SECTION TWO
• Write for the ear: Read your work out loud.
If it sounds awkward, revise it.
• Bleed on paper: True emotion, gripping tales
and raw, honest reporting capture readers and
win awards.
• Use three examples: See Bleed on paper
above. In any list, one or two examples leave
the reader hanging, and four or more are
usually overkill. Three are perfect. Try it.
• Read over your head: Don’t read the
publications you write for— read those you
aspire to write for. You won’t improve your
tennis game by beating your little brother
(unless he is John McEnroe).
• Choose unusual topics: Even if they are well
written, run-of-the-mill articles on how to
catch walleyes on jigs or where to find muskies
in spring will rarely win. Instead (and if your
editor will approve), write about a legendary
fishing guide who crusaded for more restrictive
regulations and helped created a world-class
smallmouth fishery, what you learned about
predator/prey relationships by observing
walleyes and golden shiners in a restaurant
aquarium, or the many ways you screwed up
on deer or turkey hunts.
• Capitalize on serendipity: While I was
writing this piece, a black-billed cuckoo flew
into my window and knocked itself silly. We
gave it some Rescue Remedy and put it in
a cardboard box to recover. My wife later
released it without telling me, or I would have
shot some photos. I don’t know if I will write
about this incident, but many years ago a
suicidal Swainson’s thrush that hit my dining-
room window led to an award-winning story
that was later anthologized. Moral: a bird in
the hand sometimes makes good copy.
One f inal word––don’t be discouraged if
you don’t win. Some of my entries that have
won f irst place awards in OWAA competition
don’t even garner a third in AGLOW, and
vice versa; and some I consider my best work
haven’t won anything. Judging, like taste in
music, is subjective. Judges don’t always think
your best work