today was the first workout done by yours truly in about two weeks. now if you don't know me very well you are probably thinking that two weeks off from the gym is no big deal. but if you do know me you are probably well aware that such a long layoff has had me completely out of sorts. messed up to the point where i have been making a lot of errors at work. luckily the errors have been caught by either the marketing manager or myself before anything was printed but since i am generally not unreliable at work this turn of events has frustrated me greatly.
the other thing that i have not mentioned in a while is my basketball story. first i had interviewed a woman who played collegiate ball, who played travel ball in the u.s. and who coached and refereed basketball games. i felt that she was an excellent source to help me with the details that would add necessary realism to the tale i was trying to tell. after our interview, i completed the section of the story that involved the in-game action. my 'expert' had offered to read through the chapter and give me some honest feedback. the story was delivered and i received confirmation from her that she had indeed received my email. unfortunately that was the last i had heard from her and subsequent contact was ignored.
my first assumption was that the story was so horrible that she couldn't comment and chose to ignore me rather than try to set me straight. i understand and appreciate difficult it is to give constructive criticism especially if one struggles to find something positive to say.
those who are supportive of my writing endeavour's recommend that i not read too much into the lack of response. my brother who is a basketball coach of a boy's team gave me the contact information of a woman who coaches a women's collegiate basketball team. as the head coach i feared she would be too busy to help me herself but i thought perhaps she might be able to direct me to someone who had the time and necessary experience to help me out.
as luck would have it the coach offered to read it herself and she also offered to answer any questions i might have. i happily sent the chapter off to her after a re-write and i waited. and i waited. and still i waited. as more time went by i was convinced that the story was just that bad. i toyed with the idea of giving up. i considered shelving the story with the intention to attend the 2014 SEC tournament in atlanta. i thought perhaps if i saw the game live i might be able to see where i went wrong.
once again my support unit assured me that i could not and should not give up. my brother and 'the bloke' both felt it was imperative that i try again to reach out to the head coach. i was fortunate to have a couple people offer to read the story for me. although i appreciated the offers and subsequent show of support i am convinced that i need to run the story past someone with experience with the collegiate women's game.
i am not concerned about the validity of the conflicts in my story and am fairly confident of the entertainment value of what i have written. my concern is if the player contact during the 'game' is accurate to how the women's game is played. the basic difference's between the sexes means that the men's game of basketball in may ways is vastly different from the women's game. what men are able to do on the court differs greatly from what the women do. a fact that is further illustrated by the difference in their respective audience bases. simply put the men's game is far more popular.
there is also a huge difference in the women's game when it is played at the high school level versus how it is played at the collegiate level and differs further between the collegiate divisions. in the u.s there are three basic programs: division one, the level of play with the most skilled player who likely move on to pro careers in the WNBA or overseas. division two consists of players who aren't as skilled as their division one counterparts and. if a division two athlete goes overseas to play professionally they play exclusively in division two leagues. finally there are the division three athletes and i will be honest i have no clue what becomes of those players upon graduation.
anyway after exactly four weeks without a response from the head coach i sent her a follow-up email, to date five days have past since i sent the email and sadly i am still without a response.
so where does that leave me? that is one hell of a question and frankly i am conflicted on how i am going to handle it. do i give up? do i shelve the project and get my ass to atlanta for the SEC tournament? do i finish the story and keep it to myself or do i finish it and let anyone who reads it know that it has not been 'blessed' by a beta reader?
decisions, decisions
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