When I was a teenager, my friends and I attempted to play tennis. Honestly, we were pathetic. We didn't know how to hold the racket properly, and we couldn't hit the ball to save our lives, but if enthusiasm counted for anything, then we were winners! It would have been better for us if we would have taken the time to hone up on our skills and become more serious about what we were attempting to do whenever we walked around calling ourselves champions.
Writers should do the same thing. It's easy enough to surround ourselves with the tools of the trade, but if we don't actually learn how to use them, then not only do we fail our readers, we fail ourselves. The game of writing great stories is not won by the occasional contest where we dress to impress and "talk" about the craft of writing. The writing game is won by doing one simple thing...writing. Daily. About anything. Everything. Until we have sharpened our skills to a razor's edge. Until our characters are as sharp as the sword we use to cut through the meaningless words which prevent our stories from reaching the winner's circle.
Only then do we have the power to do exceptional things. Only then can we create rich stories which inspire and impress our readers. And if we are truly lucky and have practiced writing daily until we are the best we can be, then maybe one day we will even get to take home the prize...
