an earlier thread -- one that asked if it was cool to return books to the store after buying and then reading them -- got me to thinking about this. How many good sports novels are out there? I got to looking through my collection of books (which is modest, but no doubt more robust than any of the degenerates who might read this) and was surprised to find that not a single novel which occupied precious space on my shelves dealt with sports. Not one. I have read everything from Stephen King to Tom Wolfe and Larry Mcmurty, but the most that any of the books on my shelf had to do with a sport was maybe a character who drove his son to Little League before offing his wife. I can think of several movies off the top of my head: The Program, Blue Chips, Two For the Money (yes, I do consider gambling a sport, although most folks elect to call me lazy), and so on. But what about books? With the exception of how to and historical books, why are sports not included in more novels as the central theme?
After that, I wondered what would make a good idea for a novel that uses a major sport as a central theme. I mean, you can possibly have a major league baseball player murder his wife and the story revolves around the investigation and his sordid personal details, but does that make it a sports novel? Or a novel about a terrorist planning to blow up the Super Bowl? A sports novel should embody the sport it involves, add insight to the game, and have an outcome on which a lot depends. That is why they say it is hard to make a book about a sport -- every sport has a season of several games, and during that season a reader would be burned out by too much detail of the tension surrounding every game. And to honestly claim it as a sports novel, one would have to create it in a way that would not burn the reader out with the details of every outcome.
For a novel writer looking for a subject that has a lot of tension and conflict built into it, sports is definitely a subject to explore, whether it's poker (they say I'm lazy) or football. But how do you stay away from the familiar: a team trying to win to keep from being shut down, a coach trying to win to save his (insert whatever), and so on and so forth. How do you add something fresh that gives insight, provides tension, and does not bog the reader down with the day to day conflict of a long season?
This was my thought: how about a book about a major league umpire who is involved in really bad things. the reader could learn the interesting details of an umpire as he goes from city to city. the umpire has contacts in these cities who help him plot his dastardly deeds. maybe the good guys discover his plot during game 7 of the World Series and he is arrested on the field during the middle of the game. in the meantime, through the umpire's pespective and those pursuing him, we get a lot of baseball action. would this constitute a sports novel? is anyone still reading this?
anybody got a better idea?@)
After that, I wondered what would make a good idea for a novel that uses a major sport as a central theme. I mean, you can possibly have a major league baseball player murder his wife and the story revolves around the investigation and his sordid personal details, but does that make it a sports novel? Or a novel about a terrorist planning to blow up the Super Bowl? A sports novel should embody the sport it involves, add insight to the game, and have an outcome on which a lot depends. That is why they say it is hard to make a book about a sport -- every sport has a season of several games, and during that season a reader would be burned out by too much detail of the tension surrounding every game. And to honestly claim it as a sports novel, one would have to create it in a way that would not burn the reader out with the details of every outcome.
For a novel writer looking for a subject that has a lot of tension and conflict built into it, sports is definitely a subject to explore, whether it's poker (they say I'm lazy) or football. But how do you stay away from the familiar: a team trying to win to keep from being shut down, a coach trying to win to save his (insert whatever), and so on and so forth. How do you add something fresh that gives insight, provides tension, and does not bog the reader down with the day to day conflict of a long season?
This was my thought: how about a book about a major league umpire who is involved in really bad things. the reader could learn the interesting details of an umpire as he goes from city to city. the umpire has contacts in these cities who help him plot his dastardly deeds. maybe the good guys discover his plot during game 7 of the World Series and he is arrested on the field during the middle of the game. in the meantime, through the umpire's pespective and those pursuing him, we get a lot of baseball action. would this constitute a sports novel? is anyone still reading this?
anybody got a better idea?@)
