Writing a biography may sound easy, especially if you are dealing with athlete biographies. In sports, everything is precisely recorded, so what troubles can you face? Well, the same troubles that are familiar to everyone trying to compose a compelling story. How do you get your audience’s attention? Here’s the hint: definitely not by listing brief facts and athletes’ achievements in numbers. Those numbers are critical, but they are not about fascinating stories. Let’s discuss several aspects of sports writing and tips on creating the best biographies. Tell the story!
Don’t give up on fact-checking and accuracy
We’ll talk about stories, creativity, and tools you can use to boost it later. However, don’t forget that you are not here to trick your audience. The information you provide should perfectly correlate with reality and reflect athletes’ achievements. Of course, you can’t take such facts from your head. Reliable sources are what add value to your work. Interviews and peer-reviewed articles can provide you with all crucial information and even more, but looking for such references is often tiring and time-consuming. Fortunately, this is the first point where AHelp writing tools can help. AI content creation services like reference finder by Ahelp to browse the Internet to find relevant web pages, journal articles, and books according to your request. Furthermore, they format your references in APA or MLA style in a click.
Why else should you bother about AI?
Don’t consider it a threat. As Tejas Kulkarni highlights in his TED talk, automation is “going to happen anyway.” It’s not like millions of years of evolution were meant to lead us to computer screens. Especially if we sit in front of them day by day performing tasks that don’t require all of our potential. What can be simplified should be simplified, and there is no reason to refrain from automation when it can benefit everybody involved. Regardless of its advancements, AI still can’t replace humans. This gives hope that a machine uprising is not about to happen.
Simultaneously, AI becomes a reliable assistant in your writing process. Besides helping you with credible references and their formatting, it can:
- Summarize sources to create historical context. As a sports writer, you may work on biographies of athletes from various time periods. You can’t tell their stories without providing a glimpse into the environment that formed their priorities and values.
- Generate engaging narratives. Even if you are the most creative person in the world, nobody is safe from sitting in front of a blank page and procrastinating. AI can help you decide where to start and even recommend several suitable writing techniques.
- Improve quality. Platforms like Grammarly indicate any errors and misspellings in your text. Moreover, they can adjust the tone to meet your audience’s needs. Some sports biographies require you to be formal, while others encourage simple language and poetic phrasing.
- Incorporate visuals. You may need to illustrate your biography with relevant pictures or infographics. Your audience will perceive already mentioned numbers better if you customize your graphs with tools like Canva AI.
Once we’ve discussed the role of AI, let's get back to the writing tips!
Think about your audience
Try to picture the person who will read your biography. Is it a middle-aged man who subscribes to a journal focused on hockey? Or is it an older woman who looks for inspiration in successful stories of figures that shape our world? You may be asked to compose a story for students or preschoolers. Those are completely different scenarios! Once you picture your readers and think about their objectives and interests, you will know how to melt their hearts. And don’t forget to write in a manner appealing to you. Question yourself: is it a story you’d like to read as a middle-aged man or an older woman?
System is a key
You need to structure both your writing process and your sports biography. You don’t start writing immediately after getting the task. Instead, you look for references and select the most relevant and interesting information. Now, you’re not empty-handed! Any text has an introduction, main body, and conclusion. In the first one, you leave a strong hook to get the audience immediately engaged. Give them a promise: why should these people read the biography, what will they get? Simply several facts or several minutes of enjoyable time spent? In the main body, you explain your points by tracing the athlete’s journey and highlighting key milestones. Make the conclusion truly unforgettable. What is this story truly about?
Show, don’t just tell
This is the golden rule of any storytelling. It is simple to write “he was happy” or “she was sad,” but such phrases rarely evoke readers’ emotions. What you need is vivid details and sensory descriptions that bring the written biography to life. Make your readers relate to your character! Instead of writing, “he was struggling with his studies,” explain how challenging it is to combine lessons with constant exercising. “He mentioned that he did not want to give up on anything, so he studied until midnight after returning home completely exhausted. His mom was angry, but he just could not give up.” Did it work? Was it a good strategy? Encourage your readers to ask questions as well!
A good story often contains a moment of explosion. It may start with it, but the author creates an exposition first in a more classic version. How did your character live before the explosion? What dreams did he have? Remember: the explosion changes the routine. It may be the first victory or the moment of worldwide recognition. Then you’d better show the new routine so that readers could realize the difference. This structure is pretty simple, but it leaves the impression you need.
To conclude
As you see, creating sports biographies is similar to crafting college essays or telling fascinating stories to your friends. Simultaneously, it’s different, but there are no nuances you can’t handle. Just don’t hesitate to use helpful tools to save your time and aim your effort at ultimate creativity. Tell the story you would like to read!
