UKC

I'm writing for an extreme sports digital magazine and I've written on my first ever trad lead experience. I've only been climbing a year (seconding) and I couldn't find many people's accounts of their first leading experience, so as an aspiring writer decided to pitch the idea to editors. They're happy to have it as a monthly feature to see my progress(or lack of it!).

Is there anything within lead climbing you'd like to read about? I will be doing some sport routes too and some indoor training.

In reply to Karabiner Karen:
Suppose it depends on the Audience somewhat?

Personally, i Like to read short stories about Climbing, with Humorous Episodes/Epics that i can relate to, that Bring Back memories and make me Chuckle.

In short, we'll Laugh about this Later Kind of Climbing days.

Dry technical articles are Tedious in my Opinion.

In reply to Choss:

Well the second article that I'm working on for the July issue has some of that 'we'll laugh abou this later' type of feel to it. A bit more about the head game of leading in the next one...

In reply to Karabiner Karen:

I think there's a bit of an overload of glib 'extreme sport' articles where the writer uses inappropriate diffidence and self-deprecation: 'above me was a never-ending sweep of verticality. How could I hope to scale such a desperate face? And yet there was John/Barney/Emma, poised on fingertips, seemingly oblivious to the mortal danger etc etc' - when describing a guided Diff on Little Tryfan or the like.

Personally, for these kind of breakthrough articles, I think it'd be refreshing to inject an air of accessibility, a little objectivity. Reflections on how your improving skills are informing your mental approach; acknowledgement that early leads are achieved without fanfare and are just building blocks to future climbing competency. Especially, promotion of the idea that climbing isn't something you do once, with an instructor, for regurgitation at a dinner party, but a complex sport which has the potential to alter your outlook, physically and mentally. Don't be afraid to discuss your thought processes, rather than trying to write some breathless froth with the words 'extreme' and 'danger' inserted at least once in every paragraph.

But mainly, pictures of people in spandex and hyperbolic text which encourages people to buy multi-disciplinary magazines that they can read on the tube to feel superior. Those sell mags.

Find a sympathetic reader on here (Tall Clare seems a thoroughly decent chap, and Ava Adore seems creative) and ask them for comments before you submit. Just remember that, in reviewing terms, a sh*t sandwich approach (good bits - bad bits - good bits repeated) is far more useful than undying praise

Martin

In reply to maisie:

That's fantastic Martin. Thats what I've tried doing in my first article - eg on the way to the climb all I could think of was all the disaster stories my climbing partner had told me and none of his success stories! That's what I wanted to get across - the head game of leading, how it's improved my climbing, how it's changed things outside of climbing.

Really appreciate your post Martin.

In reply to Karabiner Karen:

>>I couldn't find many people's accounts of their first leading experience

UKC ran a competition about this a few years back. My (fairly crap, but made a lot more sense in the original version before UKCs article submission thingy ate my italics) effort is here - http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=716 - but there were over a hundred others. Have a google.

As for what I want to read ...

Can I imagine myself there? Does it make my palms sweat? Does it cause me to get the giggles in public? Does it leave me thinking "Ooh, that's interesting, will have to check it out."

Or does it send me to sleep? Leave me thinking "Seen this article before"? Make me mentally classify the author as an overgroomed idiot breathlessly squeeing over something he clearly doesn't know much about? Make me want to punch the author for being a waste of perfectly good skin?

:

In reply to maisie:

>>Just remember that, in reviewing terms, a sh*t sandwich approach (good bits - bad bits - good bits repeated) is far more useful than undying praise

Yes, very much so! "Squee! Squee! You put some words on some paper and that's so, like, cool!" is nice for the ego, but isn't very helpful in terms of becoming a better writer.

In reply to Wingnut:

Thats great will check them out!

I've written an honest first timers account - a kind of 'I actually dont know much about this so im writing about how im learning about it'...

So im not pretending to know anything about lead climbing, hoping to show what im learning along the way, what i think im doing ok at and what im doing badly... I hope nobody wants to punch me in the face for it! ha!

In reply to Karabiner Karen:

Have you read Gordon Stainforth's book Fiva? There was something refreshingly simple about how Gordon described the climbing itself (something often missing) and his physical and mental state. I really felt like I understood the route he was on and could therefore empathise with him.

I think getting a good balance of...
(1)describing the route and the moves and the gear placements (I quite like this aspect, but remember a picture is worth a thousand words)
(2)the emotional aspect (necessary, but not too much or it will just read like an ego fest)
(3)the social aspect (good to add humor and uniqueness, but too much as it sound too cliquey)
(4)generic advice (there's enough of this about, if you give advice make it really good and specific cf Andy Kirkpatrick)

In reply to Choss:

In a despicable act of shameless self-promotion, may I suggest that if you haven't read it yet, you might want to put The Bumper Book of Climbing Fun on your next birthday / Christmas present list. Plenty of short stories about climbing, with humorous episodes and not the slightest sniff of a dry, technical article. http://www.cliperati.com/