Today I sat in on Mike Sager's creative writing class at UCI. In case you don't know who Mike Sager is, he is a writer-at-large for Esquire magazine and one of the most amazing writers I've ever read. He's written some of the best articles on athletes, celebrities and your everyday folk. The article that got me hooked on him was this article on Kobe Bryant.
It's all about his attention to detail, innovation, creativity and truly writing something new. Mike was gracious enough to not only let me sit in on his intimate class of 15 or so students, but also chat with me for an hour or more before class about his experience and interviewing techniques. None of this is probably very interesting to you all, butttt I don't care. It's my blog. So I want to share some of his words of wisdom for any writers out there:
- Interviewing is like a relationship.
- Each piece of meat must be a unique piece of meat.
- We’re trying to find the interesting shit in life. We’re trying to be the person at the bar with the best stories.
- Just say what you mean.
- An article is like music. The real beauty in the music is in the rests. It’s knowing when not to play and when to play.
