IF THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF WRITERS,

WHICH ARE YOU, A DOG OR A BADGER?

Photo by Andrei Lazar on Unsplash

I have heard it said that in broad general terms, there are two types of writers.

There's the badger. He will be completely happy to stay in one spot, and dig and dig and dig. He wants to go deep and is comfortable with long periods immersed in one topic. He writes books and teaches in his field. He is the recognized expert. He's always happy to discover more about his field, but is not interested in anything unrelated. Why investigate anything else?

The other animal is a dog. A dog is also happy to sniff around one spot, but only for a limited period of time. Once he's had enough of that environment, he wants to move on. He wants to stop sniffing at his tree and go across the street to the beckoning garbage can. That looks interesting!

Photo by Alvan Nee on Unsplash

I have heard magazine writers described as having “grasshopper minds”(a bit like dogs). In other words, we like to hop from topic to topic. Those topics can be completely unrelated, and that is no problem at all for people like me with this type of mind.

When I was freelancing, and had written a few stories for a particular magazine, the editor asked if I wanted to write an article on Japanese mingei, which Wikipedia defines as “the art of the people”. Their rustic crafts.

“What do you know about Japanese handcrafts?” he said.

“Ah, they do origami, don't they?” I said lamely.

I did get the assignment, was happy to read up about the concept and wrote about it. I'd become a 1500-word “expert” on Japanese mingei.

Then, I was just as happy to turn my attention elsewhere: to the topic of why it was a good idea for the parents of young children to learn how to do infant CPR, which I also wrote about.

Following that, a profile of a prolific and well-known wildlife artist. That too was interesting, and just as much grist for the writing mill as infant CPR or the next assignment: how to act in a professional manner in the corporate environment.

I would pitch an idea about anything that I had some knowledge of, or if I had a connection to the person I could interview, and see if some editor would think it a perfect piece for their publication.

That was a ten-year run, until it became harder and harder to make the money, or get paid for work already done. Some magazines had the policy of payment on publication, which I always tried to avoid.

Payment on publication was like going to a restaurant, eating the steak, and then telling the restaurant owner you'd pay when you'd digested the meal and you were sure you weren't poisoned. And you weren't sure how long that would be.

The restaurant (that role being me, the one who provides) with the diner (the consumer of the words) being the editor/publication.

From the magazine's perspective, it was a game of “let's wait and see if we can use this piece which this writer has worked on and finished and provided for us. If not, no cost to us and the writer can eat air.”

Obviously, in a see-saw of this type, you know in terms of who has the power, it's not you.

To my recollection, I never actually got burned with no payment, but the struggle to meet demands over and over and being the weak one in the dynamics of the negotiation eventually wore me out.

All of which is to say, seeing as I am by nature more dog than badger, writing a book is a uniquely challenging idea. It is so many more words than an article (obviously) and the time frame so much longer, that for me, there have to be some perks along the way in order for a dog-personality to undertake such an adventure.

Let's put it this way, there'd better be some sticks along the way for me to chase.

I guess that is one reason I am on Substack. The length of the pieces are shorter, I can sniff around the trees, the garbage cans, the park benches, chase squirrels, and bark at the postman. I need that variety.

Then I can turn into being the badger for a while and spend an hour or two digging in memoir. Or possibly my second or third book idea. Sniff, sniff. That smells interesting! Always the distraction of my dog instincts!

Please drop a line in the comment box, and let me know which animal you are. Or if you're not an animal at all!