Writer
In 2009, I will be working on three monthly columns.
“Outside the Box” is a monthly posting on the USTA (United States Totting Association). The purpose is to write entertaining and useful ideas that will move horseracing forward. You can read these articles as they will be archived on the website. Visit the website at US Trotting - then click the title, Outside The Box, on the right had side under columns.
I will continue to write fiction material for my “Rail Tales” column in TROT Magazine. TROT magazine is the official publication of Standardbred Canada. This work is great fun; it is one of the very few opportunities for a magazine writer to dabble in fiction.
I am doing a yearlong series for Hoof Beats Magazine on a very touch subject – illegal medications and the “dark side” of horseracing. The tentative title is “Into the Light”. My intent is to gently examine some of these issues using a variety of writing approaches.
Also in 2009 I will be writing three history articles, a dozen film reviews for Cleveland Magazine, an interview with a noted figure, my small publications syndicate, a few miscellaneous projects and writing and editing the Minor Trips Newsletter.
Here is a list of magazines that have shown the astonishing bad taste to publish my writing and pay me. Several have compounded the crime by publishing me multiple times. (A story called "Beans and Wieners" won best of Ohio Creative Non-Fiction for Ohio Writers. A story for TROT Magazine titled "A Difficult Case" won the Hervey Award for best magazine story of the year in Harness Racing. And I am returning to Hoof Beets Magazine to write a series titled "Outside the Box")
Hoof Beats
Mental-floss
Trot Magazine
Elysian Fields
Northern Ohio Live
Trailer Life
Arrington’s Journal
Espree
Creativity Connection
Ohio Writer
Timeline
Virginia Living
Florida Monthly
Passenger Rail News
Crain’s Business News
Northern Ohio Live
Thoroughbred Times
Lake Erie Living
Equine Tales - Syndicate
Virginia Horse
USTA Website “Outside the Box”
Washington Thoroughbred
The Beaver (Canadian Historic Society)
Down the Stretch
Cleveland Magazine
Route 66
Virginia Horse
In the middle of the night, as I neared my fiftieth birthday, for no apparent reason, I crawled out from under the covers, tiptoed into the dark den, switched on the computer and decided to become a writer. I don’t know why or where this bizarre notion came from. Writing was not some long dormant passion that had festered deep in my soul. I had no background in journalism. My grammar skills were shaky. My writing experience was non-existent. I really never gave the idea thought until this strange night. Nevertheless, when the first shards of daylight broke through the window of the den, I was sure I would write. I started down the writer’s road with a few resources in my backpack. All my life I have been a voracious (and judgmental) reader. I am compulsive and relentless when I approach a new project. My thirst for learning is endless. I was born wired with a quiet confidence. I hit the writing road. The first thing I did after I decided to become a writer was to make a plan. I typed it out that first night. I designed it myself. It was bold, sensible (I thought), ambitious and clear. In the early morning I listed the doctrine I would rigidly adhere to each day for the next two years.
Write for two hours.
Read and study the craft of writing for one hour.
Read for one hour.
Next, I typed five specific goals in the order that I would tackle them.
I underlined the last task, printed out a copy, tacked the plan onto a
corkboard above the computer, and then began to write. I met each goal.
I worked hard. It was a fulfilling journey from the first goal of a daily
journal to the last goal of submitting a few articles for publication.
In between were plenty of steps. This was my pathway to the reader; it
may not be your way. These are the steps I took, in the order it took them.
Write a daily journal for one year.
Write five short stories.
Write a book.
Write 100 humor columns.
Write another book.
Here is a recap of my self-inflicted, self designed writers
course.
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Wrote a daily journal. Each day I wrote a page or two, sort of an extended diary. It was not a “at seven I went to the post office, at eight I ate an omelet.” I chose a single theme, a particular event in my life for the daily topic. This got me in the habit of writing. I developed new muscles. Each day I attacked a new subject. Meanwhile, I was constantly studying. I learned from the hundreds of “how to write” books and magazines that are available.
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Wrote five short stories. This was an attempt to stretch out from the diary portion of the plan. I was not happy with these efforts. I wrote them as planned, but I did not like them. These efforts were bad. Most were beyond repair and were discarded. I seemed to make every writing mistake known to man and invented a few new ones. The best lesson I learned here was how to edit and revise. Believe me, they needed massive editing and revising.
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Wrote a book. This was not nearly as difficult as I expected. The first draft was over 200 pages and I think it was (and is) a good story. It was also an amazing coincidence. The title of my book was – 101. It was a realistic fable about a young man who has a near fatal accident and radical surgery on his shoulder. Several years later, the protagonist is a happy contented fellow. Out of the blue he finds, as a result of the operation, he can throw a baseball at nearly 100 mph. Reluctantly he is drawn to the world of pro baseball at the advanced age of forty. The theme is not baseball, but dealing with a new life style and its consequences. The amazing coincidence is I struggled to make this story believable, I worried constantly that it was too far fetched. Less than a month after I finished the story I read a book, The Rookie, a true story of Jim Morris. This true story virtually mimicked 101. Very strange.
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Wrote one hundred humorous columns. The topics were varied. This was my favorite project. All along I knew that humor would play a staring role in my writing saga. I sensed these humor columns would be a strong point when I made the original plan and I was correct. I noticed as I wrote 101, the chapters that were grounded in humor seemed to flow easier; when I write in a slightly offbeat style I relax. In the course of the writing project I experimented writing in every tense and every style. Whimsical humor based on a basic truth is my favorite form.
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Wrote another book. The second rough draft I wrote was a book called – The Key. I began with a simple concept - an introverted, self-imposed mute man, makes a discovery while metal detecting. The discovery leads to several other characters and several interesting (I hope) twists and turns. Character development is a key to this tale. I see these people so clearly in my head it is incredible. When I re-write this book, and I will, I will labor long and hard at bringing them to life for the reader.
As I finished the final chapter of The Key, the last original goal in my “how to become a writer” course was complete. I had mountains of written material. Along the way I added another leg to the original three principles of - write daily, study writing daily and read daily, - revision. I soon learned my first efforts were nothing more than random thoughts, the real writing, the real work, was in revision. I became something of a revision maniac. I rarely write a sentence, let alone a chapter when I do not have the uneasy feeling “I could do that better.”
It was now time to appraise my writing. I thought much of my writing was good - but who doesn’t. I became adept at sensing when something I wrote was bad. I knew bad when I read it, good was more subjective.
I chose 2 short stories and sent them to the only person in the world I knew in the writing game. Marshall Cook is a professor of writing and a subscriber to a baseball publication that I write. He also seems like a nice guy. Marshall authors Creativity Connection, a publication for writers that may have subliminally planted the writing seed in my head. I hate to impose on people, but I wanted a reaction after two years of toiling in silent obscurity. I posted the stories to Marshall and winced like a person waiting for a firecracker to explode.
Marshall liked my little stories, or he did a wonderful job of pumping me up by pretending to like them. I prefer to think he really did like them. He made a few suggestions that made me go – DUH, but his positive words about my style were more important than you can imagine. His approval was my go-ahead to send out material to the publishing world, but what material out of the mountain and where to start?
Just as quickly as the impulse to write struck me, the idea of what and where to make my first attempt at publication seemed to fall out of the sky. Several of my journal entries, several of my humor columns, and part of my first novel had a common thread – harness horse racing. I own horses and love this obscure sport. I subscribe to only one magazine, a very nice national publication named Hoof Beats, the foremost publication in the harness horse world. My material seemed like a match. I was amazed I had not thought of it earlier. I went back through my old manuscripts, journal entries and columns and pulled out all the harness horse related material. I re-read it and, as usual, revised it.
Hoof Beats is a terrific magazine, very classy, but it is very conservative, virtually no fiction, almost no humor – my specialties. From the beginning I viewed this as an opportunity rather than a liability. I truly believed the magazine could profit from a splash of wackiness. For the next month I agonized over what samples to send to Hoof Beats and what type of cover letter I would send to the unsuspecting editor. I finally chose three stories to submit and composed a simple zany cover letter. I dropped the packet in the mail.
Here is a crazy thing. Rejection is an obstacle that all writers face. I had read hundreds of stories about thousands of rejection letters. Tales of ruthless, mean editors born only to torment the novice writer. All signs pointed to the fact that submitting writing was a painful, difficult, gut wrenching experience that writers dread and face daily. I was amazingly calm. I truly believed my material was good and I truly believed Hoof Beats magazine needed my work. If the editor failed to see things my way (a definite possibility), I was comforted by the idea that it was his mistake – not mine.
The editor, a friendly chap named Dean Hoffman, replied quickly, positively and humorously. Soon I was published. I send material to four other publications. Two more were accepted, the two rejections were painful but the early success took the sting out.
My writing got better. My submissions were accepted at an amazingly high rate, in the next few years I was published 48 times by a wide variety of magazines, including a couple of regular gigs. I work in an unorthodox method. I usually write a story or an article with no thought of publication. I set it aside for a few months, then pull it out and rewrite it several times. If I feel it is decent, I sit down and think - “Who could use this?” “What readers would want to see this?” Only then do I look for a home.
A few notes and words of thanks;
Thanks to the gang at Skyline Writers, good people, good writers and very helpful. Thanks to my Aunt Daisy who left two large bags of Nancy Drew and hardy Boy’s books in my attic bedroom when I was a young lad. I never wanted to sleep so I read those books countless times and it instilled a lifetime love of reading.
Thanks to all the editors who have crossed my path. So far I have only met helpful folks who have a hard job. I have yet to meet a nasty or condescending editor.
Special thanks to Dean Hoffman who gave me a chance, and Marshall Cook who
gave me encouragement.
When time allows, I will attach several sample stories to this link.
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