Writing articles for journals is hard work. I am currently grappling with this now - trying to work out what the magazine audience might want. Alas, I am not the most concise or erudite of people.
The audience are small boat sailors and dinghy cruisers. I've just submitted two articles - a part one and part two about a recent voyage up the Lynher and Tamar rivers close to home.
One of the very best small boat magazines available and I'm not just saying that because they have accepted two articles from me. It is of an amazing quality with a mix of rally reports, letters and a wide range of in-depth feature articles
I think that a good recount article (in this instance) should have a clear start middle and end; be anecdotal, informative and past tense (although I may have used some poetic licence here by writing it in the present tense).
I went for strong opening paragraphs, I hope - recounting a situation and then spending time leading up to how it happened. I tried to move the reader forward using a variety of approaches - timings; my inner voice thinking; our position on the river; by state of tide etc.
I included some dialogue I encountered form locals I met and really focused on trying to bring the places I passed through alive - smells, sounds, sights, emotions, scenery, wildlife, events and encounters, history and landmarks. I wanted readers to have a strong sense of place through little stories about features, local history - trying to build a picture of the rivers and how they might have looked and changed through time. I was aiming to paint a picture in a readers minds eye - tough task!
Was there any drama - yup - some - whether I conveyed it well enough and the tensions that ensued, I don't know - guess we will find out from reader comments and correspondence in next few issues.
I tried to 'show' and 'tell' and 'ponder/muse' throughout. I hoped I conveyed the joys of single handed sailing a small boat on local voyages up stunning rivers. The skills learned well and not so well to move a craft by sail, oar, wind and current alone.
Did I use enough signposts to help readers keep a focus on the goals of the article - don't know. Did I use sufficiently vivid language? No idea but I hope I did my English teachers who taught me justice. ringing deep in the recesses of my brain are their entreaties about reining in prose, moving it swiftly along so that it hits the emotions of my readers.
One teacher always talked about the poetry of prose, the hidden rhythms of hard nouns and startling verbs, where nouns burn pictures in the mind and verbs move every noun along. the stab of sudden moonlight, the ripples of the lake in the darkness; the murmuring, chuckling voice of the outgoing tidal waters in the upper most river creeks? i read these examples somewhere some time ago and they stuck with me but I cant remember where I read them - but I liked them.
Another teacher of mine talked about letting a reader 'see, hear and feel' - I definitely went for that in both articles. Oh and take the reader down 'startling paths' - mystery, surprise, logic, tension, suspense, vulnerability.
Wow.
I've just submitted another article about my inability to master the simple standing lug sail rig. 'Tips for sailing up tidal rivers' lies here on the computer in front of me - a work in progress!
