In honor of Black History Month, espnW is running essays and poems inspired by influential black athletes.
When I was a kid, if you asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, the answer was easy -- the next Lisa Leslie.
As cliché as this will sound, basketball was in my blood.
My maternal grandmother was a star on her high school basketball team in small-town Mississippi. If you're lucky enough to find someone who still has a sharp memory of those days, they can tell you all about her jump shot. (Apparently, it was legendary.) My dad coached women's basketball at a local HBCU (historically black college or university). Although my memories of him are limited, I do remember watching him on the sideline as he dished out plays and yelled at girls to hustle. His love for the game and my grandmother's love for the game found their way to me through a combination of genetics and learned behavior.
At 7, I was shooting 3s with so much ease that the guys at the neighborhood park were impressed. Michael Jordan was one of the best humans to walk the earth in my eyes, third only to Jesus and my mother. So when I saw those WNBA commercials (you know, the ones with a young Kyla Pratt challenging players as the "Little Rascals" theme played in the background), I thought I had found my calling.
Being the next Lisa Leslie was not easy. For starters, it was Lisa frickin' Leslie, a legend. There is nothing easy about reaching that level of greatness. Second, at 10, I hit 5-foot-1 and never surpassed it, so being a center like her was out of the question. Third, I had what was probably the shortest basketball career in history. I sprained my knee at my middle school basketball team tryouts, and that injury still gives me problems.
However, basketball did help me with my true calling: writing.
Let me be clear -- I hold the athleticism of basketball players in the highest esteem. I am not saying that I, a person who sits most of the day to do work, can be compared to athletes who physically exhaust themselves day in and day out. Never. What I am saying though is that the core values that I was taught in basketball have helped me tremendously as a writer.
Basketball requires discipline. So does writing. Basketball requires practice. So does writing. Basketball requires resilience. So does writing.
I could go on and on.
Writing is hard. You will always find people who say that they want to write a book, but wanting to write a book and actually writing a book are two different things. You ask those same people why they haven't written a book, and most of them will say that they don't have the time. I get it, I do. When I wrote my debut novel, "The Hate U Give," I had what was supposed to be a 40-hour job, but it was really a "40-hour plus whenever they need me" job. I always brought work home, too.
Here's where discipline comes into play.
Back when I still had a head full of WNBA dreams, I'd head out to my backyard after school until I made 100 jump shots. If I missed, it didn't go toward my goal. It didn't matter what was going on that day, I had to get those 100 jump shots in.
But I was a kid. My only responsibilities were to get good grades and do my chores. Of course I had the time. However, when I decided to write my novel, I knew I had to take a similar approach. I had to set goals, and I had to stick to them. I had to fight for that time.
Writers, we have to fight for that time. We have to make ourselves reach our goals. We have to be disciplined.
Practice? It goes hand in hand with discipline. Here's the thing: Nobody writes a great novel on their first try. Nobody. That novel may turn out to be great, but it has to go through revisions. And honestly, before a first draft is even attempted, writers should study the craft, learn the fundamentals and practice -- just like a basketball player would before even stepping foot onto a court.
Resilience is probably the most important part of being a writer.
Rejections suck. There's no other way of putting it. Rejections are also part of the process of being a writer. There are 12 publishers out there who are probably still kicking themselves for turning down J. K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," but even that book got rejected. All it took was one yes though. Only one. Just like that one 3-pointer at the buzzer can seal a victory, one yes can open doors you never imagined. But you have to keep going to get it. You have to be resilient.
No, writers are not athletes in the physical sense, but there is a lot that we can learn from athletes. So whether you keep getting rejections or you want to write but you don't think you can, be that kid with the WNBA or NBA dreams -- discipline yourself, practice the craft and be resilient.
You've got this.
Angie Thomas was born, raised and still resides in Jackson, Mississippi. She is a former teen rapper whose greatest accomplishment was an article about her in "Right On!" Magazine. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Belhaven University. Her debut young adult novel, "The Hate U Give," will be published by Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins on February 28, 2017.
