From Edie: What can writers learn from the FIFA World Cup? Discover why perseverance, faithfulness, and showing up matter more than guaranteed success.
What Writers Can Learn from the FIFA World Cup About Success and Perseverance
By Lynn H. Blackburn @LynnHBlackburn
I’ve watched more soccer in the last month than I have in my entire life.
Y’all.
I know very little about soccer.
I mean, I know the gist of it. I know you can’t touch the ball with your hands, unless you’re the goalie. I know there are two forty-five-minute halves. I know that for some bizarre reason, no one but the referees really know when the game ends because of the way they manage the stoppage time. And I know that offsides is bad, but I have no idea why.
I also know that I don’t have to watch the whole game. If I have it on, when everyone starts yelling, I need to look up and I’ll get to see someone score. Or … not. Usually not.
Turns out I’m not alone. Six billion (!) people are expected to engage with the 2026 World Cup across all platforms. For context, the 2022 World Cup final drew 1.5 billion viewers—more than ten times the audience for a typical Super Bowl.
So apparently soccer is a thing people watch. Who knew.
My guess is at this point that you’re either amazed that I know so little about soccer or you know even less than I do and don’t understand what I wrote in the opening paragraph. But either way, you have no idea what any of this has to do with writing.
I’m so glad you asked. I’m getting there. Stay with me.
Regardless of whether you’re a sports fan or not, there’s no denying that the World Cup is a big deal. And similar to the Olympics, it only occurs every four years.
I did some research (because I’ll do just about anything to avoid actually writing my book) and it turns out that there are 211 teams that theoretically could be in the World Cup, but only 48 teams make it. That means that there are players—phenomenal, skilled, talented, gifted players—who aren’t playing this summer because their country’s team didn’t make the cut.
These players from all over the world have trained for years. They’ve poured sweat and tears into the game, and if they make the team, and if the team makes it into the World Cup, they’re only guaranteed three games. Years of training for three games. Three chances, and if they don’t score enough goals? They go home.
They give everything to the game, but the chances of World Cup glory?
Slim. So very slim.
And yet they keep playing because they love their sport so much that not playing isn’t an option.
Y’all are smart. I know you’re starting to see the correlation, aren’t you?
Writers train for years. We study the craft, go to conferences, spend hours and hours and hours at our computer. We cry. We sweat. We bang our head on the desk. We may even fall out dramatically, roll around on the floor and clutch our head in agony. (Seriously, after watching the drama from some of these soccer players, I think as a group, writers don’t fall out often enough.)
The point is we work hard with absolutely no guarantees.
Some of us are still in the early rounds. We’re querying, pitching, praying for a shot. Some of us have made the team with a publisher, but with the market the way it is now, we often only have two or three chances to succeed before we’re metaphorically sent home. And even those of us who have made the team and are playing the game on a regular basis have very little control over our success. There is so very much that is out of our hands. And the chances of long-term publishing success? Slim. So very slim.
But we can take a page from the soccer players who are living out their dreams this summer in the World Cup.
We can keep showing up. We keep training. We keep practicing. We keep playing. Not because success is guaranteed, but because we love the game. We love words, stories, and the thrill of bringing a character to life. We stay after it because we love it, and even though statistics say the odds aren’t in our favor, we can’t stop.
And as Christian writers, our definition of success doesn’t come from awards or contracts. We don’t find our fulfillment through algorithms and recognition. We measure our success by knowing that we’ve done our best and we’ve worked hard as unto the Lord and not for men. (Col. 3:23)
We’re writing for the One who already knows the outcome. He already knows exactly which reader needs your story, and he knows when they need it. When I rest in that, I’m able to remember that it isn’t up to me to manufacture success. It’s up to me to be faithful. To show up. To write to the best of my ability.
And then release all of it to Him.
With that, I’ve just written myself out of all my excuses. Excuse me while I go get to work on my manuscript!
Grace and peace,
Lynn
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Lynn lives in South Carolina with her husband, children, and an overprotective goldendoodle. She writes her novels in between homeschooling, parenting an adult with special needs, watching her boys play baseball, and teaching at conferences. You can follow along with her real-life plot twists by signing up for her newsletter at LynnHBlackburn.com and connecting with her @LynnHBlackburn on social media.
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