Imagine a writing contest that embodies key values of journalism — education, speed, creativity, diversity. Throw in a dash of TikTok-style social networking and douse it in COVID-19 isolation. That’s The Big Scribble, an idea conceived last month in the midst of the pandemic that in days generated more than 400 writing entries from student journalists in the U.S. and abroad.
The idea sprang from author and former Sports Illustrated writer Jeff Pearlman. He tested the idea with friend and fellow author Jonathan Eig. In two weeks, the contest launched with Pearlman, Eig and four other accomplished writing colleagues as judges — David Maraniss, Candace Buckner, Mirin Fader and Evan F. Moore (pictured).
“The funny thing is how little thought/planning was put into this,” Pearlman said by email. “It went from idea in my head to texting with Jon to OK, let’s do it to we need a name to let’s get guest judges to wow, we’re at the finals. This wasn’t months in the planning. This was days in the planning. Weird.”
This week, after 409 entries, five prompts, thousands of words, and plenty of videos, the judges culled the contestants down to 10. The winner and runners-up will be announced Sunday.
The winner will receive a $200 gift certificate to the indie bookstore of their choice, a letter of recommendation from the judges, a guest appearance on Pearlman’s “Two Writers Slinging Yang” podcast, autographed books, and one-on-one consultations with a long list of journalists and writers from across the country.
To whittle the contestants down, the judges assigned one prompt a week. The first, a profile of someone you know. Then, a food review. The third, the pandemic’s impact on hair. The fourth, an obituary of [the still living] singer Mariah Carey, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, child star Jonathan Lipnicki, or former baseball player Bip Roberts.
The final 10 are now wrapping up the final prompt: An essay about affection during the pandemic.
How and when did this idea of a writing contest come about?
Eig: Jeff came up with the idea. He wanted to do something to help all the student journalists idled by the pandemic. He asked me what I thought, and I wanted to help. I jumped at it. Then we came [up] with the name and started calling on our friends to serve as judges and to offer their time as prizes. It took us about two weeks from idea to launch. My daughter and I built the website. We enlisted my nephew, a senior at Tulane, to handle the admin work and to send out hundreds of emails to college journalism programs to encourage them to have their students enter. Jeff ran most of the social media. It was his brilliant idea to have the students submit fun little videos along with their work, too. I should mention that no one has made a dime from this. Everyone’s a volunteer.
What brought the six of you judges together?
Eig: Friendship and kindness brought us together. Jeff and I have been friends a long time, and we share the same agent. Jeff and I both knew Maraniss. Evan Moore and I have been friends a long time. Jeff knew Mirin and Candace.
How long did it take for you to realize this was going to be bigger than what you originally expected?
Eig: We thought we’d get 50, maybe 100 entries. As deadline approached, I told Jeff the email box was filling up fast. I thought we might get 200. We wound up with 409. That was wild. But that wasn’t the final surprise. After the first assignment, we eliminated half the field, but we encouraged the students to continue sending work, and we promised to select a few wildcards each week. They’d have a chance to get back in the tournament. Hardly anyone dropped out. Every week they continued filing work even after they’d been eliminated. In part, that’s because the judges were giving everyone really detailed feedback. They wanted to learn and improve.
Tell us about the prompts and how you have decided on them. I got a big kick out of the obituary prompt. What made you think of that? And Jonathan Lipnicki?
Eig: The obit is a standard journalism school assignment. I remember when I was a freshman at Medill I wrote the obit for Tim Conway, who was very much alive at the time. It’s also a great way to demonstrate a writer’s ability to assess news value. I came up with Mariah and Gorby. Jeff came up with Bip and Lipnicki. Kind of random. But everything about this tournament was random. Most weeks we made up the assignments at the last minute. We’re both busy writing books and trying to pay attention to our own kids. This was just for kicks.
You must have so much good writing at your disposal. What are you doing with it all?
Eig: We don’t have any plans to publish, but we hope these students will take some of their work and try to sell it. We’ve already heard from one potential employer who’s thinking about hiring a few Scribblers for a freelance assignment. And one of the judges (Jodi Rudoren of The Forward) has told contestants to pitch her story ideas.
You have such a long and distinguished list of guest judges and journalists available for 1-on-1 consultations. How does that work and how did you assemble such a group?
Eig: We asked. Everyone said yes. Seriously, everyone. I’m hoping no one snags the Tom Junod consultation, because I want that one.
What has surprised you most since you embarked on this project?
Eig: Specifically, the fact that the students refused to quit. So many of them continued submitting stories after they’d been eliminated. More generally, the passion. I should not have been surprised. Hell, given the job market, no one pursues journalism these days if they’re not passionate about it. But the energy and the idealism hasn’t changed since I was a journalism student. It was a nice reminder.
Pearlman: Jonathan said it all very well. I’ll add that one other thing that’s surprised me is the genuine spirit of kinship. Like Jon said, no one has said no. And I think that stems from an ability of veterans in the business to remember what it was to be 19, 20, 21 and have an internship to look forward to. And now, to have it taken away—that’s just devastating. So it’s inspiring for me to see the empathy within the profession.
What has moved you most?
Eig: See above. Also, when the tournament ended, so many students sent thank-you notes. They said this helped them get through the shutdown, helped make up for a little bit of what they lost. That was beautiful.
What’s next? Will there be a reprise?
Eig: Maybe next year. I’m up for it.