I've wanted to see The Rookie for a long time — six years, in fact, since it came out in 2002. Dennis Quaid plays Jim Morris, the real life guy who tried out for major league baseball at the age of 35, long after he should have been through and long after he'd bombed out in baseball in his 20s due to injuries. But the guy threw a mean fastball as he got older; in fact, it was even better than when he was younger. And the high school baseball team he coached made a bet with him:
In 1999, Coach Morris made a fateful bet with his perpetually losing team. If they won the district championship, Morris — who threw a 98 mph fastball — would try out for the majors. The team went from worst to first, and Jim, living up to his end of the bargain, threw caution to the wind and was on the road to becoming the oldest rookie in the major leagues.
I love stories like this, because that's what writing is about too. Not giving up. We don't have to contend with aging bodies making our dreams physically impossible. We have only to contend with the doubt demons in our heads, the rotten contest scores, the rejections from our dream agent, or the editor who loved our concept but hated the execution. It's tough and it can be brutal.
But you have to keep trying. That's why I love movies like this. Because they remind me that someone had a dream and suffered to make it happen. That someone took all the hard knocks and managed to make it anyway.
What are your favorite inspirational movies? Do you like baseball movies? I don't care for the actual sport, but I love baseball movies. (Bull Durham is my all time FAVORITE baseball movie — Kevin Costner and the “long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last for three days” speech — how can you go wrong?)
I’m drawing a blank on inspriational movies aside from all the Disney sports films we’d watch in P.E. in high school when it was raining. (We didn’t have a gym.) Mighty Ducks, etc.
In a League of Their Own with Tom Hanks, Major League and Major League 2 with Tom Beringer are funny and uplifting movies. Rudy is an all-time fav among the young set for football. There’s a new movie coming out about football and the first black Heisman winner that looks awesome. Sorry, I can’t remember what it’s called. Invincible with Mark Walberg is a great movie about never giving up against the odds. Then there’s The Bad News Bears, The Love Guru (about a hockey player with mother issues), The Replacements with Keanu Reeves, and The Longest Yard about prisoners playing football.
Ah, movies are great inspiration. Especially the bios about people who defied naysayers.
Hi Lynn!
I wish to pick your brain…
What do you do with that little voice inside your head tells you mockingly that it’s time to give up and get a real job? I’m lucky enough to be writing full time but lately I just can’t get that voice to shut up. Drowning it in chocolate doesn’t seem to be working either. The bizarre thing is that I don’t want to give it up and really have no intention of doing so but it’s still there lol Do you have any tricks or is the doubt always there in the background?
I also wanted to know just how much marketability factors into your story ideas. I’ve read one of your old blogs about the ‘meh’ and thought it sounded a little too familiar not because I’ve been to so many critique groups ect but because my marketing degree is getting a little too involved and I think of what markets first and develop the story around that… probably sucking out the soul out in the process.
Any thoughts? Or could you refer me to another blog entry that might help?
Cheers,
Nikki
P.S. I watched a movie with my niece the other day, it was called ‘Stick it’ about a girl who did gymnastics in the Olympics but it all fell apart when she finds out her mother is having an affair with her coach. The girl has a bit of spunk and gets ordered by the court to return to gymnastics after she accidentally damages property. It was inspiring even though it’s a little out of my age group.
Stick It was good. It’s knock off of cheerleader movies, Bring It On and Bring It On Again and more.
What about Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner? Love that movie. It’s about never losing sight of your dreams and keeping faith in what you love, who you love, and connecting with who you really are.
Of course The Rookie is a Disney film, SP. *g* Inspirational sports film, LOL.
Yes, Kathy! I saw the trailer for that movie about the black Heisman winner and thought that would be an awesome movie to see!! Can’t remember the name of it either, but it’ll be high on my list of flicks to see.
I was never a big Field of Dreams fan, but I love Bull Durham, The Natural, and For Love of the Game. 🙂
Hi, Nikki! Basically, you have to tell that voice to STFU. *G* We all get that voice. I sure did. And I was actually working on a teaching certificate a little over a year ago and thinking I was going to have to go that route and write part time.
The doubt, unfortunately, is ALWAYS there. I had this discussion with the Pixie Chicks recently (2008 GH finalists). People who seem to have everything happening for them keep waiting to wake up and find out that someone has discovered they aren’t a real writer after all. They keep waiting to get kicked out of the club.
So yeah, you will feel the doubt and the confusion, but you have to keep going if it’s what you want to do. Because, seriously, if you give up, you will never get published. If you hang in there, and keep writing and growing, I really believe it can happen.
As for marketability? Oh dear. Wish I had the answer to that one! My gut reaction is to tell your marketing side to stop. But who knows, it could work! If you always think in terms of characters and emotion first, why not? Everyone uses their background to a certain extent when they write. I used military for a long time because that’s what I knew. With the Harlequin Presents, I use the knowledge of the world I gained living in diverse places.
But we all write differently. Characters come to me first. If you are a plotter, you might think of a plot and then people it. I don’t understand that thought process because it doesn’t work for me. BUT, I would say first and foremost you must write what you really love to read.
I hope that helps some. 🙂 I’m not an authority, but I have opinions. Thanks for asking me. 🙂
Hi Lynn!
Thanks for your reply, it was a HUGE help! It’s a shame the voice doesn’t completely go away when you finally get up there though… *sigh* I was kind of hoping it would. I never thought that once you were published you’d be worried that you would wake up and it would disappear, but I can see how you would. It’s a tough industry.
I think I’m somewhere in between a plotter and a character builder… which is probably part of my problem! I struggle with outlines although I know I’m not boxed into them I feel like I have to force the story in a certain direction rather than where the characters want it to go (and when I listen to them I usually end up nowhere lol) Do you plan out your books in detail with character sheets? Or do you come up with a situation and just start?
Nikki
Nikki, unfortunately I think you always worry. Because I have friends who are recently published, and they worry about that next contract, or the reviews, or what if their agent drops them, or whatever. It happens, and the worry does not go away when you get published.
I won the contest, but now I worry about whether or not my book will be good enough, if I write fabulous first chapters but can't write the rest, if they're very sorry they picked me as the winner, etc. It's just in the nature of the business, I think. Because our work is so personal to us, I guess. 🙂
Nope, I'm a pantser all the way. I get character and situation and start to write. I'm trying to write a synopsis now in the hopes I can alleviate some of the doubt about direction, but I pretty much have to let the characters go where they want.
You have to ask yourself the purpose of each scene. Debra Dixon, in Goal, Motivation, & Conflict, says every scene should have three purposes. (If you haven't read that book, I highly suggest you do!) If your scene is simply on the page and not doing anything for you — not revealing character or moving the story forward (or any of the myriad things DD talks about) — it doesn't belong.
Tea and toast dialogue may be dialogue, but it's still boring. 🙂
THE EXPRESS is the movie about the black Heisman winner. I love inspirational movies too — Rocky, Remember the Titans, Friday Night Lights, Rudy (an all-time fave), Hoosiers, Invincible, The Rookie, The Karate Kid, Miracle (the Lake Placid Olympics and the men’s hockey team), We Are Marshall (Matthew McConnaughey is awesome in this film), Prefontaine (my son introduced me to this movie about Steve Prefontiane the Olympic runner) and in a strange sort of way, Drumline.