By Barbara Latta @BarbaraLatta

College football lover or not, a person can’t get away from the knowledge of Alabama Crimson Tide head coach, Nick Saban. Tide lover or not, one can’t deny they are a prize-winning organization.

I live with a Tide fan. He was born into it. His family bleeds houndstooth blood. As an Arkansas Razorback fan, I can’t get away from Big Al, the elephant mascot. We have a split fan tag on our car, His and Hers.

In our house reruns play on YouTube of old games, interviews, and award ceremonies. When Nick Saban arrived at Alabama in 2007 to take over the head athletic position, he gave a news interview regarding his plans for the sports year. (Yes, my husband still watches something this old!)

Saban was the head coach of the LSU Tigers when they won the National Championship in 2003. In his first TV interview as the Crimson Tide head coach, he outlined a list of goals projected by that Louisiana squad at the beginning of the season. He said that group of players were the only ones he had ever trained who didn’t develop a result-oriented list. They didn’t pursue the goal of winning the title as the number one football club in the country. They targeted to improve themselves and their fellow players. Because they approached their list in this manner, they achieved an undefeated season and won the top trophy in 2004.

Our desire may be to win an award or sign a publishing contract, but the road to fulfill our desire should be paved with personal growth and unselfish devotion to others. As I listened to the coach’s interview, I realized those same four lessons can apply to writers.

1. Be a team. No athlete wins a game alone. It takes the cooperation of all members. When we participate in a book launch, we band together as cheerleaders for an author who has labored to produce their work. As members of critique groups, we are part of a lineup to hone the skills of our brother and sister storytellers. Editors, agents, and writing partners huddle together to mentor us toward the best manuscripts. We can’t do it alone. 
2. Work every day to dominate your opponent. In football the opponents are the competitors on the other side. Our opponents are writer’s block, discouragement, comparison, and emotions that tell us to give up. If we focus on the reason we write and the one we write for, we can dominate these foes that strive against our success.
3. Be positive to affect the group. As Christian authors, we are also on God’s side. No matter what happens to disappoint us, negative words inflict penalties. The stadiums around us are full of spectators. The entire organization of believing writers can be judged according to our actions by those on the outside of the Christian publishing industry. When we pursue harmony between ourselves, editors, agents, and publishers we reflect the good sportsmanship of a winning roster. 
4. Be a champion. The LSU Tigers didn’t list the ambition of obtaining the National Championship for the 2003 year, but they did win it because they focused on improving themselves as individuals and as a united body. We can grow into first rate scribes by pursuing excellence, diligence, and consistency. We don’t want to settle for sloppy manuscripts, sporadic plans, or laziness if we want to reach people with our words. 

We can be a body of polished, impactful authors whose words affect the world around us when we focus on the improvement of our craft through collaboration with our writing peers. 

What else would you add to this list?

Barbara Latta is a true southerner transplanted from Arkansas to Georgia. She writes a monthly column in her local newspaper and contributes to devotional websites and has stories in several anthologies. Her book, God’s Maps, Stories of Inspiration and Direction for Motorcycle Riders applies spiritual concepts to biker adventures. She writes as a Titus 2 woman on her blog at www.barbaralatta.blogspot.com. She loves being a mom to two grown sons and Mimi to one granddaughter.