictably. I often ask participants at workshops to take some basic facts and sketch out the story they expect to see on TV that night. They know exactly who will be interviewed, what they will say, and what the reporter will put in a live tag. Don’t fall into that trap. Ask yourself, “Am I producing deja vu all over again?” Don’t deliver what’s expected. Deliver more.
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
One of my favorite Yogi quotes should inspire every writer who’s ever been well and truly stuck. Don’t sit there trying to craft the best lead ever written. Keep going. Draft something all the way to the end. Then go back and make it better.
“You can’t control everything, so you got to control what you can.”
Look for small victories. Maybe your story today isn’t one you’ll put on your resume reel, but you can do something every day that makes you feel like you got it right. Maybe it’s a reaction shot, just one, that captures the essence of your story. Maybe it’s a line, just one, that makes a complicated story understandable. Celebrate that.
And remember: “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
