I played competitive tennis in high school and college. I quickly learned that if I positioned my racket to connect with the ball in a certain spot, I could put the ball wherever I wanted. It’s known as the sweet spot.
I’d like to encourage you to apply the concept of the sweet spot to your writing because everything has one. Here are a few things I learned about the sweet spot from a tennis racket.
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Almost daily I speak to writers who pine for publication. They figure once they get there, they will have arrived. They’ll be where they always wanted to be. Sadly, I also know published authors who look back with an emptiness that haunts them. Why? They were so concerned about the destination of publication, they forgot to enjoy the trip.
It reminds me of a bicycling event in central Florida I rode once. The route took riders right by the space shuttle on launch pad 39-A at Cape Canaveral, as well as the largest known eagle’s nest in the United States. The roadway was cut right through coastal marsh land, providing a natural home for the alligators, snakes and countless water fowl.
At the end of the event, I listened as a group of riders standing close by recounted their trip.
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Many of you recently attended the ACFW annual conference in Indianapolis. Those who did pinned hopes on getting some sort of exciting news or opportunity. MBT Voices overall received overwhelmingly positive news. So why am I writing this? Because with the sweet comes the bitter. They always go hand in hand.
I’ve dealt with and helped people through disappointment for decades. There are some things I’ve seen in the circumstance that contributes to the emotion of disappointment that I want to share.
Having Unrealistic Expectations. Truly there are novice novelists who go to their first conference expecting that the biggest publishers in the industry will stand in line to snatch up their masterpiece…that hasn’t quite been finished. Ok, it really hasn’t been written yet, but with a contract in hand, they could stay up late one night and write it.
Read the RestAs you read this, the MBT staff is hard at work at the ACFW conference (if you’re there too, stop by the MBT booth. I’d love to say hi!!). I’m sure you’re hard at work as well. You’ve been repeating your elevator speech a hundred times, not realizing it was to the hotel staff. When you finally got across the table from your dream agent, you forget everything… even your name! Conferences are enough to make you feel you insignificant. Like you’re a little tadpole in a great big ocean. If you’re not careful, you let some things go that really need to be attended to. That’s why I want to encourage you to stop! Relax! And… don’t forget to breathe! Whether you land that contract or not, you’re writing […]
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