Go Team! Football vs.Writing

I was thinking, since I’m such a football fan (Go Huskers, Yay Colts) that writing is a lot like a football team.

Go ahead and think me crazy but listen to the logic before placing judgment. There is a coin toss in the beginning of the game, right? Well that is sometimes what writing seems like, a complete toss up between getting published or not.

Then we have the field players. Words, adjectives, adverbs, nouns, etcetera are all vying for the win. In the beginning (we writer’s call it a rough draft) we play the field after placing all of these words in order, line them up and charge down the field at the opposing team. I like to think the opposing team in writing as writer’s block! You know that stiff tight end (you) you’d like to kick in the rear while it sits back with a blank stare, gazing at the empty page all the while having water poured down the throat? This is you watching from the sidelines instead of getting out there and playing, I mean writing!

Ok, we’ve got the words all in line, we have the opposing team ready to tackle our butts, now it is time to charge. Make some sense out of the story before we get the wind knocked out of us. We have our protagonist, our antagonists, all of the conflict ready, ups and downs, highs and lows, we pulled off a good piece of foreshadowing,(Deep breath here) then we revise. This in the football game would be called a field goal!We've basked in the afterglow of completion then we finished our story and now have to tackle the tough stuff. We huddle, then get back to the field, ready.

You see, football can be like writing, we have our coin toss, we have our rough and tumble days of opposing forces, I think sometimes we even have a bouncing ball on our screen! Maybe it is just squiggly lines telling us we’ve spelled a word wrong. But that doesn’t stop us does it? We continue on until we have something legible in our hands and are ready to make a TOUCHDOWN! That would be to place it up on the market and let the world see. Maybe get it published?

I can hear the crowd roaring behind me, my cheerleader's, although not as hot and big breasted, are my fiance and my son, standing on the sidelines yelling out, “Go get ‘em!”
I’m so glad they’re wearing their sweats as they cheer. I never did think they looked right in a skirt!

And as I’m running to catch that game winning touchdown pass, my helmet keeps me from bumping my head on the ground too hard as I fall, get rejected, but I still have the winning touchdown, my manuscript.

I wave to the crowd, thank them for all of the support, do a little winning dance, and go back out onto the field to run down the entire length all over again and again until I WIN the game, I become published!

How’s THAT for analogy?

Wait until you read my chess analogy. *wink* *wink*