When's the latest you should get the score in a gamer?

I sort of agree with you. But it's like art class ... first, you have to learn the basics, draw pictures using the rules. Once you master the rules and demonstrate that you have some talent, then you can break the rules.

Too many writers want to throw around b.s. about "interrupting the flow" and "I'm trying to tell a moving story" when the truth is they can't get out of their own way to give the readers the basics.

 

i was hoping we were talking at a level higher than journalism 101.

also, i'd also hope the art form of AP gamers is near extinction.

 

I could not agree more on this. In fact, I was just about to start a thread of my own about this topic. To me that's always been one of the few rules with no exceptions: Don't put another score before the final score. But I see it violated a lot by writers who I admire, so I wonder if I'm just being anal.

 

No, you're right. It's confusing and distracting, especially to readers -- and they are legion -- who just give the story a quick scan.

 

"...came back from a three run deficit to win 7-6."

Far less cumbersome and confusing.

 

As a reader, I want the score quickly.

If it takes awhile to get the score, I think, "Oh boy - this guy fancies himself Faulkner."

I have no patience for that and usually abandon the rest of the story.

If it's a sidebar, feature or enterprise, though, go nuts on the creativity.

 

It's no coincidence that it's usually the poor writers who can't be bothered to ruin their prose by inserting a score before the 12th graf

Good writers can manage to work the score in fairly high.

I think you generally need a score by the third graf in a game story, paper of record or not.

Also, don't rely on boxes and charts and lists to do your heavy lifting for you. If you leave something important out of your story (because it's in a box on the front!) what happens when someone forgets to put the box in or takes it our because your story is so good they didn't want to cut it?

 

Or, much worse yet, when they start talking about the score of some other game, maybe some other season, or even other teams.

This is an utterly iron-clad rule I have enforced with a fully-loaded pair of light sabers anywhere I have ever worked: The first numerals that appear in your story, MUST be the final score of this game, tonight. Period.

No halftime scores, no scores with 3:00 left, no scores of the earlier meeting when the two teams played six weeks ago, no score of the game last year which left the Hooterville Wankers burning for revenge, no score of the game 19 years ago when coach Knute Oldcoot was just starting out, no score of the game played 60 miles away tonight between Testicle Tech and Anal Valley which made this a battle for undisputed fourth place in the conference, yadda yadda yack yack.

The score of this game, tonight. Get it in, then go on, knock yourself out, and talk about all that other crap.

 

disagree dog. had the score in the fifth graf more than once.

 

Aka "How Coitus Interruptus Failed Me"