I’m not much of a sports guy. I’d rather wear a Star Wars t-shirt than a Rockies one. I guess that comes from my nerd – uh, geek upbringing. (When I was younger, ‘nerd’ was easily confused with ‘geek’. Nowadays, the preferred nomenclature: geek is a person who loves science fiction, comic books and fantasy and nerd is someone that excels in science and academics. Or at least that’s how I see it. Now back to the blog post…)

That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy watching a Rockies game or supporting my local Major League baseball team. Depending on the season, I find myself getting quite involved in the team. I will start to follow players and looking to statistics. Don’t interpret this as a true sports fan though. I couldn’t tell you a ballplayer’s name on any other ball team. And that’s how I determine I’m not a sports fan.  Ask me a question about pop culture, even a TV show or book I don’t regularly follow or read, I will most likely know the answer.

I have studied my entire life to be a writer. I’ve always wanted to tell stories. The best part is the research – watching movies and reading books. The worst part is I had to learn spelling and grammar (something I still struggle with today – Google and spellcheck doesn’t help correct that). I’ve studied the structure of storytelling. I’ve pondered the power and fascination to the ‘hero’s journey’. I have seen what works and doesn’t. Yet, the big variable is that the science behind writing doesn’t always create a successful story.

Just like baseball players, who have perfected their bodies to master the game, practiced and pushed the edge of the envelope.  That player can still have a great season and a poor season.  One year the player will hit record home runs and the following season barely hit the average. I’ve always been curious to how this happens. How can you be so successful one year and the following year just not do anything right? Oddly, these players bounce back and forth from great seasons to average seasons. The same could be applied to any given game. The sports fans just chalks this up to he’s off his game.

Thus, I believe writers can suffer from the same predicament. The result can be bad stories and good stories.  Or just be reduced to a bad day at the keyboard or great day. Today, I found my self off my game. I wanted to write. I did write.  But everything just came out garbled. The key is not get discourage. Tomorrow there’ll be another game and I’ll be ready to play!