Sally Murphy's Blog, page 34

How Tennis is Just like Writing

It’s tennis season. As I type this, I’m sitting, well rugged up against a cold winter night, with my feet up on the recliner, lap top on lap, watching the opening games of Wimbledon. It’s going to be a busy few weeks.

Okay, so maybe being an armchair sportswoman isn’t quite the same as being out on the court, but I do love watching tennis (among other sports). I love seeing finely tuned sports players battling it out. I love to see underdogs win, and true sportspeople win with grace. (I’m not such a fan of the exhibitions of bad sportsmanship, but fortunately those are overshadowed by the acts of courage, of strength and of resilience.)

The other thing I love about professional tennis is just how much it’s like professional writing. Consider this.

You have to start with the basics. No one just wakes up one morning, says ‘I’m gonna win Wimbledon’, then grabs a racket and a plane ticket and flies off to London to play. No way. First (and usually from a pretty young age), you learn maybe how to hold a racket. How to hit the ball, how to actually get itover the net. Then how to serve, how to move round the court. Then maybe you play your first game. And, after lots of practice, maybe over years of junior tennis, you enter a tournament. Then another and another. Eventually, you might start to win a few. Then you enter bigger tournaments. You constantly improve, and learn more skills. And eventually, if you’re good enough, you might just find yourself invited to play at Wimbledon. And, if you can survive the two weeks of matches without losing any, you just might be the winner. That big cup that hold up in front of all those people is the culmination of years and years and years of hard work.

It’s the same with writing.  The journey to being a published author begins in childhood. You might not even know yet that you want to be an author, but you pick a pencil and you start to learn to write.  You learn to read. You learn spelling, and sentence formation and punctuation. You start to create stories, sometimes because  a teacher sets you a task, but hopefully also because you enjoy it. At some point in your life you might decide that you’d like to see your name on the cover of a book that you wrote. You want the world to see your stories. So you write, and rewrite. You learn your craft. You fine tune it. You revise your writing.  You learnt he industry. You submit t publishers. And, with perseverance, and an occasional stroke of luck, there comes a day when a publisher says yes, and you get to hold that book up to the world to see. The culmination of years and years of hard work.

You don’t only pick up a racquet and ball on match day. Even once they’ve made it to the professional circuit, tennis players must practice. They train. They try to improve their strokes, their serves, their match strategies. They work with coaches. They hit up with other tennis players. They run, or work out in the gym. None of this happens in front of huge crowds, or with prize money on offer. It happens behind the scenes: because all that practice is what makes them able to play well on match day.

Good writers also practice. They write things that will never be published. They play with words. They read widely, and read about the craft of writing too. They take courses, or read blogs, or attend conferences. They exchange critiques. And they draft and redraft, knowing that most of what they write won’t be published. But they know it’s worth it because practice is what makes their writing as perfect as they  can get it.

Not everyone gets to win every time. Sometimes in tennis, it doesn’t matter how hard you’ve trained, how good your preparation is, how much you want to win, you lose. Maybe you have a bad day. Maybe the other player is just better than you. Even Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal lose occasionally. And, of course, at the end of the tournament there’s only one player who has won every match. But at the end of the tournament, there’s a whole lot of players who have a lot to celebrate – a win in the early rounds, making it to the finals, heck, even just making it into the draw at Wimbledon is massive.

In writing, not every story you write gets published. And not every published book is a best seller.  Not every writer gets to be a J. K. Rowling, or a mem fox, or an Andy Griffiths. But every book that gets published is a victory of sorts for its writer. Just like being eligible for Wimbledon, a book with your name on it is a massive achievement. Just finishing a draft of that novel, that short story, that poem is a big achievement.

You learn from your losses as much as your successes. I have to admit, some players don’t seem to get this. But they’re not the top ranked players. The best players rarely make excuses when they lose. They don’t blame it on the umpire, the crowd, the surface. They recognise, sometimes straight away, sometimes after reflection. What they did wrong, or what the other player did better. And, win or lose, players look back at their matches and learn from them, constantly fine tuning, building on strengths, trying to iron out any weaknesses.

In writing, too, you need to learn from your past efforts. A manuscript is rejected? Is it the publisher’s fault, or is there something you can change? Sometimes you’re lucky enough to get feedback that tells you why it’s been rejected. And you read it and learn. Other times, you need to seek feedback elsewhere to figure out what went wrong. No piece of writing is wasted – even if it’s never published, you can see it as another piece of practice (see number 2 above). And when something’s accepted, there’s an opportunity there to consider what it is you’ve done well, and to build on those strengths.

Finally, and this is the big one to me: you have to love it. Professional tennis players are playing for money. It’s their job. But watch them closely and listen to them interviewed and you can witness their love for the game. If you’re going to do something for hours and hours a day, week in week out, sacrificing pretty much every other aspect of your life, you need to love it. If you watch nothing else of the tennis, watch the highlight reels and see those smiles. Tennis players love tennis. And that’s what gets them through the losses, the injuries, the tough training schedule, and that’s what makes those wins so very sweet.

If you want to be a writer, you bet you need to love it. You need to love words, love reading, love creating.   If you love writing, you’ll overcome the writer’s block, you’ll see past the rejections, you’ll find a way to write even when you are busy with a day job, or family, or both. And every publication will be very very sweet.

If you’re a tennis fan like me, enjoy Wimbledon. If not, turn off the tv and get writing!

 

 

A Monday Quote

What I Read In June

Another month has past, and time again to look at what I’ve read this month. Lots and lots. I knew I was reading a lot – but was surprised to realise I’d got through 22 books this month. My favourite?  Bren MacDibble’s How to Bee.

As always, I’ve linked to my reviews where I’ve reviewed them.

Younger Readers

Trouble and the New Kid, by Cate Whittle, illustrated by Stephen Michael King

How to Bee, by Bren MacDibble

Jinny & Cooper: My Teacher’s Big Bad Secret, by Tania Ingram

Jinny & Cooper: Revenge of the Stone Witch, by Tania Ingram

Tarin of the Mammoths, by Jo Sandhu

Mr Romanov’s Garden in the Sky, by Robert Newton

Wonder, by R. J. Palacio

Stinky Street Stories, by Alex Ratt

Young Adult

Love, Ghosts & Nose Hair, by Steven Herrick

A Place Like This, by Steven Herrick

This is My Song, by Richard Yaxley

Adult

Double Fault, by Lionel Shriver

Old Growth, by John Kinsella

The Mother’s Promise, by Sally Hepworth

Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly, by Adrian McKinty

Daughter of Mine, by Fiona Lowe

From the Wreck, by Jane Rawson

Finding Hannah, by Fiona McCallum

Non Fiction

In the Line of Fire, by Ian Townsend

Have a great July! Would love to hear what you think about any of these books.

Looking Up and the Great Big Kids Book Read

What’s better than a book launch to celebrate a new book? A big book party to celebrate not one, but five new books! I was lucky enough to be part of the Great Big Kids Book Read run by Fremantle Press and hosted at the State Library of WA.

With six creators: Ezekiel Kwaymullina, Moira Court, Kyle Hughes-Odgers, Cristy Burne, Yasmin Hamid, Deb Fitzpatrick and myself,

Waiting to start.

celebrating five books between us all either recently released or about to be released,  we shared a stage and read from our new works to a full house.

There was laughter, food, book signing and a lovely sense of community.

 

 

 

 

 

My favourite moment was a young girl telling me she would treasure my book forever. When I asked if she would like a photo with me, she hugged me so warmly I thought my heart would overflow.

 

Life is great, isn’t it?

What I Read in May

Can’t believe it’s June already. I’m still getting used to writing 2017 in the date! Be that as it may, June it is, so time to report on what I read in May. Lots of goodies here, but perhaps my favourite has been the picture book, Mopoke, which made me laugh. I read it to my uni students (future teachers) to end the semester, and they laughed too. – which is why I read it to them. If I only taught them one thing this semester, I hope it was how important tit is that we read for pleasure.

So, here’s what I read. As always, if I’ve reviewed it, I’ve linked to the review.

Picture Books

Mopoke, by Philip Bunting

One Keen Koala, by Margaret Wild & Bruce Whatley

Children’s

History Mysteries: Diamond Jack, by Mark Greenwood

Australia’s Great War: 1917, by Kelly Gardiner

The BFG, by Roald Dahl

The Turnkey, By Allison Rushby

Wipeout, by Michael Adams

Young Adult

The Shark Caller, by Dianne Wolfer

Kill the Possum, by James Moloney (Audio)

Adult Fiction

In the Shadow of the Ark, by Anne Provoost (Audio)

The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins (Audio)

The Rosie Effect, by Graeme Simsion

Lovesong, by Nikki Gemmell

 

Back to work. So many books, so little time. Have a great June.

Reviews and Press for Looking Up

Whenever I have a new book out, I look forward to the reviews and press with some trepidation. I love to see my book get coverage – but I also, of course, worry whether they will be well received.

So, I am delighted with the  publicity for Looking Up that is starting to appear.

The Bunbury Mail, one of my local papers, describes me as a ‘local legend’ and ‘super woman’ and describes Looking Up as being about ” families that fall apart, and those who choose to mend them.” You can see the full article here.

Lamont Books have added Looking Up to this month’s Standing Orders, and their review of the book says, in part: “Sally Murphy always writes such beautiful stories, and this is no exception.” You can read the full review here.

If YOU have read Looking Up, I’d love to hear what you think. Drop me a line.

 

What I Read in April

Time for another round up of what I read last month. April’s list is a bit shorter than previous months, because I had a very busy month with various projects. Still, the books I read, I loved. I was especially besotted with Bronze Bird Tower, the final installment in the Dragonkeeper series. If you haven’t come across this wonderful series, I thoroughly recommend it.

Younger Readers

The Grand Genius Summer of Henry Hoobler, by Lisa Shanahan

Bronze Bird Tower, by Carole Wilkinson

Young Adult

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Audio Book)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Audio)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Audio)

Adult

Storm and Grace, by Kathryn Heyman

Look Up: It’s Heeeeeeeeere!

Happy bookday to you

Happy bookday to you

Happy bookday day Looking Up

Happy Bookday to yooouuuuuuu!

 

I am so super happy to be able to share Looking Up with you. with wonderful illustrations by super-illustrator Aska, and published by Fremantle Press, this is the story of Pete, a boy who thinks all he wants for his birthday is a telescope – until he receives a mystery birthday card and finds out there’s something else he wants, too.

Available now in good bookstores around Australia, and online . I’m off to smile and sing and smile some more.

Have a wonderful day!

Looking Up: One Day to Go

One day to go. One day to go. hey ho hey ho, one day to go!

Can you tell I’m excited? In just one more sleep, Looking Up hits the shelves of a bookstore near you! I am nearly beside myself with excitement.

Yesterday I shared the special hashtag I’ll b using (and you can use too, if you wish) on social media: #looking up

Today, I want to share my social media handle:

So, if you have something to say about Looking Up , on Twitter, or Facebook, or Instagram, please tag  me and I’ll comment and/or share.

See you tomorrow:  release day!

 

Looking Up: Two Days to Go

Two Days to Go!

Looking Up has its own hashtag. I’ll be using it as much as I can – but if you have anything to say about my book-baby, on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, please use it too. And what IS the Hashtag? It’s easy:

 

I am so very very excited about sharing this book-baby with the world. Two more sleeps!