Creative Nonfiction in Sport and Exercise Research

Francesca Cavallerio

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9780367482664
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000475302
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice
• Index: Psychology

Academics around the world recognise the effectiveness of storytelling as a way to engage audiences in conversations, raising awareness of issues, and encouraging change. Stories are now seen as the best medium to convey information to diverse audiences.

This book explores a novel approach to representing research findings through the adoption of creative nonfictional stories (CNF). At a time when dissemination of scientific research is constantly highlighted as a fundamental aspect for academics, CNF represents an opportunity to effectively communicate science to non-academic audiences through stories.

By providing practical examples of how to transform findings into compelling stories rooted in data, following the mantra of showing rather than telling, which characterises CNF, Creative Nonfiction in Sport and Exercise Research helps researchers – qualitative, quantitative, established professors, and students – to turn their research into stories.

A unique contribution to the field, this book is the first in the sport and exercise research field to take scholars on a discovery jouney, moving from their classic realist to a more creative, compelling, but still rigorous representation of research findings. The book features chapters written by authors from different sport research backgrounds, who present the findings of a previously published 'classic' study rewritten in the form of a story. Reflective chapters focusing on the how-to and the challenges of this creative analytical practice complete the work, to support scholars in developing their creative skills.

Part I Learning the Craft of Creative Nonfiction

1 ‘Where Do I Start?’ Getting to Grips with Creative Nonfiction

Francesca Cavallerio

DOI: 10.4324/9781003038900-3

Show Rather Than Tell

‘Hello Ma’am, what would you like?’

The voice of the young guy behind the counter snaps me out of the reverie state I had been lulled into while queueing. I stare at the board behind him, quickly deciding.

‘A mocha, please’

‘Mocha, great. And where will you be sitting?’

‘Mmmm…– I turn, looking around the open-space coffee shop, almost holding my breath, and…yes! It’s free! – I’ll be there’, I say, pointing to one of my favourite corners: two armchairs and a low table, encased in between the wall, a small pillar, and the full-height window. Quiet but light, it’s perfect!

I pay and then brusquely walk to my corner before someone else snatches it. I sit down and feel my lips stretching into a smile. It might seem petty, but now I feel I can have a good working morning. One of the perks of life in academia, something that my students are still puzzled about…the ‘working-from-home day’, which in my case often means ‘find a nice coffee shop with good coffee and work.’

My mocha arrives, warm and chocolatey, my laptop is open in front of me. Let’s get the day started! I am meeting Luke in half an hour, so I really need to review his first attempt at a creative nonfiction.

Object: Brief first attempt at story.

Click-click. Aw. Indeed. It IS brief.

I stare at the page and a half in front of me.

Three bulky paragraphs.

Breathe in.

It all began playing in the back garden when I was really young, almost as soon as I could stand up by myself, I would be holding a bat. I was always throwing and hitting balls around and quickly I grew attached. I developed a real passion for cricket, my parents took me down to the local cricket club and I started playing and making friends until eventually the club became my second home. Colts cricket really starts around the age of 11 where you begin to play with a hard ball, you’re playing for club, at school and if you are chosen to, you even get the opportunity to be involved with a representative side.

[…]

The men’s leagues were a lot bigger in terms of geographical location. I was familiar with travelling a bit with my county in the age groups but that was with parents, driving yourself is a whole different ball game and the cricket itself a whole new ballpark. It was no longer a pleasant environment. To gain an understanding of how much teams wanted to win you only need to know how much some players are being paid. Along with this comes peer pressure, peer pressure from team mates to play week-in-week-out and if you don’t, well you better have had a great excuse for not playing because you’d know about it on return […].¹

Okay.

What do I do now? I don’t want to crush his enthusiasm, but this is WAY away from being a creative nonfiction. It bears no semblance at all. It is so descriptive, so tedious! Did he read the paper and the chapter I sent him? Where is the emotion? Nowhere is he showing anything…this is a list…how do we turn a list into a story? I should have never suggested this. If I turn him back towards writing a realist tale, it will look like I don’t believe in him. But…can this become good enough not to ruin his dissertation?!

DLIN!

‘Hey, Emma!’

Luke is standing at the door, waving. He is early. Smiling. Eager to work.

Ok, then. Let’s work on this.

How did I learn to write CNF?

* * *

[Two years before]

As the play begins, it is raining quite heavily. Mag Folan, a stoutish woman in her early seventies with short, tightly permed grey hair and a mouth that gapes slightly, is sitting in the rocking chair, staring off into space. Her left hand is somewhat more shrivelled and red than her right. The front door opens and her daughter, Maureen, a plain, slim woman of about forty, enters carrying shopping and goes through to the kitchen.

Mag: Wet, Maureen?

Maureen: Of course wet.

Mag: Oh-h.

Maureen: takes her coat off, sighing, and starts putting the shopping away.

Mag: I did take me Complan.

Maureen: So you can get it yourself so.

Mag: I can. (Pause.) Although lumpy it was, Maureen.

Maureen: Well, can I help lumpy?

Mag: No.

The Beauty Queen of Leenane²

I stop reading. And start again. I take in these few lines, the scarce words. And realise how much of the characters they allowed me to discover already.

Incredible.

My eyes keep scanning the text, back and forth, back and forth. I think this is it! I think I finally get what ‘show rather than tell’ means!

* * *

When Luke sits down at my table, I ask him how he found the experience of writing the draft he sent me. He shakes his head, looks at me with a grimace, and sighs.

‘Emma, what do all these authors mean when they keep saying “show rather than tell”? How do you do that? I tried but I really have no clue! I was trying to use my participants’ words, and I thought that was going to “show”…but…I don’t know…is that it?’

I look at the sagged shoulders, discomfited expression. I remember that feeling, during my PhD. Not being sure how to do what other scholars made seem easy, those harrowing words, ‘show rather than tell’, running in circle on my mind. Like a mantra. That’s the moment I decide to try and show him, rather than tell him. I open the file of The Beauty Queen of Leenane on my laptop and turn it towards him, so he can read.

[Five minutes later]

I slowly take another sip of my mocha, then carefully place it back on the table. I feel as if I am trying to merge my body with the armchair, wanting to leave Luke time and space to read the text that was my ‘Ah-ah’ moment.

He lifts his eyes from the screen now, thoughtful.

‘Ok…maybe I get it…I mean, I can see it here. I can see that the author is showing and not telling…but I am still not sure I get how I would do this.’

I nod, scroll up to the beginning of the scene, and point at the lines in front of us.

‘Look at this scene. Maureen is wet, she is tired…both physically and mentally. She had to go out shopping, in the pouring rain, and now she is back and “of course she is wet,” how could she not be, with that rain? But being home is not a relief for her – we know that immediately, when she sighs and just gets on with house duties. She has barely stepped into the room and taken her coat off, and her mother is already talking about herself and complaining to her. There is a weariness in the relationship between the two – can you see it? And the amount of demands that Mag places on Maureen is clear as soon as she says, “So you can get it yourself so” and “Well, can I help lumpy?”. This short exchange also suggests the idea that there must have been a discussion before Maureen went out, something related to her mother asking her to get her Complan.’

Luke’s eyes do not move from the screen, his face deep in thought, slowly nodding his head.

‘How do we know all this?’ – I continue – Because the author is showing all this information through the use of different techniques. First of all, the dialogue. But it is the way in which the dialogue is constructed that is telling. The short, dry exchange. The non-said, its implications, even louder than what is actually said.

Then we have the language register. “I did take me Complan.” The grammar expression chosen takes us to a regional dimension, creates a background that goes beyond what has been described in the stage directions.

The stage directions themselves, though, help create the overall mood. Mag is described as “stoutish woman”, who is “staring off into space” while on her rocking chair. Maureen, on the other hand, is “plain” and “slim” and constantly moving. She walks in from the outside, she is carrying bags, she takes her coat off, and starts setting the shopping away. There is a visual contrast created by these two characters, one almost still, the other in perpetual motion.

The contrast between the two characters is ‘painted’ immediately for the reader, even before there is any dialogue, and this is part of the ‘showing rather than telling.’ As soon as we hear the dialogue between the characters, we already know about the differences between the two, so we start interpreting their interaction as a consequence.’

‘Ok – Luke says – so you are saying that “show rather than tell” is not just one technique, it is actually the result of using different techniques to get to this…I mean, when you read this scene it looks so simple, so stripped down of superfluous comments…but after listening to you, I can see that there is actually a lot going on behind! You said dialogue, the words chosen, the staging even…and the description of the characters…I mean, I didn’t do that at all in my example. My character is only a voice…’

I am nodding vehemently; happy he is starting to see it.

‘Yes, yes. Use of words, characters, dialogues…and even monologues, it does not always need to be a dialogue! Staging…and metaphors. They can be very powerful too.

What do you think, shall we try and tackle one technique at a time, see if that helps you?’

Layering

‘Okay – says an eager Luke – how do I start though? I mean…how do I go from what I have here to what this should look like?’

‘Well’, I take another sip of my mocha, taking time to think how much I should tell him and how much I should let him discover, also through trial and error, ‘first of all let’s be clear: stories are not perfect or near detailed enough in the first writing instance or attempt. I wrote about eight different versions of my first creative nonfiction, before it felt at least good enough to share with others. One strategy I find useful is called layering. What do I mean by this? Well, when I commence the story writing process, I would do so by initially listing the characters involved. I then would list what each of the characters said, followed by the character’s body language, the clothing they wore, the pitch of their voices, etc. I would then go back to the story and include other details, such as details of the surroundings, smells, and weather. To do this well, I have found that the story writing process involves a number of layers to ensure the picture (albeit made of words) is vivid enough so the reader can actually experience it as if they were there, and the words were showing them the intricate details of the encounter rather than me just telling them what was happening.’

Luke is scribbling down furiously on his notebook. He re-reads his notes and nods, satisfied.

‘Well, looks like I need to go back and make ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I Learning the Craft of Creative Nonfiction
• Part II From Realist Tales to Creative Nonfiction
• Part III Moving Beyond “Just” Creative Nonfiction
• Index