Since discovering "Friday Night Lights" the TV series I've come to make some connections between sports and writing. In my day I played just about every sport. Though I casually enjoyed playing sports, I quit when it got too hard. I realized that it wasn't for me, I didn't have the desire to put the effort forth to get better. On the other hand, with writing I've been able to stick with it no matter how difficult it gets. What got me to quit sports are the things I now do consistently with my writing to get better.

Practice Every Day

It's easy to wait for the feeling to strike you, but that isn't a plan for success. For you to truly master anything it needs to be an every single day commitment. This doesn't mean you are writing a thousand words a day or even reading what you've already written, it means that you do something every day to further your writing goals. With writing it's more a mental than physical process so just thinking about writing is often enough. You can read books on writing, jot down notes on a story you're working on, or simply watch a movie with conscious attention to the writing. The important part is getting in the daily habit.

Do It Till You Don't Think

Doing it all the time will help you get to the point where it's second nature. Writing needs to be more like breathing than walking. Something you are always doing and you don't even know it. You are listening everywhere you go for snippets of dialogue, every story someone tells you could become a valuable bit, and you think of reading and consuming media as education first and entertainment second. Story principles and the writing process need to be something you don't have to consider. It needs to be the thing you have ingrained in your head that steers without effort. This means going over those craft books until you understand the concepts so completely you can explain them to someone in your own words. This isn't a destination. This will be an on-going, life-long educational process.

Work On Drills And Mock Games

Even though the ultimate goal of writing is a finished piece that someone can read, it doesn't mean smaller works nobody will read are of no value. It's important to master the little parts of the whole that don't get a lot of attention when you are focused on just finishing. The truth is that certain parts are more crucial than others and they could use more attention. For instance the first ten pages of any work need to be the most compelling and in screenplays your final act will probably need to be the strongest. Instead of writing some practice novels you can write opening pages over and over till they are ready to build upon. Rather than writing a whole screenplay you can come up with good premises with interesting endings and once you get a good one you can write the rest. Don't neglect the important small parts just for the sake of finishing.

Workout Muscles You Use When Playing

Not only is writing about writing, it's about reading. As much as you write you should read. In addition to writing stories you should also consider flexing your skills further and try some non-fiction. If you don't like poetry you might give it some of your time. There are things you can learn from every type of writing because they all concentrate on certain aspects and with a little improvement in some of them you might just make a drastic improvement in your writing as a whole.

Writing, like sports, is a practice. Something you do with your life. If you can take a little bit of a serious athlete's commitment it can go a long way to helping your writing practice.