For those of you who don’t know me, I am not a sports fan. I enjoy watching some Olympic events every few years, but that’s about it. I’m an arts guy. Visual, performing, it’s all good, but sports is just not on my radar.

So, no one was more surprised than me when a baseball story hopped into my head. I can tell you what inspired me to write just about everything I’ve written, but not this one. I just set my pencil on the paper and it scribbled on out. I stared writing about a boy obsessed with baseball and it took me in a direction that I didn’t expect.

I love it when I write a story that I don’t know. Last weeks story actually made me laugh out loud as I was writing. The words just popped out and were surprising to even me.

This weeks story came with a challenge though. I don’t know anything about baseball. Never played it. Never watched it.

So how to write about a topic I am not familiar with? I could churn out a piece about theater, full of insightful details if so inspired, but not a baseball story. What do players say to one another? What is the patter of the game announcer like? Positions? Plays? Strategies? Rules?

You know what? I don’t care. What!? OK, OK, I do care, but not yet. In the first draft it is about the story. Get it on paper. Find great characters and plot, and the rest will come in rewrites. I’m sure internet searches will help with some details, and my critique group always comes to the rescue when they get their shot at it.

So, did I write the next great baseball story? Who knows. The details are still a little fuzzy.

How many of you have written on topics you know very little about?