Читать книгу Field Guide to Covering Sports - Joe Gisondi - Страница 48

Your main character (or protagonist) needs to be a fully developed person, someone literary critics would call dynamic or complex—not flat and simple. Reveal this person through actions, physical description, dialogue, and comments by others. Do not paint this person as all good or all bad. We are all illogical, inconsistent people. There’s nothing wrong with revealing this, if these points are relevant. Speak to as many people as possible to learn about this person.

Dave Hyde uses several techniques to define his protagonist, the aloof, reclusive NFL player, in his story “Where’s Jake Scott?” In this passage, Hyde first uses physical description, and then a mixture of action and dialogue to further introduce the Super Bowl VIII most valuable player.

At 61, he’s still trim. He’s completely bald. Oversized glasses cover his face like two storm windows. And he’s smiling, thank God. I double-check to be sure.

“Hi, how you doing?’’ he says.

He shakes hands. He talks in a soft, friendly voice still rooted in Georgia. He says, “I’m not hard to find.” He says, “I don’t want a story written.” He says, “If you’d ask questions, then I’d have to tell the truth.” He says, “I live the simplest life you can imagine—wake up every day and decide whether to golf, fish or have a drink.”

From this front porch, the Pacific peeks through palm trees across the quiet road. Warm air rides in on a noonday breeze. Scott puts one foot up on the railing and allows the conversation to drift. He tells how his home sat alone on this road when he arrived in 1982. Now the world has joined him. A small place beside him just sold for $1.9 million. A big lot across the road, against the ocean, went for $29 million.

He says, “That’s how it goes.” He says, “Beautiful here, isn’t it?” He says, “Too bad my boat just had its propeller damaged or I’d take you out fishing—just you and me, not for a story.”⁶