Writing That Uber-Book

We're having Little League Baseball fever here as our Maitland kids are playing in the Little League World Series. It's fun to hear the excitement in everyone's voices when they're talking about these kids. And they are so good! I love baseball, especially when it's played with enthusiasm and with a sense of fun like these little leaguers are doing. Every game is on the line and they aren't paid a million bucks for it ;-).

And this too comes out in writing, don't you agree? Sometimes you read a book that you can feel the emotions resonating in every page, that special story that seems to sing. I believe that one can't just write for a deadline because the creative process involves a piece of the soul. Yet, how does a writer, earning her living in writing, not think about a deadline? It's always there.

So I think the thrust of the matter is to keep the enthusiasm and sense of fun up through the whole process and try not to just write for the deadline. I find myself seeing through certain stories out there, that it's just a deadline book, because it's missing that special heart. Do you get that feeling sometimes? There's just something overly plotted about the story, with just enough emotion between the characters to warrant a romance, and that's it.

It's just like the team that always breaks my heart, the Braves ;-). When they won their one and only World Series, they were a young team, very excited and fresh, and their enthusiasm and sense of fun just resonated in EVERY game leading into the Worlds. I just knew they were something special. I felt this glow while watching or listening to every game.

Since then, the Braves has won the Division Pennant and gone to the division finals but hasn't won another World Series. Why? They had the same big time players on their team, so...what's missing? I feel, sometimes, that they are so damn professional about their job that they forget the fun in the game. I mean, they are in the division finals, and it's almost like an everyday game to them, from their demeanor.

This year...ah...this year...there is something different. I've IMPATIENTLY waited ten years for the return of that magical feeling. I can sense it when I watch the Braves young players as they make their special plays. They THUMP on their elders' hats in glee at every hit or home run. They whoop. They cheer. And even straightfaced Chipper Jones shows a toothy grin when the youngsters crowd around him after his Oh-so-usual clutch homerun at 3-2.

I don't know. If these youngsters just keep it up...I might be finally realizing my dream of a seat in Turner Field (or whatever it's called now) during a World Series game in Oct/Nov. This is how much I'm loving their enthusiasm this year.

And, this is exactly the same feeling I get when I read that special book, the one with all the layers of plots and emotions that magically tie up in the end, and brilliantly takes me to that magical place from page one to the end.

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