Someone Has To Be Last: A Novel Approach

What do you do when you’re as finished with your manuscript as you can possibly be ?

You finished the first and second and third drafts months ago. You submitted the manuscript for two rounds of professional edits. You corrected punctuation and typos, clarified the obscure, and tweaked. 

Then, you had a sudden urge to re-write the first two chapters — all over again. You re-wrote the first two chapters — all over again. You read them, you tweaked them. You replaced them with your original first two chapters. 

Finally, you set your little creation aside. You know you must let it rest for a week or two so that it can gather strength before it has to face the cold, brutal world (read: a literary agent.) And, before it’s returned for a new round of edits and revisions.

While Your WIP Is Resting

So, what do you do while your WIP (work-in-progress) is resting? If you are totally insane like me, you sign up to compete in a singles tennis league against women who are half your age. 

Why? Because it’s as far as you can possibly get from writing and editing, and even from reading because you’ve only just completed the Goodreads reading challenge( 22 books in 22 days.) So, here I am, all signed up for the Palm Tennis Singles League in which ten players will play in nine matches over the next nine weeks. 

Loves Singles

I love playing singles. For one, you never have a partner giving you the evil eye when you miss a shot. It’s also a fabulous workout: You’re likely to burn off 600-plus calories in one hour of singles as against, say, 400 in 90 minutes of doubles. I need the exercise. Most writers do. You cannot sit at your desk, writing 24/7 without accumulating flab.

However, most of the time, my friends and I play doubles because it’s easier to schedule — and, at this age, easier on the joints. So, I have a feeling that this competition is not going to end well. And, yes, I should know better since I already tried this singles gig a couple of years back.

Signing Up

This is what happened: As soon as I got the list of matches and opponents, I googled them. The only hits for the name of my first opponent informed me that she had been a pro and coach some twenty years before. 

Okay, bring it on, I thought grimly as my husband, Joe, drove me to her courts like the proverbial lamb to slaughter. As soon as we met, I asked her if she was the coach/pro that google had produced in my search.

“No,” she said. “That’s not me.” 

We played. After I won the first set, she said, “I lied. That is me, but I didn’t want you to feel intimidated. I was much younger, and a better player back then.”

I thought that was fair enough, and a really, totally forgivable lie. She was right, I would have been intimidated— big time. And, I would have lost. Tennis is as much a mental game as it is physical.

So, we continued to play, and I won the second set, too. Boy, was that a boost to my morale!

It didn’t last. The next couple of opponents beat the pants off me. In my defense, I have to say they were both half my age.

Last Hurrah 

I expect the same to happen this time because, unlike in the men’s division, there is no Over-55 group for women. But I’m going to give it another try because it’s probably my last hurrah playing singles in a  league. And, signing up to play in a league like this is a little like playing blackjack in Finland: You know the odds are totally against you (Finnish dealers in blackjack take all pushes) but even so you play because you can — and because sometimes you’re crazy enough to think you will beat the odds.

Anyway, someone has to be last. For once, I won’t mind if it’s me. That’s a novel approach for someone who likes to win even in the “warm-up” before a tennis game! But, maybe next time my WIP is resting, I’ll take up mahjong.