Feeling sick? You must be on deadline

Palms are sweaty.

Knees weak.

Arms are heavy.

No, this isn’t Eminem getting ready to rap in front a large crowd, feeling like he’s about to throw up because he’s so nervous. This is what it feels like to write on a tight deadline.

On Monday, the 2014 SJI class was lucky enough to have Malcolm Moran talk with us about writing on deadline. He spoke about the importance of running copy and even more so about the importance of preparation before an event. 

Moran explained things that I have never really thought about before. 

When I covered the Colorado State football team for The Rocky Mountain Collegian, I remember a few times when I would get so overwhelmed after a game ended that I would get too nervous to even begin writing. It wasn’t because I forgot how to write, though it felt like it at the time, but because I couldn’t think of what to write or where to begin. Instead, I would just stare at the screen while time was tick, tick, ticking away.

I was underprepared. 

That shouldn’t happen because that’s something I can control. I can learn facts before the game that will help me write the story, look up any information that might be useful in a story, think of storylines before the game begins and write everything down so I’m not frantically searching for facts.

Doing this allows writers to be more creative and, ultimately, write a better story. Malcolm said he even arrives to a game sometimes four hours in advance just to check out how he can get to the press box quickly instead of waiting on an elevator.

It’s all the little steps we can take in preparing ourselves that will allow us to be better writers, and Malcolm’s lecture was a very valuable one for me.

So here I go it’s my shot.

This may be the only opportunity that I got.

_ Katie O'Keefe