A sportsman’s journal – write about it
At the rear of my classroom, for the better part of 30 years, hung a poster which read, “Life is Weird – Write About It.” And my students did. Some complained, at first. Others begrudgingly jumped through the hoops. A few embraced the exercise of pen to page with every fiber in their being. When I ask kids what they learned in my class, to a man/woman, they usually respond with, “Mostly, we learned how to write.”
My favorite sportsman’s journal is of a rough, worn, golden, cowhide-leather exterior with a compass rose emblazoned on the front and my last name tastefully embossed on the bottom right corner. The innards are replaceable sheets of 5×7 ruled, recycled, oatmeal pages. Owing to the fact that I am much too cheap to have sprung for such a gorgeous piece of writing memorabilia, this gem, admittedly, was a gift from one of my students towards the end of my career – thanks, Kinley and Joey – and it functions as my “bird journal,” which I replenish every few years. Lying on my desk, it simply exudes the sentiment, “Outdoor writer lives here.”
I maintain several old Marble hardcover notebooks that look more like my English teacher self. I also use a monthly calendar to record details of a more mundane nature.
I’d like to encourage you to consider picking up your pen if you do not already do so. You might be surprised about the return on your investment of time. Recently, several friends/acquaintances have reached out about getting in touch with their inner Hemingway. My response is always the same: Start by writing it down.
It doesn’t matter what you write about. Write anything, but get in the habit of writing, even a little, each day. You’ll simply empty your head onto paper avoiding writer’s block via the daily exercise. Once you initiate this writing process, all kinds of cool thoughts will make their way onto the page. Ideas you’ll want to explore. Keep a notebook of these ideas. Think of it as a mental workout. Those ideas will springboard into more ideas.
Does it have to be written in longhand form? Certainly not. I prefer to write via my computer. I am a Google Docs fan from my classroom teacher days, more comfortable with the Google Chrome Book. I personally like to brainstorm on a quarter-inch grid pad, preferring to transfer my ideas electronically into paragraph form. The “grocery list” tends to be my favorite organizational format. Others choose to brainstorm a web or cloud, choosing to relate one idea to another by their relationship in similar or contrasting fashion.
Another technique is the shotgun blast, which involves writing every idea possible until you have exhausted your idea supply. However, you choose to capture your thoughts is no matter. Capturing is paramount.
The other key is targeting what you want to accomplish through your writing. Call it a goal or purpose, if you will. Ask yourself what it is that you want to accomplish with your writing? Then write to that end. This can be particularly difficult as my thoughts wander. As I begin to tell a story, veering off the path as I take to describing a scene and what it means to me, I reorient on my original purpose. At the end of the day, or at least the end of the page, ask yourself, are you writing to the goal that you intended?
When I first began keeping a sportsman’s journal, it seemed like it was merely a collection of dates, times, temperature, humidity, locations, moon phases, number of deer seen, etc. I used a calendar/planner for this nuts and bolts stuff. Spreadsheets also work well in this capacity. What transpired over the next few seasons was that I began to observe certain happenings that I’d never witnessed before. That was the subtle shift from documenting to describing or recounting. Maybe it was a buck trailing or tending a hot doe or a pair of bucks sparring. Recalling that memory was so much easier and provided more material when it was fresh in my mind.
Further details floated to the surface when I would reread my notes. Eventually, I found myself making daily entries in my calendar. If something unusual or of interest occurred, I’d attempt to write about what I saw in paragraph form. This was fairly detail oriented. Pretty soon, I attempted to convey how it made me feel, how it affected me, how it moved me and that got me started into how I could share those feelings and experiences with my readers. The story I had to tell became my primary focus.
If you think you have a story to tell, then you most certainly do. Start by capturing as much of it as you can. If you get stuck or need help, reach out to me and I’ll assist in getting your wheels back on the road. Few of us have the discipline to go this route alone. Enlist help. Set a target writing goal.
Most importantly, write.
Dave Bates writes a weekly outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter. He can be reached at alphaomegashootingsolutions@gmail.com