What kind of a writer are you?

[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

[Lake Erie High Ball]

Spinner,

I like your post because it made me evaluate myself. The quick answer to your question is I am a report writer. Goes to figure as an occupational hazard.

I present facts and I try to do so in a manner that is smooth that makes the reader not anticipate what I am going to say but actually read and absorb the important facts or thought process that was used to obtain facts.

-or-

I state facts in a clear and concise manner, quickly to keep the readers attention as it relates to the facts.

I have been accused of being an excellent report writer but one day I would like to be a humorist like Patrick McManus, but I am not funny.

[Joe Valencic]

If you learn to write recipes, people will eat it up!


Boy, sometimes I just crack myself up. Don't worry, I'm not giving up the day job.

[troutgeek]

I write for a living, kind of. I have strick rules and guidelines. Sometimes the results are beautiful, most people probably find my writing boring, but I stick to what I'm good at. Writing code and building data warehouses.

[Eric-WD]

I am a writer of notes, and a teller of tales. Beging Graphlexic (kind of like dyslexia except in manifests itself coming out instead of going in) I have never had much faith in my ability to express myself in writing. I spend much more of myself and my time in Verbal exercises at Toastmasters meetings than at serious writing. Im going to have to challenge myself and try for a couple of articles here ON FAOL in the coming year.

Eric

[J Castwell]

Ah yes, my Strunk, and my anti-preposition list (which a sentence should never be ended with), and my 'that' killer, and my comma eraser, and my paragraph maker, and my tense correcter, and my voice comparing thingy, and my spell-checker, and my transition maker, and my,,, my,,, my aspirin.

[HideHunter]

Spinner1 - don't let them get on you about your "style". Lol.. for years teachers hounded me, "You *can't* write like you talk!" - stating various rules of grammer, punctuation and spelling. Fooled 'em. In fact, managed to fool them for 25 years - writin' just like I talk.

[Kathy Scott]

,,, am I? A work in progress, I'd say. I'm always eager for advice, and I love postings like this where writing is discussed. How often do we ever get to talk about fly fishing writing???

As for common mistakes, one of mine is to get a word in my head that pops up too often in my writing. To cure it, I word search that word if I suspect that it's an issue, and then I see how often it appears.

For anyone close enough to Chicago or Minneapolis, maybe you took in the Writers' Panel we held at the Great Waters Expos? Writers new and old just discussed fly fishing writing, and I remember Gary Borger saying that the most common mistake was not re-reading your own writing from another point of view... that, and not having a file of illustrations to go with it.

Kat

[spinner1]

I know I might be quite bold...

Would you please share what you consider your best work ever?

Len

[spinner1]

Please share your best work (In your opinion)

Best way to learn is to look at good writers stuff.

Thanks in advance to all.

Len