Celebrating Opening Day... with Writing

By Becky Martinez

Some people look forward to each New Year as a time a new beginning. For others, the school year brings about annual changes, while others see their birth date as the start of a new year.

For me, there is something special about spring. It’s more than the end of dreary winter days filled with watching the snow forecasts. And it certainly isn’t the idea of spring cleaning that gets me excited. No, it’s the first day of the major league baseball season.

Why? Because each new baseball season is like the beginning of a new life. When teams start up the new year, they get to start fresh. Their record from the previous year is wiped clean and they get to start over.

 Opening Day 2012

Every player has a chance to make this the best year ever! Last year’s accomplishments—or lack of them—no longer matter. Stepping out on the grass for the first time each spring means a time for a new beginning-–the opportunity for players to start something with the hope that, come fall, their team will be fighting for a championship.

This week that drive toward the fall started anew for hundreds of major league players and thousands of baseball fans. The Colorado Rockies opened their new season out of town this year and so far they are 2-1. Not exactly championship caliber yet, but they show great promise with their hitting. They open their home season today, and I will be there to join the crowd.  We get to cheer wildly, drink beer, eat hot dogs and hope our guys don’t let us down and this will be the year we GO ALL THE WAY!

I’ve often applied that “spring” principle to my writing too. Think of how much you can get done by October if you start in the spring. Whether it’s writing a new romance, a new adventure, or a new mystery, spring offers the perfect time to begin a new story. I love beginning new writing projects when the weather warms up. New story ideas seem to “spring” to life under the warmer days that carry a hint of brighter days to come.

Like those baseball players taking their first pitches in the spring, this new story holds just as much promise. It could be the best story I’ve ever written. It holds all the exciting prospect of wonderful things to come. Of course there will be the doldrums of August and perhaps a few losing periods when I throw out and re-edit what I’ve written, but right now, there’s hope, there’s the thrill of that new idea, that new season.

So, it’s time to shed those winter pounds, time to get a new hair style and bright, fun clothes. Time to take those steps onto the fresh grass and start that new story and hope that come fall, I'll be fighting for a championship in the form of a new contract!