And that's one of the things that's fun about sports, I think—it creates this collective experience that connects people across an entire region, a shared touchstone of identity that unites across other dividing lines. That also makes it useful for storytellers. It can be a setting to bring two disparate people together, or a telling detail that automatically anchors the reader in a specific place. 

There are other things that make sports useful for writers, too. If you're looking for ways to build tension, for example, you can mine tons of them from sports. They have a ticking clock, built-in stakes, and natural good guys and bad guys. They're also active. The characters are constantly in motion and interacting with each other and their environment. Of course, writing about sports also has its challenges, which I've written about before on this blog, but it's still a setting and world that I like playing around in with my stories. 

I've been in the mental world of sports writing lately because I've been in late-stage edits on a hockey time loop story that I've been fiddling around with for a while. Because that's another cool thing about sports—they don't necessarily need to only live in the real, expected world, but can have a role in fantasy worlds, alternate realities, and far futures. You also don't need to directly write about sports to use the ideas behind them as a device in your writing. I wrote up a few sports-themed writing prompt for an event I participated in related to the NFL draft last week, and I figured since I was already in this headspace it was a good time to share a few of them here. 

Prompt #1: Sports lingo. 

Sports come with their own unique language and terminology. Some of these are used across various sports—think about broad concepts like scoring points or penalties. But pretty much every sport also has its own set of words that define it. If a quarterback throws a touchdown, you know you're on a football field; if the winger shoots a one-timer on the power play, you're in a hockey arena. 

That distinctive language can also be used metaphorically by applying it to other parts of life. We already do this on a daily basis in conversation. Idioms like step up to the plate, out of left field, jump the gun, on the ropes, and par for the course all started with sports before gaining traction as everyday expressions. All of these phrases are so commonly used that they can feel like cliches if you use them in creative work, but there are plenty more terms where those came from that aren't used as often in metaphoric language. 

This prompt is going to play with some of them. To do it:

1. Pick a sport that you're familiar with. This doesn't need to be a professional team sport like football or baseball—it could be anything from racing to golf to bowling to running marathons.

2. Think of an important relationship in your life, then brainstorm some ways that concepts or terms from your chosen sport could apply in a metaphorical way to aspects of that relationship.

3. Write a poem or scene incorporating those words or ideas. 

Prompt #2: Play-by-play.

While we're thinking about language, let's take a second to play with voice. One voice that's shared by any televised sport is that of the commentator's play-by-play. The pace of this varies depending on what sport it is, from the frenetic high-energy calls of soccer, hockey, or basketball to the more measured and low-key commentary behind a baseball game or golf tournament. But regardless of the sport, these have some things in common. When the athletes are active, the commentary describes what's happening (making use of lots of those unique terms we talked about in the last prompt). During lulls, the commentators fill in the space with context: facts about the players, how the outcome of this match will impact the standings, or historical context on past matches and how this one compares. 

This kind of format could be applied to a story, too, and we're going to play with that form in this prompt. To start, pick a moment to focus on. You could use a moment from a work in progress that you want to play with from a different angle, or come up with something new (if you're coming up with a new one, also take a second to think about the character(s) involved and where this moment is taking place). 

Once you've figured out those details, write the moment in the style of a sports play-by-play. Try to emulate the idea flow of sports commentary along with the voice, using the lulls between actions in the present scene to fill in any necessary details about the character(s) or the events that led to this moment.

Prompt #3: Sports of the future.

Sports have a way of enduring even while culture around them changes. Some current pro teams were founded in the 19th century, like Sheffield FC in the UK or the Chicago Cubs here in the US. Of course, the sports have also evolved in the hundred-plus years that those teams have existed—if a fan from those early years were teleported to the stands of a modern game, a lot of things would be strange for them, but there'd still be aspects of the game and traditions that they'd recognize. 

For this prompt, we're going to into the future another 100 years, to 2126, and picture the sports of the future. To start, pick a sport that exists in the present day and brainstorm what it might be like in 2126. What parts of the game do you imagine would stay the same, and what might change? What about the spectator experience—how might the way that fans watch games or engage with the sport evolve in the next century? 

Once you've thought about that, imagine that a major championship event is about to happen. Write a scene or poem from a fan's perspective as they prepare to watch it. Think about how the sport plays into the characters identity and day-to-day life, and how the world around the sport has changed, too, as you're writing through the moment. 

Prompt #4: Family legacy.

Now that we've zoomed forward into the future, let's also take a second to linger on those long sports roots that I mentioned in the last prompt. In places where the same teams have played for decades, it's very common for that fandom to get passed down along with other family traditions. And this doesn't just happen with professional teams—the same can happen with college sports, or even the local high school team. 

For this prompt, start by picturing a family that has rooted for the same team across at least 3 generations. This can be your own family or a made-up one, and you don't need to stick to real sports if you don't want to—this could be a fun way for speculative writers to explore a new aspect of a world they've built. Once you've decided on those basic details:

1. Brainstorm what traditions the family might have related to this sports fandom that span across three generations. 

2. Now, think about how those different generations might do things differently in how they root for or watch their team of choice. These could be universal changes, like the shift from listening to games on the radio to watching on TV, or an individual change, like if one of the family members moved to a different country and now watches games at an expat bar. 

3. For the last step, write a scene or poem that shows members from 3 generations of the same family watching the same game. They could be watching it together or separately, whatever works best for your characters. In the course of writing it, aim to highlight both the similarities and the differences in their experiences with watching the game. 

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