What kind of a writer are you?

[spinner1]

Lots of people try to write. Some are successful. Others are NOT.
What are some of the common mistakes that wantabe writers make?
JCast you have been in the business for a couple decades what do you think?

I am a campfire story teller. If you find a 25 dollar word in my story. It was not written by me. I write about common folks and days gone by.

What do the rest of you think?



I am NOT the one with the two "SIX" guns. I am the one on the far left. (Common Folk)

[J Castwell]

I still prefer the "Palmer" method but never really got it down well.
Actually, the names Strunk, White, Elements, Style all seem to resonate a distant chord.
As editor I am 'in charge' of all writing that gets onto FAOL. I have my own set of reasons which governs what makes it in print. It is all different but, there is a sameness throughout. It is real. It is exactly as the writer sees things at the moment. It is/must be, honest writing. I far value a fisherman who knows little of writing over a writer who knows little of fishing. The writing on FAOL is always genuine.
Also as editor it is my job to 'cleanup' to some degree the punctuation and some sentence structure, without ever effecting the voice or the song, ever.
Some efforts on here may appear as terrible writing and they are. But they are the truth, the truth as the writer sees it at exactly that moment.They are the honest scribblings of those who desperately want to share some idea or event with any who will bother to listen. My only lament is that more do not take the time nor make the effort to ride along with, and wade the waters of, the grand house of participating fellow fly fishers. Bless them all. For without them we would not exist.

[Lotech]

If Patrick McManus had a feather in his pants, and I had his writing skills, we'd both be tickled.

[Joe Valencic]

If Patrick McManus had a feather in his pants, and I had his writing skills, we'd both be tickled.

Thanks for the morning laugh. I have a couple of his books and they always make me smile.

Writing style? I say just be yourself and speak of what you believe in.

[HideHunter]

I subscribe to the diarrheic style of writing. I never know exactly what will come out or when it's going to stop.

Spinner - I've been fooling around the outdoor industry for a long time now. It has been my experience there are some excellent hunters/fishermen out there. There are some excellent writers.

Very seldom do the two engage in one body.

Don't know if you are looking at "outdoor" writing. For years "campfire" or "Me and Joe" stories were not extremely marketable. They have been making a comeback over the past few years (I personally love them and think they are the best form of outdoor literature).

Biggest mistake? Not writing about what you *know*. *Anyone* who knows *anything* will bust you immediately. If I have to write about something I'm not infinitely familiar with - I find someone who is - AND- (this is a big one) - I give them the credit. Not the byline - but the credit.

Writing has become easier with the use of computers, digital cameras and email. Tougher because there is waaay more competion, most publications want "proposals" and you have to be a heavy self-promoter.

I preferred to write "columns". I didn't get paid to write "facts". I got paid to express my opinion. Right up my alley

goodluck...g

[Clay]

This thread really paid some dividends. I remember the book that JC spoke of. I owned a copy and thought that I still had it. I went to the library to find it. While fumbling through some books on style and another on composition I ran across a journal that I wrote in 1987. I opened it and started to read the entries. My wife was pregnant with our first son, who is about to go into the Air Force. Life was different and the whole thing made me laugh. What a turn of events. While I never did find the Strunk, White, Elements, Style book it made my day.

[Joe Hyde]

I'm with HideHunter on this. "Campfire" and "me and Joe" stories are my favorites, too. When I was growing up, the Big Three outdoor monthly periodicals ran those kind of stories all the time. I couldn't wait for the next issues to come out.

Then sometime in the 1970s or early 1980s the entire psychology of outdoor writing (or publisher dictates) began to change. You'd open a magazine and find almost nothing but what I call "expert stories" where the entire focus was about MORE or BETTER or BIGGER or NEWER. Gone were those relaxed personal accounts of ordinary hunting and fishing trips written by everyday people who, apparently, just decided one day to grab a couple sheets of paper and write a trip story and send it in along with some snapshots. Suddenly those stories were gone and you were being overwhelmed by "expert" articles, each of which bombard you with fifty thousand ways to catch MORE fish, BIGGER fish, etc.

When I was the Sunday Outdoors columnist for my city's newspaper, one of the things I was proudest of was that I never, not once, wrote a story about a fishing tournament. (And I had many invites to do so.) The whole psychology of organized fishing contests -- with money prizes for God's sake! -- is alien to what I love most about being outdoors.

The thing I appreciate about FAOL is that it lets anybody -- anybody -- submit a story about a trip they took, or some aspect of fly fishing, and write it in their own words using their own writing "voice". This is so cool because I've always had an ear for the unique ways people will talk during conversations and in their writing. These differences show through clearly in FAOL's wide spectrum of columns.

We each do our own thing every time we go fishing, tie a fly or whatever. People who submit stories about this stuff, they're doing their thing, too, expressing themselves in their own words and writing voice. No pressure to be an "expert"; we're allowed to be our usual imperfect, sometimes even boring, selves.

Because...in even the most ordinary story you almost always will find a pearl of wisdom, some little tip or tactic, something that you never thought of before, and that little thing helps you in the future maybe (if you can remember it!). But whatever it is, it hits you at the moment you read it and it's entertaining.

So fishing-wise, for me FAOL fills the position vacated by the Big Three magazines when they moved away from publishing trip stories written by ordinary folks like me and everybody else who reads this site, and/or writes in it.


Joe
"Better small than not at all."

[Steve Molcsan]

I still prefer the "Palmer" method but never really got it down well.
Actually, the names Strunk, White, Elements, Style all seem to resonate a distant chord.
As editor I am 'in charge' of all writing that gets onto FAOL. I have my own set of reasons which governs what makes it in print. It is all different but, there is a sameness throughout. It is real. It is exactly as the writer sees things at the moment. It is/must be, honest writing. I far value a fisherman who knows little of writing over a writer who knows little of fishing. The writing on FAOL is always genuine.
Also as editor it is my job to 'cleanup' to some degree the punctionation and some sentantce structor, without ever effecting the voice or the song, ever.
Some efforts on here may appear as terrible writing and they are. But they are the truth, the truth as the writer sees it at exactly that moment.They are the honest scribblings of those who desparetly want to share some idea or event with any who will bother to listen. My only lament is that more do not take the time nor make the effort to ride along with, and wade the waters of, the grand house of participating fellow fly fishers. Bless them all. For without them we would not exist.

The one and only bit of writing I attempted to get on this site was quietly rejected by Mr. Castwell and while I don't know his reason,
I'll bet he most likely did me a favor..

Steve

[spinner1]

I like using odd words. Not terribly concern about Capitals
Like..............s

Too many writers try to look different than they are.

I am a Teller Of Tall Tales.

If the punctuation and odd word or 2 bother you.
There is one simple thing you can do.
NOT read it.

[jimsnarocks]

Hidehunter and Joe Hyde covered the topic of "Good Ol' Boys" having an adventure, writing about it and having it published in a periodical. In the '70's I took a few creative writing classes at a local community college. One of our assignments was to submit articles to magazines for possible publication.
At the time I was a bait fisher and muzzlestuffer (Black powder hunter). I wrote several 'Me and Bruce' stories about our adventures in the Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern NM and the Gila Wilderness and the Mogollon range in Southwestern NM.
I was informed by all the mags I submitted to that they would not accept that genre of writing. It was passe and not what people wanted. One of the stories I sent in was about a Mountain Man Rendevous in the Sangre De Christo Mountains. I got an "A" on the article, which included photos and interviews with various attendees. Another was a turkey hunt near Reserve, NM. I even bagged a bird.
Their rejection saved me a lot of time to do other things I was better suited for like working for a living, raising kids and wishing I hadn't wasted my money on frivilous college classes.
I don't know what became of Bob Lawless but I enjoyed reading his tales in the Lighter Side here on FAOL. He just seems to have a good imagination and the type of humor I enjoy in a BS session. I mean, who would take a parrot fishing? Who keeps a dog in the pocket of a fishing vest? Exactly. Jimsnarocks