Learning from mistakes

If you think writing a captivating lede in under five minutes may be daunting, try writing a 600 word recap story four minutes after the game ends. That’s the task that was given to us last night in class. Talk about INTENSE. Unfortunately for me, when it comes to that territory, I’m a rookie. I had never written a game story on deadline and turned it in literally following the sporting event. Back at Loyola in New Orleans, our newspaper is a weekly. Whenever I usually cover a game, chances are it’s either the night before we go to press or the day right after which means I have plenty of time to gather my thoughts and type them in my laptop. So, you can probably imagine what happened last night. No, I didn’t miss my assigned deadline. But I wasn’t able to deliver pacemaker-worthy material either. After feeling pretty inadequate about what I had turned in, I hung by head in defeat. What I quickly remembered though, was that I’m going to make mistakes throughout this week. In order to grow, you must learn from your errors and improve. One of our speakers, Malcolm Moran, stressed that point in his talk today. He shared with the class his proudest moments and even some of his darkest. After his talk, I learned a few effective tips to maintain focus and not only wrote a story, but write “the story.” I’m sure I’ll have to write another game story on deadline again this week. The difference this time though, is that I’ll be ready.