Rick Reilly is one of our great sportswriters. When he was writing for Sports Illustrated I started with the back - not the front - of the magazine. That's where the best stuff was - Reilly's column. His ability to turn a phrase never ceases to gast my flabber.
A couple of years ago, Reilly wrote my number one goal when I write is to come up with sentences that jump off the page and poke you between the eyes, sentences that create an immediate word picture in your mind. For instance, you might write, "There is no way I would've thought of that if I were trapped for a year in a closet with a keg of Red Bull." Coming up with sentences that have never been written before may leave you sitting in the media room while everybody else is fast asleep, but it makes your writing fresh and different.
Do you have a favorite author? It just might be that you appreciate that person so much because of their ability to write sentences and express ideas that just jump right off the page. That's what I aspire to do when I write sermons (although there is a difference between the spoken word and the written word). Rick Reilly always gives me something to shoot for.
