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.