Setting the Stage

In thinking about how I am going to write this story about the "soccer walk-on turned captain," I haven't made up my mind as to what I want the story to look like. The interview isn't until Friday, so I'm hoping things go well enough to the point where I have some good quotes or anecdotes to use. Katie (the subject of the story) has been pretty sharp in the few interviews I've done with her in the past, so I'm hoping for something catchy to open my story with.

Anyways, here is how I saw this story setting up:

• I like inserting myself in the some of the feature stories I do. I feel that by doing this, I can relate to people on a level you wouldn't ordinarily see in a typical news story. So, towards the beginning of the story, I'm going to include a "flashback" of the first time I saw the soccer team play two years ago, and what I thought about the team, Katie's style of play, and my impressions of her before knowing her backstory.
• From there, I'm going to touch on her first years here as a club soccer player and what she had to do to make this team. Hopefully some good quotes from her or a former teammate (still working on the info) would be useful here.
• The past season, where she scored the game winning goal against her hometown team (OSU), and the article she wrote to push the Athletic Dept to finish the new soccer field by the end of the season.
• Finally, her future plans (do they include soccer) and the impact she has left on the program/team.
  

Stories that you are passionate about, or tell an interesting tale, always seem to "write themselves." When I'm writing stories like this one, it's almost like I hit a zone where I don't need to think and the words flow onto the page. On the TV show Heroes, one of the superpowers in the story is the ability to paint the future by going into a trance-like state. That's what I think about when I imagine great journalists writing their stories. They get the information, interviews, and research...and then hit their "trance."

Interview gone horribly wrong: My interview won't be on TV, but I really hope Friday goes a lot smoother than this:



Here's hoping Katie won't be chewing gum with shades on.