Who: Matthew Futterman

Claim To Fame: Matthew Futterman is Deputy Sports Editor of The New York Times. He has previously worked for The Wall Street Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Star-Ledger of New Jersey, where he was a part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News in 2005. He is the bestselling author of Players: How Sports Became A Business, and his latest, Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed. 

Where To Find Matthew: His Website, Amazon, Twitter

Praise For Matthew: “Running to the Edge…is at once a beautiful meditation on effort and a tale as captivating and suspenseful as a great race.” – David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of Range

When do you like to write? Are you regimented about your writing routine?

I report and write for most of the workday for The New York Times. By the time it’s over, I am pretty wiped. For that reason, I try to do most of my personal writing during the early morning, starting between 530-630 and going to 730-830.  I find if I can get a good 90-minute writing session in it makes the whole day flow better.

Where do you like to write? What does your ideal work environment look like?

As a journalist, I’ve learned to be able to write anywhere. I wrote half of my first two books on airplanes probably, or airplane terminals waiting for flights. I can shut out noise really easily.

Do you have any pre-writing rituals or habits before you sit down to write?

Since we are talking about early in the morning, I try to make sure not to look at any news and really limit glancing at my emails before the writing sessions.  I want to be as clear as possible.

Do you struggle at all with that dreaded enemy of writing: writer’s block? Do you think such a thing exists?

Sometimes words flow more easily than others, but any block I have is always the result of not having good enough material to sustain a story. If I have the material then the words flow. Good reporting makes for good writing.

All of your work is incredibly reported and researched. Can you talk about that process and your method for organizing material you may want to use in future writing?

I have lots of notebooks, both digital and paper ones. So I spend a lot of time writing notes to myself because I am very forgetful. When I am researching a particular chapter, I siphon that off into its own file. I’m always working from an outline and filling out the outline with more material. Some people are good enough to do a ton of research for a year or two and then sit down to write. I have to break up the story into parts and research and write one part and then move to the next.

Your latest book Running To The Edge is part biography of the largely unknown sage Bob Larsen and part autobiography of your love for running. You’ve written in the past about how running helps your writing, but were there any new lessons from Larsen that you’ve applied to your writing career? 

Bob’s philosophy is all about making yourself uncomfortable and stretching your limits and teaching your body how to learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. That’s a writing lesson. Try shit. Don’t do the same old thing. You will benefit from the process in way’s you cannot imagine.

You are also Deputy Sports Editor of The New York Times. What are some of the things you tell your writers that you want them to keep in mind, whether in pitching ideas or writing articles? What mistakes do you see writers make the most?

We all need to think in terms of stories rather than subjects. The best stories are stories with characters and narrative arcs and heroes and villains. Look for those ones. Also, when it doubt, tell the story in chronological order. And tap out a quick outline. Feel free to deviate from it but working from a structure is really helpful.

What books or writers have most influenced the way you think and the way you write? Do you have any favorite books about the craft of writing or the creative process in general?

I’m a huge fan of Joan Didion. Great eye. Clear writer. Such an amazing combination of empathy and remove.  Also, Michael Lewis. He’s so efficient with his stories and such a terrifically smart reporter. And every year or so I re-read Charlotte’s Web, because every sentence is perfectly rendered.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

Don’t aspire. Write. Write every day.

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