According to Chris Jones, Chris Jones has never read a story by Gary Smith. He doesn’t want to be influenced by an unattainable standard.
Also, in the comments section at the end, he says, “No, the fact is, there’s been more bad sportswriting committed in the name of Gary Smith than any other writer going.”
I think I know what he means — only Gary Smith can write like Gary Smith, and if you try and fail, the results might be grisly.
Incidentally, I could have been indicted for Attempted Impersonation of Gary Smith with any one of my first three stories in Sports Illustrated. One of my writing heroes told me, about the first one, “I have a few qualms: there’s an awful lot of Gary S. in it, in both sound and structure, and you’ll have to find your own way one day; and not everything resonates on a higher plane, not everything is mythic. Sometimes I think sports is the least mythic thing of all, and that we get in trouble when we expect a few moments on a court or a field or a diamond to be transformative.”
Anyway, what do you guys think? When you try to sound like someone, who is it? How old were you when you finally found yourself sounding like yourself?
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