Writing down people's recollections verbatim it was not. And how do you get someone who doesn't read books to be interested in yours?
These are the five big things I learnt from writing a sports team biography (and yes I name drop Shakespeare).
1. Most people don't remember sh*t
Memories are like old ice cubes. You’re sure you put them in the freezer a long time ago, but can’t be certain what shape the tray was, whether you added vodka, or, actually, if that was before you moved house.
What I learned was that even though players remembered that a thing happened, the actual details were often clouded by time. And this presented a problem, as a book - any book - needs stories, and sport, for all its statistics and trophies, is about how those things were achieved. Every milestone moment has a narrative.
Luckily the club I was dealing with had kept all their old scorebooks, so I was able to dive into these, find a compelling incident (a big score, big collapse or significant opponent) and then confront those that were involved. So, instead of saying ‘what happened the day you scored 115 against Dinton’, I could say ‘it looks like you hit a six to bring up your hundred in the second last over’. Often, this little bit of extra imagery would blow away enough of the cloud cover for the memory to poke through. Do this with enough people involved in the same incident, and slowly you put together the full picture.
If that fails just make it up.
2. Some people remember everything
Of the 20 or so people that I interviewed for the Chilmark book, only one had what you might call a photographic memory. In his 60’s and recently retired, ‘The Doc’ was able to recall intricate details of his famous 99 from a game that happened 13 years ago. I checked the scorebook, too. He was spot on. In turn, this made it easier to go to other people involved in his story and stir their memories a bit.
Having people like the Doc on hand makes the task of telling stories far easier. According to fancy scientists, however, photographic memory is a bit of a misnomer. Children, before they’ve developed language skills, tend to have the best ‘photographic memories’, however as we learn to speak, memory gets stretched in different directions and the skill dies out. What we perceive in adults as photographic memory is in fact just a matter of not being as forgetful as most other people.
That said, forgetfulness was often linked to on the field performance.
3. Photos are worth 99.94 words
Cricket folk will recognise that number. It’s Don Bradman’s average. But I haven’t used it loosely. No, by sheer fluke, if you take the number of words in the book and divide it by the number of pages in the original manuscript, then multiply that number by the number of pages in the finished book, and subtract from that the number of words in the book and divide that by the number of pages in the finished book, you get 99.96.
Mathematics, ladies and gentlemen.
Seriously, though, a lot of people who are in the book don’t like to read books. As a writer this breaks my heart. However, what people do like to do is look at pictures, especially if they’re in them.
When you’re producing a book about a sports team, there are far too many people involved to tell everyone’s story. That’s when photos prove their worth. Making sure you’ve got as many photos with as many people as possible in them, will go a long way to ensuring a happy ‘reading’ public.
4. Brevity is the soul of wit
Shakespeare knew it and millions of failed writers since have ignored his advice. Myself included.
The impulse to go on and on and on and on to make a point, is something we’re all guilty of at one time or another. And often it’s justified. Some stories, whether fiction or non-fiction, require focused, extensive scene setting; even though most don’t unfold in Middle Earth, a few hundred words given to character background and the lay of the land doesn’t necessarily hurt.
However, what I learned from writing a sports team biography is that the best stuff was often the short stuff. In an attempt to include as many players as possible in the book, I added a section listing a few bowlers with a brief summary of their best moments - about two paragraphs on each. A thumbnail photo alongside and it was job done.
The advantage of these bite sized profiles was that a single incident or characteristic wasn’t diluted by an excess of detail around it. The disastrous/valiant moment could stand by itself. As a consequence, all those people who don’t really read books, could flick through to this section and satisfy their curiosity with a quick read.
Think of it as an Instagram post within a book.
5. There’s more to a sports team than the sports people
One of the first things I learned from writing a sports team biography, was that there was only a team at all, because of the support network around it. Before the team even existed there was someone who wanted it to - someone who cajoled other villagers into getting behind the idea. Then there were the landowners who were willing to give up a sheep paddock so the team could have a ground to play on. There was someone to build changing rooms, someone to mow the grass and roll the pitch, a scoreboard to buy, boundary rope to lay, players to find and equipment to acquire.
But without doubt the most important behind the scenes people were those that prepared the teas. The team couldn’t exist without other teams wanting to play it, and the most common comment heard from visiting teams was that they mostly came to play because of the quality of the teas. This, more than the game itself, was what made the team. And the people behind the amazing spread of sandwiches and cakes put on every Sunday were the unsung heroes of the club.
Which is why we decided to give them an entire section in the book. Right in the middle of it, kind of like where a tea break would happen in a game, we put in half a dozen recipes of cakes and sandwiches from those that prepared them every weekend. And then we told their story - one that stretched back 180 years.
The lesson? Every story is about people. Just don’t forget to look beyond the obvious characters to tell yours.
The result: https://www.sweeneyandking.co....