Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone

[Jeremy Nelson]

So I've been taking on some trivia side gigs, writing and hosting for orgs. I'm taking over a gig from a guy whose trivia nights were kinda myopic- you could tell he writes well, but only writes what he naturally knows. For general trivia, it's really easy to write and fact check the stuff I know, but I know there's a few subjects that aren't my forte- I write when I recognize a blind spot, but I really want my trivia nights to be as well rounded as I can. So my question to the writers, both professional and casual- what do you do to make sure the games/rounds you write are balanced?

For the sake of solutions, assume that I'm a staff of one, and don't have another person who can blind read my sets. Thanks in advance!

[BrandonFG]

For some of the games I've written, I usually start with Wiki and then corroborate the info thru a second or third source. A few years ago, I got burned on a history question so if there's any discrepancies I try to visit at least three sites and go with the consensus. Usually I try to find a site that's specific to the question, e.g. Billboard for a question on Most #1 Singles. If I can't find concrete enough info, I'll either toss the question or reframe it with something simpler.

/I should look through my Encyclopedia Brittanica that's at my mom's house

[TLEberle]

I have a dozen categories in the style of Learned League. I try to cycle through without repetition, and without repeating subject areas—so if I write about The Simpsons I would need to write on something else.

I have a couple of categories I won’t stack but my main rule is no tricks, just trivia. That doesn’t mean a Flacco won’t come up, it just means that the question is not meant to trip someone up.

I don’t know everything but a good research library like Columbia one volume encyclopedia, NYT Guide to General Knowledge and swiveling around the FM dial to hear different kinds of music helps.

Start writing, and have a brick of note cards handy if you find something that begs to be a trivia question.

[PYLdude]

Unfortunately I have the same problem your predecessor does in that I only try to write what I know. I do have a fairly decent knowledge base, but there comes times where I get stuck on material and can’t find a whole lot to supplement that (case in point the two Jeopardy games I wrote for Trivia Nationals two years ago, which took me a lot longer to write than I wanted to because I ran out of decent ideas).

In addition to the above suggestions, I would also keep a copy of the World Almanac handy because that’s pretty solid source material for just about anything. (Current obviously works best, but some info could be mined from older issues).

[clemon79]

In addition to the above suggestions, I would also keep a copy of the World Almanac handy because that’s pretty solid source material for just about anything. (Current obviously works best, but some info could be mined from older issues).

"On June 4, 1913, what time did the sun set in Boise, Idaho?"

/oh, the WORLD Almanac
//carry on