This weekend is a huge weekend at our house. Of course, the Labor Day holiday on Monday is enjoyable, but the highlight of the weekend is the start of the 2025 Auburn University football season. (Long-suffering Auburn fans will understand when I say that the unofficial team motto is “We’re Auburn; we make the game exciting no matter who we play.”)
More than just Auburn, it is the “official” start of college football nationwide, except for a handful of games that were played as kickoff classics last weekend. Through January, a football game will be available on TV just about any night, which allows me to read and write and craft while my husband watches TV. Unless it is an Auburn game on TV, I can do a host of things while a football game is on and still follow the game.
I like this time of year — the few days before the college season starts. It is ripe with possibilities. Every team is undefeated, and every fan of every team deep in their heart has the hope that maybe this year will be THE year, the year that their team wins the whole shebang to walk away with the 2025-2026 NCAA Division I College Championship. At the end of this weekend, half of the teams will be a step closer to that dream, while the other half of the teams will have taken a step back from it.
That same sense of possibility exists the moment I open a new document to begin a new story. I don’t know where I will end up, who I will end up with, and what we will have done to get there, but I know at that moment, the moment of beginning, that anything is possible.
The stretch of time and effort between that moment of beginning and when I have a product I believe is worthy of publication is different. That effort and time are what makes writing “The End” on the last edit of the last draft before you send your baby out into the cold, cruel world to seek its fortune so fulfilling.
But the best thrill I ever had from writing was the time someone turned to me and, in talking about something I had published in a magazine, said, “I read your story, and it meant a lot to me.”
What is your favorite part of writing?
Great post! As a beach girl, Labor Day always marks the end of the season, and it's a tad bittersweet. But I do love football season. Best wishes for Auburn this season!
ReplyDeleteFall is my favorite time of year--a time of hopes. Probably because it's the beginning of a new school year. My aunt would get us each a new fall outfit. I would have a colorful new sweater--mauve or purple if I had any input--matching knee socks which weren't stretched out yet, and a plaid skirt. She'd also get us a new looseleaf binder and other school supplies. As the summer ended, we'd hoard brown paper grocery bags to make book covers. The world was full of possibilities.
ReplyDeleteCan't address writing on a weekend like this, but reading your blog, my late husband would have been pulling for the Crimson Tide, but I can only say, "Go Blue!"
ReplyDeleteI love each season in its season. I'm sure it's a reaction to living in South Florida for so long! As for writing, my favorite part is all of it. Again, each in its season.
ReplyDeleteWhen we moved to Atlanta the weekend before school started, I noticed cars flying flags. A neighbor explained the importance of the SEC football season. It was a whole new world. My favorite part of writing is throwing words on the page, like spaghetti on a wall, and seeing what sticks.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Nancy! My favorite part of writing, strangely, is editing. I feel so out of control during the drafting process, but I love going back to edit the mess. It's probably why I prefer watching games that are already over and that I know the outcome of...lol.
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