Karli has sent me her latest update of her journey. Back in the mid nineties I went through a similar experience - when you have the dream of getting published suddenly a trip to WH Smiths takes on a new meaning. On my visit I bought copies of Sport Diver and Scuba World (I already subscribed to DIVER) and went straight home to study their pages. My thought process was that if I planned to write something in the same style as the regular contributors or the editorial staff then it would be more appealing than if I wrote it in my own style. The reality was, my own 'style' was based on several hundred diving log book entries but I wasn't going to let that get in the way of my dream.
Keep Writing...
Brendan
Putting in the groundwork
It's Friday lunchtime and I'm literally elbowing trainspotters, planespotters and birdspotters out of the way. United in their passion and contentedly divided in their individual fascinations, this motley crew of fanatics could be auditioning for the part of Gollum in Lord of The Rings. Hunched over their respective 'precious', the captivated gentlemen revealed their primal side, guarding their territory like wild animals – not even moving for, ahem, a lady.
I was in WHSmith. Clearly British politeness was left at the door here. But I was a woman on a mission, so I ignored the tuts and grunts of one portly fellow with low-resting spectacles as he practically salivated over the sleek lines of a jet plane. The Sun's missing out on the latest Page Three sensation I think. I lunged for Diver,knocking rock climbing clowns to the left of me and snowboarding jokers to the right in the process. Clutching the glossy pages and breathing in their new page smell – I LOVE new book smell – I continued on my human ten pin bowling crusade to grab the latest Wanderlust and Lonely Planet. By the time I got to the counter I could finally stop holding my breath.
Now the heart rate's back to normal and I've had a good look through the articles, I've got a better understanding of what each publication is all about and the content they go for. As well as getting a little too excited and adding to my ever-growing list of must-see places, my plotting to get a byline in those glossies has stepped up a notch.
Brendan has suggested taking the 'Serendipities' route to breaking into the pages of Wanderlust – so I flicked to the back page to see what I have to contend with. The winning submissions that got printed this month have given me an idea of the style the editors must go for: quirky, colourful and witty. I'm thinking of a few of my travel tales that could be suitable for my stab at getting featured.
Clearly my diving experiences in Mexico could be turned into a good read – especially since I'm at the beginning of my diving journey and so, hopefully, won't alienate people who have never dived.
Diver magazine could take a little longer to become a voice of authority in – I'm thinking a few hundred logged dives longer. But there is still a way... Brendan asked how my Advanced Open water weekend went and unfortunately, not very well was my reply. My dry suit didn't fit properly and I got drenched in 'damn son, that's cold!' water. Shivering and feeling a little bit down about the whole thing, I decided not to carry on with the rest of the weekend's dives until I got kit that would fit. "It's supposed to be fun, so don't push yourself if you're not happy," someone said to me as I sat there feeling sorry for myself and like I'd failed at something I really enjoyed. Being the good dive journalist that Brendan is, he suggested that I could make something out of this experience for Diver.
The Deep Breath column on the back page would be a prime space for this. The current issue has a piece from an instructor about how students are often overweighted and he calls for a reform in dive teaching to produce better and safer novice divers. This would be a great space to write about how many others must have gone through this. How many people have experienced something similar and never gone underwater again? I can see how this could happen – it's only because I'm stubborn and don't want to give up that I'm going to try again. And at this point I'll be honest, I'm not overly excited at the prospect. As well as the dry suit not fitting, my BCD was too large and my cylinder kept rolling around. Buoyancy felt totally out of my control, another diver also struggling with the alien new kit kicked my regulator out of my mouth... Nope, my first impression of UK inland diving wasn't the best. So I'll be working on crafting something for this page of Diver whilst I read over my AOW manual. Again.
Karli (the Adventure Girl!)
Recent Comments