Absolutely, Steve. Between us we have centuries of experience and a thousand thousand anecdotes to share. I believe a great many viewers lack the confidence to become a ‘writer’ because they feel their grammar lets them down but, believe me, a would-be writer’s passion shines-through any shortcomings in grammar and us big ‘eads with degrees can soon sort that out.
The key to producing an entertaining article is to be honest with one’s self; to be unafraid of spilling one’s soul; to use words and phrases one would never even consider down at the local on a Saturday night. Read Chris Yates. Chris bares his innermost thoughts and we love him for it. He doesn’t confuse us with unnecessarily long words and lengthy, complicated sentences: he just tells it like it is. Yates simply articulates the way he naturally and immediately feels about something: he doesn’t ponder too deeply. To do so would lose the immediacy of the moment. I think it was in Casting at the Sun where he describes that guilt we feel on disturbing the silence of early morning: “I sat upon my folded coat and waited for the hole in the silence to mend”, or something very similar. On one hand these words might be seen as genius and yet they’re so profound; they describe a situation and a thought in terms the reader can readily understand. The reader is, therefore, capable of similar literary gems. Another stroke of genius (or maybe not?) of Yates’ was his description of a lively trout lake where small fish “…revealed themselves like a juggler’s knives”. Yates didn’t have to think about that. He took one look and saw the simile, and we can all do that to some extent: ever wondered if a worm yawns as it slowly stretches?
American game-writer, John Geirach, is another who shuns the fancy stuff and sticks to the point – and he’s sold millions: “I think I fish, in part, because it’s an anti-social business that, when gone about properly, puts you forever outside the mainstream culture without actually landing you in an institution”.
I bet we’ve all had a similar thought, tucked-up in the shell of our brolly on a foul day, stove hissing below the first wisps of steam. Thing is, we’ve allowed that thought to move on instead of mentally filing it for an FM article! Bill Bryson, too, merely makes his thoughts manifest. In one of his many best-sellers he writes (from memory here) about the unruly hair he was blessed with at birth: “In old college photos I’m not instantly recognizable but I’ll be the one at the back whose hair is dancing to ‘Greatest Disco Hits ’78’. Don’t you just love that?
Any one of us might recognize the futility of our maggots’ quest around the bait-bucket and ask why they don’t just chill-out for a few moments…take a break and get their breath back. In the right context one could write quite a bit about that.
Our own John Smith (see ‘Extreme Urban Angling’) sees the value of a ‘schema disturbance’, the attention-grabbing shock value of bagging a personal best jam-rag and fishing among a flotilla of [nicely alliterative] ‘Kessy Cans’. He describes ‘…the stench of inner-city pressure’: illogical but knowable. But I bet John doesn’t recognize his talent. I just hope he keeps ‘em coming.
So yes, Steve! You’re right! The best way to keep fishingmagic.com lively and absorbing is by publishing the thoughts of its audience – but they have to send them in. ‘Guesting’ is always a good subject; boating novices out on a loch for the first time; tackle-innovations successfully cobbled-together; wildlife sightings; strange goings-on in the dead of night on an estate lake; disastrous angling projects; stroppy land-owners; stroppy cattle; stroppy landladies. There’s a wealth of stuff to be revealed on FM so send it in – with pics where possible – and tell us about it!
