OLYMPIAD WRITING

I've been watching the Olympics the last couple of weeks. I'm usually not even interested in many of the sports, but I find myself watching anyway as it is something different from HGTV and old sitcom reruns. Also recently, I've been working on my mind - my thoughts, beliefs, self esteem, and confidence. I've always heard that an Olympian's success is as much of a result of his or her mindset as it is physical ability, but it didn't solidify until watching the Olympics.

Though I would never put myself on the same level as an Olympian, certainly not physically, and not even mentally, my process as a writer is not totally different. Part of writing well involves having pre-contest rituals - drinking a cup of coffee, taking a walk, reading through research, or breathing deep. I see the Olympic competitors performing their own pre-competition rituals.

A big part, for me, is confidence. When you write pages and pages to get a few paragraphs of something decent, your confidence can be shaken. When Olympians fall or miss their landings, even though they may have done the same thing successfully hundreds or thousands of times, their confidence can be dented. So it's important to be able to remind myself I've written successfully in the past and one (or more) miss-steps don't mean my writing will never be good again.

Finally, another similarity is simply not thinking about it too much. Before competitions, Olympians jump around in the locker room to stay loose or listen to music in headphones to try to distract themselves from the impending performance. Often, they avoid watching their competitors or seeing the scores. They concentrate only on themselves and what they have to do, not even thinking about the scores or outcome. I try to do this with my writing as well. Although I read others' work for inspiration and instruction, I certainly don't copy them and I try not to compare the quality of my writing with theirs. I simply attempt to do the best job I can do, turn it in, and hope for the best.

And maybe, just maybe, one day I'll get that writing gold!

Happy Writing - And May All of Your Words be Golden...
The Wordsy Woman