Warring Passions

Yep. I figured it would come to this. I finally had to dish out some tough love on myself. My sports addiction has completely trounced and sacked my motivation to write. My slide into a drought occurred over the span of several months.

Last fall, after a 20-year hiatus, I found Celtics games interesting again and then yanked my basketball teammate from high school, who was a HUGE fan back in the day, along with me to kick off a new era of fandom. So in the spring, with the Celts wrapping up the Losers and sending them back to L.A. in their pretty purple bows and my Red Sox starting the season, aiming for another title, and of course, the NFL draft, with my Cowboys picking up the I-can’t-wait-to-see-him-play Felix Jones, my writing completely fell to the wayside and trickled into the gutter.

Even though it's summer, with there being less to watch, I still find plenty of sporty things to swallow my time. As a goal setter, I religiously wrote every day. And now, I’m lucky if I write once a week…or month even. I’m consumed with all things sports. On Sundays, I’m like, don’t even talk to me. If I can’t find a sport I love on TV, I’ll watch some other sport, like golf. GOLF. I actually watch that on purpose sometimes…and I’m interested in the outcome. What the heck is wrong with me?

I used to joke about being a sports addict, but now I really am. Over the course of three months, I’ve written two chapters, and I’ve drafted an outline and scratched some scenes. I could toss it up to needing a break from my manuscript, but who are we kidding?

So, in order for me to get any work done, I had to get tough with myself and lay down the law. Now, I cannot watch a game, turn on WEEI, check stats or click on my Sons of Sam Horn bookmark until I write, write, write, at least 500 words a day, which is approximately one scene. I gave myself Sundays off. I need to get back to my structured ways so I can stay creatively energized and keep my authorial juices flowing. Even if I don’t work on my novel every day, I need to put paper to pen, or fingers to keys or whatever my medium may be at a given moment, sometimes chalk or crayon, depending. And this blog doesn’t count. Sports needs to be a backburner thing, yeah right, but definitely cannot be the consumer of all my free time. Writing is the passion that needs to win here. Sports is something I love, but writing is what makes me, ME. What crazy distractions get in the way of your writing? Spill.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.