Writing and the Olympics

I cannot say that I have Olympics Fever right now, but I am running a bit of a temperature. I am not really into many Olympic sports, I don't understand why we are concerned about the triple-jump, and I think some of the events are put in as hoaxes just to see if we are paying attention. However, that being said, it is impressive to watch some race or another where, in a world of eight-billion people, the fastest eight of them are about to compete. Watching the best of the best is somehow important to experience, even if the sport itself isn't particularly interesting to me. There's always this part of me that says, "I wish I could be that good."

How does this relate to writing? Well, I'm getting there. I read a post on social media somewhere suggesting every Olympic competition should also include one person from the audience, just so we can see how truly skilled these athletes are. The audience person would be like the control subject, trying to run the 10,000-meter dash without dying while a track full of athletes run the same race in half an hour. If you've ever seen a professional runner race a regular person, it is embarrassing to see the difference in speed. 

And this finally gets me to my point: When we read a lot, it brings to mind two things. First, we get used to experiencing quality writing, be it short stories, essays, poetry, novels, whatever - it's good. Even the ones we don't like usually still impress us with the caliber of writing. Second, we realize that we are not of that caliber. Not yet, anyway, but it can be a daunting challenge to read something impressive then say, "I want to write something that powerful now." Sometimes, great writing just knocks the wind out of me because it's just that good and I am just me. There's a lot of space to fill between me and that other writer, and that's a challenge - one that can feel impossible to conquer.

Well, here's the funny thing about writing - we don't have to be perfect, artful, ingenious, naturally gifted wordsmiths to write something that is great. We only need some simple ingredients, and we need to hold to them as the most important part of our writing.

• Be true to yourself. Write from a place you can feel.
• Don't write to be the best, just write to be better than you were.
• By merely writing, you are improving your skill and yourself.

This is similar to what Olympic athletes do when it comes to training (plus a lot of exercise). They dedicate themselves to constant improvement, and understanding themselves well enough to know how far they can go and how far they need to go. And they do this constantly (or at least into their late 20s when most Olympic athletes retire).

Now will there ever be an Olympic competition for writing? Not in my lifetime. However, we can now train for it - just in case - and the worst we can get out of it is that we become a writer who will create stuff that other people will read and say, "I wish I could be that good."