Succeed as a Writer through Bounce-back-ability

Learning a Lesson from Andy Murray

I don't always bother watching the tennis from Wimbledon, but this year I decided to follow the progress of my fellow Scot, Andy Murray, the British number one tennis player. This evening he was playing in the fourth round against the Frenchman, Richard Gasquet. I should have been at salsa, but I watched the start of the match and it turned out to be so fascinating, I never set foot out of the house.

Andy Murray pulled off the most spectacular turn-around. He'd lost the first two sets, 5-7, 3-6 and when the third set got to 6-6, it looked as if he was just about to lose the third set (and the match). But he suddenly found his fighting spirit and wouldn't give up. Time and time again it went to deuce, advantage Gasquet, but he carried on pulling it back to deuce, staying in the match by sheer willpower. The crowd went absolutely mad and really got behind him.

Against all odds, he did it - he managed to win the third set on a tie-breaker, then it was a matter of whether he would manage to win the fourth set and have a chance of staying in the match. If I say he won the final two sets, 6-2, 6-4, it makes it sound too easy and gives no indication of the number of times things were going against him - lots more battles around deuce. His determination really won over the British people and made him the new-found darling of the crowds.

Bounce-back-ability - the Key to Success on and off the Court

So what has all this to do with writing? Quite a lot. The bounce-back-ability that Andy Murray showed he had tonight is one of the most important character traits a writer can develop.

Our path to success may be slower and less dramatic, but like him, we will probably experience a great deal of frustration and thwarted hopes along the way. Like him, we will need every ounce of determination, every ounce of resilience to keep on going when the going gets tough.

Tennis players have their duff shots, poor decisions, and badly judged decisions. They lose points, lose matches, fail to reach the finals, fail to win the trophy.

Writers produce poor work from time to time, find that people hate a piece of writing that they were really proud of, find rejection letters on the doormat instead of nice big cheques. We jump over hoops to second guess editors, meet the demands of editors or agents, nearly get that piece of work commissioned then find that the contract falls through at the last minute.

In short, we face a lot of the same pressures and disappointments that tennis players do, only we don't usually have thousands of people cheering us on. The tennis player may get that 'me alone against the world' feeling when he's out on the court and the match seems to be slipping away from him. It can be a pretty lonely business being a writer too and you've got no crowd behind you cheering you on - you don't even get the consolation of room-service!

Just as the top tennis player has to dig deep to find the strength of character, the mental, emotional and physical reserves that will carry him to victory, so we writers also have to dig deep to find a way to bounce back from setbacks and rejections and keep on till we get the result we want - and then we have start it all over again another time with our next project.

If you're dissatisfied with a piece of work or you're feeling battered and bruised after you've had a rejection, just think of Andy Murray and how he kept on slogging away until his luck changed, until he proved that it aint over till it's over.

Develop that winning mentality and you'll soon be enjoying a winning streak of your own.