A hook. I want one. I gotta have one, I am going to find one. I need one. I have to have one. I will have… I must have… A hook. I have to have a hook. I need it, I do not have one yet.
In the late 70s, 79, 78, that time frame, I was working in a radio station. Early morning shift for air time. Afternoon for writing and recording spots.
In the mid to late 90s I was involved in, with, beer. First as the editor of the Oregon Beer Crew Newsletter, then as a columnist for Celebrator Beer News. The newsletter was eight pages. The column was 1,000 or so words.
In the early 70s, 73 through 75, I was in radio again (?) Mostly the closing shift, until 10:00 or 12:00 on weekends. In 74 and 75 I wrote a lot of spots, mostly for a grocery store. But whatever the general manager came up with. It was a form of job training as I was still in high school. I got three hours of time in the afternoon to make whatever I did better and they recommended a grade for me. Or something like that. That was a while ago.
All of those things involved being paid for writing. Getting paid to write about beer? Yeah, baby. But there was a catch. One that I never got around. Or so my memory says. I needed a hook. You would think that given one column a month coming up with an idea would be easy. C’mon, guy. It is just a half-page of writing one time a month. But on too many months I sat at my desk and thought. Well, not about much, Cause I did not have a hook. Some topic to carry my thoughts through the places I would write about. I had to have one.
It has been a dry, well, probably not but when it came time to type I could not come up with a hook. This is different from facing a blank page, having writer’s block. There were ideas. But not ones I could work into an extended piece. (Not that this one qualifies!) But yes, start someplace, somewhere and go through other places, and tie it up.
Like this that I have to, I get to, I gotta, I need to, I have the pleasure to, all these to’s, which one fits?
—— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm