It's time to take a break from focusing on the New Year's resolutions of my characters and return to the earlier series I was sharing about the similarities between playing golf and writing a novel. The more that I think about the two activities, the more I realize they have in common.
Today, I want to take a look at the "Es" of golf and writing. See if what I came up with holds true for you as well.
Editing -- When it comes to writing, this component is obvious. You should not even consider sending your manuscript to an editor unless you have had the entire work carefully reviewed by a professional editor. Even if you know your writing skills are strong, an editor will find errors that you may have overlooked. Likewise in golf, we must be willing to allow a golf pro or a peer whose skill level we trust to edit our stance, club selection, or other aspects of our game. Others can see details of our play that we simply are unable to observe in ourselves.
Excellence -- Demand this of yourself in anything that you pursue! If you are going to share your writing with the rest of the world, you should want it to be the best product possible. Once printed, your book will be associated with your name forever. If you are going to spend hours on the golf course, why would you not want to use that time to make your game great? I think it's more enjoyable to play eighteen holes when I know that I won't be hitting the ball into the rough every other swing!
Enthusiasm -- Publishing a novel and improving your golf game are both pursuits that require your passion. You quickly will grow tired of staring at a computer screen during a day of writer's block if you don't love the idea of eventually completing a meaningful book. Golfers who aren't excited by the idea of getting up at 5:30am to make tee time will find another hobby. Golfers and writers need to be emotionally invested in their efforts.
Do you agree with these examples? Do you have other "Es" to add to this list? Let me know!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment