WARNING: This is a no-edit zone…
Along with about 74 million others, I’ve been watching some of the Olympics. And being in a playful sort of mood after several days with my angels and seeing Phelps make Olympic history and take that 8th Gold medal. His mother’s reactions have been charming, amusing and endearing. She might just come to symbolize one of our under-appreciated national treasures: mothers who invest in their children. But that’s another post…
I wondered if they had an Olympics of Writers, what would it take to prepare? To qualify? To participate? To win?
Oh, I know some will think that there’s zero athleticism in writing, but those who write know better.
Try writing a book without:
Training.
Discipline.
Stamina.
Determination.
Coaching.
Diet. (Yes, diet. Try ignoring yours and see if it doesn’t impact your mental acuity. Your physical ability to stay backside to leather (feel those lower back, shoulders, and neck muscles burn). It feels almost silly to mention the wrists and tendons, what with so many Olympians having challenges with them. Yet writers certainly do, too.)
Both Olympians and Writers…
Receive critiques: from media, peers, mentors and judges.
Endorsements: Olympians get them and give them. So do writers.
A case can be built that many of the same requirements are key for both Olympians and writers. On training, on preparing. Qualifying is a little tricker; “good” is subjective, but then so are scores by judges and both have criteria guidelines. Participation takes a lot–some would say everything–from both. And winning?
Well, now there’s the kicker. With Olympians the winner is clear-cut. With writers, it isn’t as easily defined or discerned. Is the definitive “good” based on selling, on publishing, on critical acclaim?
There’s the rub–and likely one of the reasons we didn’t see a writing event in Beijing–and we aren’t apt to in 2012. But that doesn’t mean that every writer won’t imagine there will be–and in every project written, go for the gold!
Blessings,
Vicki
C2008
