Kris Kent is a regular face in ESF and some other places too. He shares what he has learnt about writing fishing articles and perhaps it will even inspire you to give it a go.
When I came back to fishing, and particularly fly fishing, some twenty years ago I read avidly. I felt like I didn’t know anything about anything angling. I subscribed to a number of angling magazines and read them from cover to cover. I enjoyed the instructive ‘how to…’ articles and lapped up the tales of fishing ‘daring dos’. I bought books on fishing. Some focused on the technical aspects of fishing whilst others were recounts of lives spent by the river. I particularly enjoyed Laurence Catlow’s tales from the North Country and John Gierach’s stories from across the pond.
In an effort to get with the multimedia world of the 21st century I even bought DVDs, including several of Oliver Edwards Essential series. Like a sponge I soaked up the hints and tips, the techniques, the sage advice.
The wonderful thing about reading about fishing is that it fills those times when you can’t actually go fishing. A friend once said “the next best thing to fishing is reading about fishing, the next best thing to reading about fishing is buying fishing rods”.
But as time passed I read less and less. I still buy the odd book from time to time, a new Gierach when it’s published or signed copies of new editions by famous anglers I’ve got to know over the years. I still subscribe to the magazines, but now I just read the articles that really interest me. I browse through some of the online blogs and ezines when the urge takes me. I read less partly because when I do have some spare time I would rather go fishing and partly because you get to a point when you’ve read most of what is out there, things can start to get a bit repetitive. The other reason I read less is because I am ‘poacher turned gamekeeper’, I now enjoy writing about fishing.
It started when I was living in Denmark. Every other weekend I would stay in Denmark. I would rattle round the flat if I couldn’t go fishing. I took to walking into town for a coffee and a Kanelsnegl, a cinnamon roll topped with chocolate, which I would enjoy whilst reading the latest English newspaper and people watching.
I discovered a couple of tackle shops that I would spend hours browsing through. They sold a wonderful selection of fly tying fur and fluff so I bought a vice and taught myself to tie flies. But I still had time on my hands so in between reading about fishing, and now fly tying, I started jotting down my experiences. Back then it was for my own personal consumption, it still is really. I found it somewhat cathartic. It was a wonderful way of reflecting on what had happened and what I had done. As a result I think my fishing improved. My family have never been great story tellers, more television watchers. They say telling stories is one way in which we process and lay down memories. So I found that writing my stories helped me to hold on to those experiences. I kept writing on and off over the years but found that life often got in the way until recently when a change in my life meant I had more time to go fishing and also write about it. And for some strange reason other people started to show an interest in publishing my jottings. Initially articles for the Grayling Society Journal and the Wild Trout Trust’s Salmo Trutta, then Eat, Sleep, Fish and just recently in the mainstream press with some articles for Total FlyFisher.
The marvellous thing about the modern age is that there are now so many ways to share your writing. Of course there are still the magazines and the publishers looking for articles and books to publish but if they aren’t interested there are a host of ezines, online magazines, and journals or you can write a blog and even self publish. Rest assured you probably won’t retire on the proceeds. But for me that isn’t the point. I don’t write for the money or the glory I write about fishing because I enjoy the process and because it extends the joy of angling. So for me the next best thing to fishing is writing about fishing, followed by reading about fishing, followed by buying rods. Although I’m not one hundred percent sure about the order of the last two.
Some people have a special place where they like to write. A particular room in their house, a shed at the bottom of the garden or some far away island where they can focus on their work. One American author used to check into motels to write, the first Harry Potter book was penned in the back of small Edinburgh café. Vita Sackville West wrote in an Elizabethan tower at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent.
George Bernard Shaw wrote in a rotating shed that he built himself at the bottom of the garden at Shaw’s Corner.
A boat house near the remote welsh town of Laugharne accommodated Dylan Thomas and his writing.
Robert Stephen Hawker’s opium fuelled poems were written in a tiny hut built into a Cornish cliff from drift wood.
For me the great thing about writing is that it is like Martini, you can do it ‘anytime, anyplace, anywhere’. Modern technology helps enormously. The portable laptop means that I can write at home, on the sofa, in the office, in my hotel room, on the train, in the air. Writing isn’t my full time profession, I have work and a life as well, so writing tends to get squeezed into the free time I have in between the other stuff.
The actual writing is only part of the writing process though. The writer first needs an idea. These come to me at the strangest times. Sometimes they come to me on the drive home from a fishing trip as I reflect on the day or chat about the day over a pint with my fishing buddies. Sometimes the ideas come at purely random moments, when I’m doing the washing up or mowing the grass. Sometimes the idea develops over time growing and blossoming, sometimes the ideas wither and die. Some ideas arrive fully formed and ready to download. The important thing is that I capture them whilst fresh in my mind, even if it is just writing down a title. As I get older I get more forgetful and I’ve lost a few good ideas over the years by not capturing them when they appeared.
Once I have the idea then it needs to be developed and shaped. Where should I start, where should it end? What goes in, what to leave out? What pictures to use? I’m no planner, some writers create a structure first and then fill in the gaps. I form it in my mind first. I often do this whilst I am fishing. I don’t find fishing a cognitively challenging pursuit, I am not a thinking angler. That’s probably why I enjoy it, I have enough of that at work. So whilst I’m sitting on the river bank having a coffee or watching the river for risers, whilst I’m wading upstream or casting my fly I turn the story around in my head.
I experiment with different approaches, different forms of words, different structures. This process can take days, it can take years. Some have taken a few hours from the first emerging idea to the finished article. I have a few articles in my ‘work in progress’ folder that have been there for over ten years. I revisit them from time to time and tinker with them, they’ll get there in the end or eventually be committed to the virtual trash can.
The next challenge is images. I have toyed with a few ‘words only’ articles but have yet to get any published. Editors and readers like pictures. They help to bring the story to life and illustrate a piece. Some things are difficult to put into words and as they say “a picture paints a thousand words”. When I go fishing I take a lot of photos, of the river, of the fish, of my friends. These are a great resource to draw upon for articles. The internet is also a wonderful place to find photos, but remember to respect copyright. For blogs and online publications image quality isn’t always a concern, for the magazines quality is everything. That usually means having to organise for photos to be taken especially. On my first shoot I was amazed by the effort that goes into getting a good photo. My photos are impromptu point and press, for the magazine several minutes would be spent on each shot. Careful thought about background, lighting and pose. It really got in the way of the fishing.
Eventually everything comes together, the words and the pictures. Whilst I write mainly for the experience of writing, of course you get a buzz when someone says they want to publish your musings. I am forever grateful for the help and support of the editors that have brought my words into print or onto screen. A good editor is critical. A friend who both praises your work but also thoughtfully critiques it.
Once published it is then the nervous wait to see how it is received. What does the audience think? Let’s see what they think of this one.
Biography:
Kris Kent has been fly fishing and trotting for brown trout and grayling for over 20 years in the UK, Europe and Scandinavia. He is PR Officer for the Grayling Society and helps out The Wild Trout Trust with their online communications and events.