clues at the scene

clues at the scene

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Tippet

At left, Tippet.

In the world of fly fishing, tippet is that last little bit of line connected tot he fly. It's the business end of the fly fisherman communicating with the fly to hopefully entice a nice trout to take.

I'm reworking an outline.

 I also have a fire tonight. It's wet and raw and cool here. I built a fire. May or not, it was cold.

I'm thinking tonight that we writers have tippet in our method, too. It's that last little bit of effort that makes a journeyman piece of work into something special. Sure, we have to find the audience and we have to sell and ...

But that tippet, that little bit extra effort makes the story we're peddling something special to us. Convincing the world? That is beyond your control. Writing well is under your control.

Make sure that the prose gets that little something special that lets you communicate with the audience. Just telling the story? Not enough. The job doesn't pay well enough for just "ordinary" sorts of effort.

Trout? Why yes, I'd love one. We'll see how the fish feel about my efforts.

Off to write then dream of cold clean water.

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