The other night at tennis I was thinking about a writing metaphor.
Last fall I played a guy who was basically a wall. He could get to every
shot I made. All his shots went in. He didn’t make mistakes. He beat me
easily.
But I kind of wonder how far you can go in tennis like that, without
the ace serves or the fancy winning shots that increase the risk of
hitting the ball out.
So, the writing connection–not making mistakes isn’t good enough.
Competent stories are nothing more than competent. People don’t talk
about the stories that do everything right but don’t have a spark. Being
a wall isn’t good enough.
I’m better at writing than at tennis, but even though I don’t make
many mistakes, I’m still not making those winning shots. Got to work on
that.
I’m pretty sure “keep your eye on the ball” could be applied to writing, too.