Writing About the "Big" Things

Unless you've been in a cave deep in the heart of some tropical island, covering your ears and putting your phone on Airplane Mode, you know that today is the big game. Nope - not Super Sunday; bigger than that. Tonight is the College Football Playoff National Championship! The big battle everyone has been waiting for between Washington and Michigan is finally here, just hours away, and we all realize the world as we know it will slow to a halt so everyone can watch this epic battle and see which team will emerge triumphant. We've all been waiting for it - so here we go!

Wait - you haven't been waiting for it? You thought it was last week? You know people who don't even care about it? That's just... that's madness. How could anyone not care about this, the biggest college football game of the year? From everything I've heard and seen on every channel I watch (admittedly, mostly sports channels), this is huge! And you are more concerned about whether it will pre-empt a show you want to watch? Well, I'm at a loss for words.

Honestly, not so much. However, depending on who you are, tonight's game is a big thing - so big that you can only watch it on ESPN. And tonight, plenty of people will crowd around their TVs and watch the championship game of the latest professional sport (college football). Most people, however, won't, and couldn't care less. As a matter of fact, most big events where people get all excited about them are events where the majority doesn't care. I know people who use the weekend of Super Sunday to go skiing because it's usually not as crowded, and treat other "special event" days as just ways to get away from people. The long and short of it is, for any subject, most people don't care all that much. 

And that's when this becomes about writing. Too many times I have heard writers balk at creating a story, a poem, an essay because "it's not that important" or "not many people would be interested in it." With a nod to reality, they are right. Most people won't read it. It's not for everyone. However, none of that matters. Writing, or creating anything out of mere ideas, is a fascinating endeavor, and it is up to us, the creators of the piece, to make it "big" and "important." 

If we have some urge to create a story, there's something important about it to us. Some element of that story is big enough in our mind to have leaked out and onto our conscious world, and we picked up on that, even if only for the shortest of moments. Simply put, something excited us enough to want to get writing. If that point hits, it is our responsibility to make it be "the big thing." We need to find the importance in the story. Whatever brought it to our awareness, it is up to us to track down that little mote of inspiration and hold on tight to it.

I often point out that not every story will be a winner. Most of them will just be exercises in writing. However, if that exercise helps you dig inside and take the smallest of stories and make it feel big, then you've done something most creatives overlook. You've taken the simple and made it important. Maybe not as big as the College Football Playoff National Championship, but work on it; you'll get there.

And you'll realize college football isn't really that important.