Writing and fishing

I’m sitting on the dock this morning, my fishing rod baited with a shrimp and hoping to catch some lunch when a strange thought occurred to me. Fishing and becoming a successful author are similar activities. Except when you’re fishing, you use bait to catch stuff and when you’re a writer you use your books to try and catch something, that something being an agent, publisher, or audience. The analogy expounds even further. With fishing, the quality of bait is directly related to the amount of fish it will attract. An author’s book is like that. Better quality books attract more of an audience. When I throw my fishing bait into the ocean I never know what I will catch. Much like writing a book and then putting it out there on the internet for readers to find. You never know what’s going to happen or how many readers you’re going to attract. That’s why fishing appeals to me almost as much as writing does. The unknown of what may happen, what you may reel in. Or maybe it’s because I’ve been doing a lot of both while on vacation. My next post may be titled, Writing and Limes. Can anyone say Margarita?

Oh, and a quick writing tip that I’ve discovered can really give your books an immediate boost. Read each sentence you have that begins with THE and then read the sentence aloud without THE. See if THE can be eliminated. If it can, see how much stronger the sentence becomes.