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This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: Search for a (Writing) Star Update
Search for a (Writing) Star Update
- Thread starter FishingMagic
- Start date
Alan Tyler
Well-known member
If they're looking for writers, why the insistence on supplying images?
Kevin Perkins
Well-known member
Product placement opportunities.
If they (the hopefuls) can't get this right they'll never get anywhere in angling writing.........:wh
clint4782
Well-known member
Images and writing go together; without good images to illustrate the point, the article never works as well.....
Oh Kevin, how can you say such a thing.
Oh so cynical
Oh so . . . . . . . . . . . . right
Kevin Perkins
Well-known member
Peter
You know me so well.......!!
Clint
That's where I was going wrong, almost 300 articles on FM and not one picture
mg:........!!
You know me so well.......!!
Clint
That's where I was going wrong, almost 300 articles on FM and not one picture
mg:........!!Alan Tyler
Well-known member
"without good images to illustrate the point, the article never works as well..."
That's Sheringham, Bazeley, Plunket Greene, Mottram and Chalmers knackered, then.
Plus an awful lot of Walker and Taylor.
A different field, I know, but Isaac Asimov made a point, when writing about science (not "just" science fiction) of not using drawings, just words, and I think his reputation has survived.
Writers write, artists draw and paint, photographers capture images; the best of each is not necessarily any good at the other two. Or at angling.
That's Sheringham, Bazeley, Plunket Greene, Mottram and Chalmers knackered, then.
Plus an awful lot of Walker and Taylor.
A different field, I know, but Isaac Asimov made a point, when writing about science (not "just" science fiction) of not using drawings, just words, and I think his reputation has survived.
Writers write, artists draw and paint, photographers capture images; the best of each is not necessarily any good at the other two. Or at angling.
clint4782
Well-known member
I'll take my head for a **** then.......
Alan Tyler
Well-known member
Sorry, Squire, that came out grumpier than I meant it to; it's just that some of the very best angling writers were just that - writers who fished (Chalmers) or anglers who wrote well (Walker's "Rustic Runyon" pieces and a fair few bits of Plunket Greene's "Where the Bright Waters Meet" had me in stitches) - if they didn't have any pictures for a piece, no-one cared, or the publishers got them elsewhere.
They were mostly amateurs; Mottram a doctor in real life, and with his powers of observation, probably a fine one; Walker, of course, an engineer; Bazeley a teacher, iirc; Chalmers ("At The Tail of the Weir"), was a banker as well as a poet and author but I'm not sure he was actually that good an angler...
Sheringham was the only professional journalist/writer of the bunch that I cited so far as I know.
Nowadays, we have an angling media industry with people trying to make/get/keep jobs/careers going by feeding the angling public's "insatiable" appetite for ink; they need sales, and lots of 'em, and it shows; most of the cleverest, funniest, and most thoughtful, technical, and educational pieces I've read in the last decade have been written for internet sites, and rather more than half, by people with jobs outside angling. Paper magazines are struggling: getting more numerous and lower quality, but with loads of luvvly pictures. We're getting sated.
Pictures are, I feel, becoming a warning sign of no confidence in the quality of the text, unless they are so jaw-droppingly powerful that they could be on the cover of a "flagship" book. In which case, no-one cares much about the quality of the writing... at least, not that of the photographer or artist...
They were mostly amateurs; Mottram a doctor in real life, and with his powers of observation, probably a fine one; Walker, of course, an engineer; Bazeley a teacher, iirc; Chalmers ("At The Tail of the Weir"), was a banker as well as a poet and author but I'm not sure he was actually that good an angler...
Sheringham was the only professional journalist/writer of the bunch that I cited so far as I know.
Nowadays, we have an angling media industry with people trying to make/get/keep jobs/careers going by feeding the angling public's "insatiable" appetite for ink; they need sales, and lots of 'em, and it shows; most of the cleverest, funniest, and most thoughtful, technical, and educational pieces I've read in the last decade have been written for internet sites, and rather more than half, by people with jobs outside angling. Paper magazines are struggling: getting more numerous and lower quality, but with loads of luvvly pictures. We're getting sated.
Pictures are, I feel, becoming a warning sign of no confidence in the quality of the text, unless they are so jaw-droppingly powerful that they could be on the cover of a "flagship" book. In which case, no-one cares much about the quality of the writing... at least, not that of the photographer or artist...
Neil Maidment
Moderator
Tend to agree Alan, but good images can also enhance good writing.
One of my fantasies is to have a professional angling photographer follow me about on my trips just on the off chance that when I do catch something a bit special, it's recorded in all its beauty.
As an aside, for those into stunning angling photography, you can do no better than subscribe to Catch Magazine:
Catch Magazine - Fly Fishing Video - Film - Photography
One of my fantasies is to have a professional angling photographer follow me about on my trips just on the off chance that when I do catch something a bit special, it's recorded in all its beauty.
As an aside, for those into stunning angling photography, you can do no better than subscribe to Catch Magazine:
Catch Magazine - Fly Fishing Video - Film - Photography
Lord Paul of Sheffield
Well-known member
One of my fantasies is to have a professional photographer follow my has yet another beauty falls for my charms and I hope I don't catch anything nasty :wh
clint4782
Well-known member
No worries Alan, I'm aware of the vagaries of forum banter so no offence taken; what I meant was that I've always been told by editors for whom I write that images must accompany the text to enhance the feature. This may be for a variety of reasons, such as the 'reader' may not be able to read properly, and describing something with words, for a simple 'word herder' like myself, may not be possible to do in the way I would wish to convey, so I know that MY content does benefit from pictures......and, as previously stated, product placement plays its part....
I take your point that some of the best angling writers project without images, but I am of the opinion that my imagination then helps me convert the words into scenes of my own choosing which reflect the content which adds to my enjoyment....
I agree that there are those who can convey by word alone, but sadly I fear I'm not one of them!
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Not only that, photo's make good space fillers!
Steve Pope
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This is a fantastic initiative from Fishing Magic and its owners, there is room out there for the many different styles each individual brings to the table.
One of the best articles I've ever read was by John Costello and was published in the Barbel Catchers magazine, it was written from the perspective of his faithful companion, his dog. It was clever, witty, heartwarming and by no means obvious.
There were no pictures, there was no need, it was all about using your own imagination.
I honestly believe that writing of the highest order is a gift, my wife was a journalist and the words flow so easily, I have to work at it!
I fully understand the difficulty with pictures, I struggle at times, it really is so simple when someone like Mick Rouse or Paul Garner is with you snapping away.
I do admire those who produce weekly columns in the Angling press, it certainly isn't easy.
One of the best articles I've ever read was by John Costello and was published in the Barbel Catchers magazine, it was written from the perspective of his faithful companion, his dog. It was clever, witty, heartwarming and by no means obvious.
There were no pictures, there was no need, it was all about using your own imagination.
I honestly believe that writing of the highest order is a gift, my wife was a journalist and the words flow so easily, I have to work at it!
I fully understand the difficulty with pictures, I struggle at times, it really is so simple when someone like Mick Rouse or Paul Garner is with you snapping away.
I do admire those who produce weekly columns in the Angling press, it certainly isn't easy.
Kevin Perkins
Well-known member
Clint
My responses were, as always, tongue in cheek.
It’s often stated that, ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ and whilst that may well be true, trying to paint a picture in a thousand words (or less) is not always quite so easy.
As we all know, some publications are not far removed from advertorial comics with the ‘article’ becoming little more than captions for the pictures.
There again, at the other end of the scale, there are articles which are nothing more than blocks of text with little or no illustration at all.
And in the middle there are the pieces where a few illustrations are used, either to set a mood with the location, or a picture is inserted by way of information, whether that is to show a particular rig or a successful capture.
Which style of article that appears is chosen by the editor, which style of article is read is chosen by the reader.
Now that may well be a simplistic view, as the editor may well choose to put up a mix of all three, in the hope of capturing the widest possible readership, But that brings the possibility that each reader is only interested in a third of the publication. Or they may decide they know their precise reader demographic and therefore they can concentrate on one particular style.
That’s the challenge for the writer. If you evolve one particular style, it is less than productive if you offer up articles of the ‘wrong’ type. A good writer is a good writer full stop. A good writer with good pictures should therefore be all things to all people.
But first and foremost, you probably need to become a good writer………..
My responses were, as always, tongue in cheek.
It’s often stated that, ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ and whilst that may well be true, trying to paint a picture in a thousand words (or less) is not always quite so easy.
As we all know, some publications are not far removed from advertorial comics with the ‘article’ becoming little more than captions for the pictures.
There again, at the other end of the scale, there are articles which are nothing more than blocks of text with little or no illustration at all.
And in the middle there are the pieces where a few illustrations are used, either to set a mood with the location, or a picture is inserted by way of information, whether that is to show a particular rig or a successful capture.
Which style of article that appears is chosen by the editor, which style of article is read is chosen by the reader.
Now that may well be a simplistic view, as the editor may well choose to put up a mix of all three, in the hope of capturing the widest possible readership, But that brings the possibility that each reader is only interested in a third of the publication. Or they may decide they know their precise reader demographic and therefore they can concentrate on one particular style.
That’s the challenge for the writer. If you evolve one particular style, it is less than productive if you offer up articles of the ‘wrong’ type. A good writer is a good writer full stop. A good writer with good pictures should therefore be all things to all people.
But first and foremost, you probably need to become a good writer………..
Is "dumbing down" now an irreversible aspect of our culture across the board?
Is it any coincidence that the sales of papers/periodicals are proportionately higher the more pictures and fewer words they have?
Is it any coincidence that the sales of papers/periodicals are proportionately higher the more pictures and fewer words they have?
clint4782
Well-known member
So was my response Kev! I currently compile weekly columns in both Carp-Talk and Sheffield Mercury in addition to my Tackle & Guns work and online stuff and Pallatrax media duties, but I realise I have my own style which suits me, and hopefully my readers! I'm not so egotistical to realise I couldn't improve, and as such, often read what others write to both learn from and inspire me; I have been told 'there is only so much you can write about fishing'; to a point, I think it has some merit, but the fun is in the finding for me!
I have had issues in the past with others plagiarising my work which I abhor, and then writing for others who then claim it as their own (less of an issue and I'm paid for it) but in my short years as a writer, I've become aware of vastly differing standards of what can, and is, published. I love debates such as this as I still learn from each and every one of them and find it intriguing to see what others consider a successful wordsmith!
Keep up the Alternative Angler, very interesting.....
I have had issues in the past with others plagiarising my work which I abhor, and then writing for others who then claim it as their own (less of an issue and I'm paid for it) but in my short years as a writer, I've become aware of vastly differing standards of what can, and is, published. I love debates such as this as I still learn from each and every one of them and find it intriguing to see what others consider a successful wordsmith!
Keep up the Alternative Angler, very interesting.....
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