I went fishing with my Grandfather one time. One time was all it took for Papaw to decide that I wasn’t the best fishing buddy to have. You see, I didn’t quite “get” the concept.
Papaw was one of those men who are uncomfortable around “womenfolk.” He didn’t have much problem with my sister or my cousin, because they were both tomboys. I was a little too much of a “girly” girl for Papaw; and he didn’t quite know how to relate to me.
Still, that day my grandfather was trying his level best to bond with me; so we took cane poles and marched down to the creek bank to try our luck with fishing. Papaw had quite an assortment of fish bait: he had a papercup packed with soft moist earth (and lots of worms); a minnow bucket filled with tiny silvery fish; a Mason jar holding May flies that he had caught that morning; and a tackle box overflowing with lures.
As he pulled a wiggly-worm out of that paper cup, he explained fishing to me. “Gal,” Papaw said, “in order to pull in a big fish, you have to know what bait to use. Different fish like different things. Some fish love to eat worms. Others are partial to those May flies or minnows. Sometimes, they just want to bite a lure. Let me show you how to bait a hook, so you’ll know.”
He proceeded to thread the worm on the hook, while I watched wide-eyed. Then, Papaw tossed the line in the water and handed me the pole. He got a minnow out of the can and skewered it on his own hook, dropped his line into the creek and settled down beside me. Side by side, we sat staring at the water. Waiting.
The cork bobber on my line was bouncing in the water. A fish was nibbling at my bait! “Hook him!” my Papaw called out. But, I had never fished before, and I didn’t know what to do about it. Finally, my exasperated grandfather grabbed the fishing pole from my hand and yanked it hard, trying to hook the fish. It didn’t work. The fish got away, and it had eaten my worm.
Papaw reached into the paper cup and pulled out another worm. He held that worm and the hook toward me. “Put it on the hook, gal,” he said. “Do it just like I showed you.”
I stared at that doomed worm, and started to cry. “Papaw,” I said. “Putting that worm on the hook kills him!”
“Naw, it doesn’t,” he said. “You don’t want to kill it, you want it to wiggle so the fish will come eat it.”
“Papaaaaww!” I wailed, “I don’t wanna hurt a worm!”
“Well, I swan,” he said, as he reached for the minnow bucket. “Do you want to put a minnow on there?”
“Noooo! I don’t wanna murder a minnow either!” I sobbed.
“I guess,” he muttered, “you don’t want a May fly.” He grabbed a shiny metal lure and affixed it to my line. Then he plopped my line back in the water and shoved the fishing pole into my hand. We sat down again and tried to fish, but we never caught anything. Maybe I was sniffling so loudly that the fish went away. Finally we gave up and went back to the farmhouse.
My Mamaw greeted us on the porch. As she wiped her hands on her apron, she smiled and called out, “Did y’all catch anything for supper?”
“Naw,” said my Grandfather, as he stomped in the house. “You can’t catch a fish if you can’t bait the hook.”
Rory, at Clean Cut Blog (who is no longer blogging), has a Group Writing Project going on until August 3. He suggests “Write your own blog post presenting your first rule of writing. Not a top three, or five – what would you say is the most important rule according to you, and why? What would come before anything else?” You can go to his site to read more.
My Papaw’s words were the first thing that came to mind, when I thought about this project. Now, it’s important when we write that we use good grammar and punctuation (so as not to annoy the literate among us). We also need to use picturesque language, to create an image in the reader’s “mind’s eye.” For me, those aren’t the first considerations; that all takes place in the editing. The first thing we have to do is choose a suitable subject.
Writing on a blog is a little bit like fishing. As bloggers, most of us are fishing for an audience. Of course, we want people to read what we have to say. I don’t think we always approach that in a proper way. Many times, people pick out keywords that might attract attention from Technorati, digg, or Stumbleupon. They write about those things solely for the purpose of getting traffic. It could work. That’s fine, if it’s what you want to do. And, it may get you some attention.
But, if you want to “hook” an audience, if you want them to return, you have to be writing about a subject that you like. If you don’t like your subject matter, it’s a pretty safe bet that you won’t make anyone else like it either. My first rule of writing is write about things you enjoy. You must have a passion for your subject.
My Papaw was right that you have to learn to “bait the hook,” and that “different fish like different things.” But, there is one thing my Papaw didn’t understand about having a successful fishing experience:
If you enjoy your subject and are comfortable with it, people will sense it immediately. You will be able to catch their interest and keep it; you’ll hook them. At least, that’s my “line” of thinking.
Update:
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