Kentucky Basketball, the Miami Dolphins, the Carolina Panthers, five sports books, and a children's novel.
When Scott Fowler graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1987, he didn't know where life would take him.
"I was looking for any place that would hire me like a lot of journalism students now I'm sure would be the same way," he said.
Little did he know that he would end up covering sports throughout many cities on the East Coast. From covering Kentucky basketball in Louisville to working for The Miami Herald, Fowler has been all over. It was after Miami, however, when he ended up working for The Charlotte Observer where he has been for almost 20 years covering sports from the NFL to college basketball to his favorite event, the Olympics.
Fowler has written and co-written five books on sports. However, he just took a big leap in his career by writing his first novel, Lost on the Road to Nowhere, which he says he dedicated to his four kids.
When it comes to writing fiction and non-fiction, he wants to venture out into all types of stories, Fowler says. While some journalists get stuck in a cocoon of their everyday routines, he says he likes to take risks and push himself as a journalist.
"It's all been writing the truth, which is wonderful, but it is a little limiting sometimes," Fowler said. "The great thing about fiction is, as anyone would know, is you can just make it all up. That's very freeing in a way..."
When I talked to Fowler over the phone while he was at home late on a Sunday evening, he talked about stretching outside of his comfort zone with such serenity. He didn't seem panicked about failing or scared of the future. He seemed confident and excited.
This seemed to be the overlying sense that I got while talking with him. Not scared of limits and excited to go for it. He doesn't seem to be scared of challenges and, for a rising journalist like myself, it was incredibly inspiring to hear.
Interview
Matt Dowell: We are on the phone with sports columnist for the Charlotte Observer, Scott Fowler. How ya doing, Scott?
Scott Fowler: I'm great. Thank you.
Matt Dowell: So you are from Spartanburg, South Carolina and you graduated with a degree in journalism from UNC. And just for all the people starting out in journalism out there that are about to graduate and go out into the journalism world, when you got out of North Carolina, what were you looking for and where did you start?
Scott Fowler: Well, I was looking for any place that would hire me like a lot of journalism students now I'm sure would be the same way. And, ya know, the more experience you can get the better. I tell people all the time, even if you have to freelance, even if you have to practically volunteer at a small community newspaper, the key is you've got to get some sort of experience somewhere. So I think, especially at the beginning, you can't be too picky. Of course these days there's so many more outlets because of blogs and the internet, which didn't even really exist back then. There's lots of ways to start. I always tell people though that you've gotta start somewhere, you can't just dream about it. You've gotta... even if you have to volunteer your time for a while.
MD: Your main sports that you actually cover are basketball and football, but right now those sports are in the off season. What do you guys cover during the off season of those sports? Like tomorrow, what will you do when you go into work?
SF: Well, that's a very good question. Summer time, and really almost late spring to summer, is definitely the slowest time of year for most sports staffs in the country, including ours. We're all encouraged to take what vacation time we do have in the summer and it's also a time to really look for enterprise stories. In some ways it's my favorite time of year because what you do each day does vary dramatically. For instance, tomorrow I'm working on a story about a former college basketball player who collapsed during sort of a pick up basketball game in Charlotte. Had a heart attack basically at age 25 and was saved at the scene by a nurse who just happened to be kinda watching this game. And she gave him CPR and it's kind of a dramatic story. I'm just at the beginnings of it. But that sort of thing I have a little more time to spend on in the summer than in the fall. I certainly do love the NFL and college basketball. Those are my favorite sort of day to day sports to cover. But then in the summer time you do have the opportunity to stretch out maybe and not write quite as frequently but hopefully have a little more impact with each story.
MD: Does that help you grow as a writer?
SF: Definitely! I think for all the young writers, I always say if you can try and write a variety of pieces both very short and very long and anything in the middle. A lot of times we, as journalists, get trapped into sort of filling a sort of mid-sized hole in a newspaper or in a story for a class or whatever. Sometimes the best stories are, ya know, 2 or 3 inches long and/or are just some kind of very inventive, creative way to display information that's a chart or something and sometimes they're, ya know, Sports Illustrated length magazine style pieces. It's not just the middle stuff, ya know. You've gotta kinda stretch in both directions, I think, as a writer.
MD: You've actually written and co-written five books about sports. So how is writing a book about sports different from writing a newspaper column about sports?
SF: Well, that's a good question. It's not a whole lot different. I take each of my books as kind of almost a series of newspaper stories thinking of, ya know, a couple of newspaper stories is maybe one chapter or a short chapter of a book. I read something one time when I was writing my first book about, ya know, some guy, forget who this quote is attributed to, but he said if you write a page a day that gives you a book a year. That broke it down well for me. I mean, if you can write one page of a regular sized book per day you've got a 365 page book at the end of the year, assuming it was good stuff and you didn't have to rewrite it all the time. So, the only difference is you don't get the tangible result of seeing 'em published every single day. You see them published, ya know... it's a long time. It might be 18 months before that stuff sees the light of day. So, you do have to develop a little more patience.
MD: And, speaking of the growth we were talking about as writers and speaking about books, you've actually recently ventured out and written your first novel. It's a children's novel called Lost on the Road to Nowhere. So tell us about that book and what was that experience like, writing a fictional novel?
SF: Well, very different. I wrote for my whole career which has been college and then 25 years now as a professional journalist and I've only dealt in non-fiction. It's all been writing the truth, which is wonderful, but is a little limiting sometimes. So I always had kind of had an idea in the back of my mind I'd like to try some fiction and that was sort of my first baby step into it I guess. I have four children of my own and so this originally, this book, was a kind of a Christmas present to them. But it was a lot of fun and the great thing about fiction is, as anyone would know, is you can just make it all up. That's very freeing in a way, but it's also a little terrifying because with the truth at least you always have something to fall back on. You know kind of your limitations and with this it's just sort of like you're just floating out in mid-air and not sure if you're flying or falling. But it was a fun experience and my kids are my toughest critics and they liked it so I guess it was a good experience overall.
MD: Is there anything else that you would like to add that we haven't touched on yet?
SF: The shortest advice I can give anyone who's wanting to pursue a journalism or a writing career is something Stephen King, who is one of my favorites, wrote in his book, On Writing, and that is a very short, six-word command: "Write a lot and read a lot." Write a lot. You've gotta practice whether it's fiction, non-fiction, poetry, blog, whatever it is you've got to practice to get better just like in anything. And then you've got to read a lot! You've got to not just read only your favorite website or one magazine or whatever. You have to read widely and in a lot of ways in journalism, like a lot of things, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. You've got to be a curious person. You've got to ask questions. You've gotta be someone who raises their hand and that's the sort of person that gets hired these days.
MD: Well, thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate it.
SF: Best of luck to you and to all of you and your class!
MD: Thank you so much! Have a great night!
SF: Ok, you too.
Listen to the interview here:
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