Meet the Blogger: Jonathan Willis, the Ubiquitous Voice

maf

I had a dream last night that I started a new hockey publication, Numbers and Narratives, and somehow Jonathan Willis had already published 7 articles under its imprint.

Jonathan first caught my attention back in 2011. He’d been doing some pleasure reading while travelling and made good use of Machiavelli’s discussion of counselors in The Prince (§23) for a piece at Oilers Nation. I’ve been thinking about Machiavelli and Jonathan of late (incidentally, Jonathan also used Machiavelli in the unfortunate pejorative sense in this article about Gary Bettman). You see, I’ve been trying to contextualize for myself Jonathan’s approach to hockey writing.

To some of his Oilers Nation readers, Jonathan is often couched as the dry, statistical robot of the family. As someone who first perked up at the mention of Machiavelli rather than Corsi, my impression of Jonathan has always been otherwise. To be sure, Jonathan has a big brain and uses it to crunch numbers in novel ways (take, for instance, this article about drafting goaltenders; these posts with hand-tracked zone-entry data–here, here, here and here; or, his tracking of shot metrics for OKC Barons’ games, as in this article) and breakdown plays (some of my favorite Willis’ posts include his use of video analysis to demonstrate how things work, for example this recent look at the Blackhawks’ use of Brandon Bollig; or, one of his many single event breakdowns like this one). However, Jonathan is also a writer with a remarkable dexterity. Aside from his absurd level of output (rivalled perhaps only by Lowetide), Jonathan also manages to be interesting and funny. He is especially adept at turning some piece of cultural detritus into something useful and informative (this reference to Carol Reed’s 1947 classic film Odd Man Out comes to mind).

Packaged together, these assets combine to make a writer unique in his ability to shuffle readers easily along the often hard road of enlightenment. Which brings me back to Machiavelli. In what is one of the most famous letters ever written, Machiavelli writes to a friend on the occasion of completing his Prince. He writes of his daily routine. His day is spent entirely at play: he “become[s] a rascal for the whole day,” shouting abuses and insults and playing games with “vermin.” This ribald fun allows him to “scrape the mold off [his] brain.” At night, however, things take serious turn as he “put[s] on [his] regal and courtly garments” and enters into a discourse with the Canon of literary greats.

Screen Shot 2014-09-03 at 12.08.24 AMScreen Shot 2014-09-03 at 12.51.36 AM

After reading a healthy dose of Jonathan Willis, one gets the sense of having both just quarrelled joyfully with the townsfolk about some trifling matter or another and of having entered the hall of great minds and held court with edifying and ennobling discourse. It really is quite a marvel.

For his part, Jonathan is also extraordinarily free with his time and knowledge. Over the years, I’ve found him very helpful and approachable. We here at the Rig are delighted he partook of our Meet the Blogger series. Thanks, Jonathan.

When asked what song he’d like to have accompany his interview, Jonathan picked a stone-cold piss-cutter of a song, Stan Rogers’ “Northwest Passage.”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVY8LoM47xI&w=420&h=315]

1. When did you start writing about hockey? What got you into it?

I started writing about hockey in April 2008. At that point I was an apprentice instrument mechanic, and I found myself in trade school and with a lot of time on my hands. I’d always wanted to be a writer and I’d always loved hockey, so I started more or less on a whim.

2. Are there any writers that you look up to? If so, who are they and why?
Hundreds, at least, from both inside and outside hockey circles. Inside hockey, there were probably three guys in particular who really grabbed me early: Allan Mitchell, Vic Ferrari (or Tim Barnes, if you prefer) and Tyler Dellow, all already old hands when I started. Allan introduced me, as he has so many others, to the Oilers’ corner of the internet, and writes in such a way that it feels like you’re sitting down with him over a beer. Ferrari and Dellow both have real genius in taking complicated ideas and explaining them in a way that makes sense; both also have a reputation for prickliness but I found them extremely patient in explaining things to me one-on-one. But I read everything I can get my hands on and try to absorb as much as I can.
3. If you could give any advice to people interested in getting into writing about sports…what would it be?
The best piece of advice I have is simply to write every single day. It’s a simple requirement, but it has so many benefits. Writing every day helps work out the kinks, giving the writer the necessary experience to refine their own work. It forces discipline, both in finding ideas and in producing content; for those who eventually turn this into a profession it is a grind pumping out content, and writing in volume early is the best preparation. It allows for experimentation, and after a very short time it creates a real body of work.
The other thing I’d say is to be realistic about money. Many people end up writing for a company without compensation and get upset later when the money doesn’t come. I’ve learned through experience that if a writer wants to get paid he needs to push. In some cases I’ve started writing for free but made it very clear that I expected to be paid within a given time frame and that I was comfortable walking away if they didn’t see me as being worth that commitment. When I started, there weren’t a lot of platforms out there providing a place for new writers, so I had to start my own site from scratch and build up an audience. I had a lot of help along the way, but that approach freed me to do things I would not have otherwise felt comfortable with.
4. Do you specialize in types of writing (analytical, post/pre game blogs, prospects, opinion pieces…all of the above)?
Not really; I can’t afford to be a specialist. I love the analytic stuff, and that’s where I started but the simple truth is that I can spend six hours chasing some really interesting question and find that I don’t have anything worth writing about. At the same time, analytics is an important niche because it’s one of the places someone like me can create original, thought-provoking content. As for the rest, pretty much all I write about is hockey, 12 months out of the year, and I’m producing multiple pieces on most days; that requires some versatility.
5. Do you have a favorite article that you’ve written or one that got a lot of positive feedback or criticism? Tell me a bit about it.
There are a lot of examples; I’ve written thousands of pieces over the years. My personal favourite is a method I came up with for approximating Quality of Competition at the AHL level. It’s been long enough that I’ve seen both sharp criticism and positive feedback; I’d be lying if I say I ignore it but after a while I think any writer in this space just gets weathered to it. The piece I’ve included is my favourite because it’s the first time I did something really unique that helped advance the statistical conversation.
6. What sites do you currently write for? Favorite team(s)?
I write regularly for four sites: Sportsnet, the Edmonton Journal, Oilers Nation and Bleacher Report. I started writing as an Oilers fan, but I always strove to be objective and what I’ve found is that over time that objectivity has forced an at least somewhat dispassionate view of all the teams. After a while, I’ve found that I care less for the individual teams and more for individual coaches and managers – it’s easy to admire the smart ones, and with that admiration comes a hope that their cunning pays off.
7. Where can we find you on social media? Twitter/Facebook etc.
Even though you didn’t ask, I’ll plug my personal website where I make an effort to collect all of my scattered work. I’m also @jonathanwillis on Twitter.
[adsanity id=1808 align=alignnone /]
Arrow to top