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Oct. 27, 2024: Rowing to Great Writing

Writer's picture: JudyJudy

If you have ever watched a team of rowers glide their boat across water, it can be mesmerizing. There is a grace to the smooth, poetic movement, driven by the synchrony of the rowers.  They move as one, their power a thing of beauty.

 

 

We spent all of this past Saturday at a lake, on the other side of the state, watching teams of rowers compete.  We were there to cheer on our granddaughter and her team.  It was a fabulous day- the weather was spectacular, the venue was great for watching and cheering, and their team brought home several medals.

 

         While I am in no way an expert, it is clear that the teams that were the most successful were the teams that truly moved as one. Each member had their own job to do, and brought their own strengths and talents to the team, but their power was in the way they worked as single unit.

 

         As I watched the heats, I started to think about the similarities between rowing and writing. There are so many individual strands that contribute to the story, (characters, plot, vocabulary, sentence structure,...the list goes on) but in the successful stories, they all work together as one.

 

Like most sports and pastimes, rowing has its own vocabulary and lingo.  Bow. Catch. Crab. Regatta. Rigger. Cox. Erg.

 

         While the terms themselves seem to have little to do with writing, as I learned the meanings, I realized that they too could absolutely be applied to writing.

 

 

Crab- when the rower loses control of the oar and ultimately slows down the boat. This happens to writers when our plot does not mesh smoothly. It might be a plot gap, or some other oversight in which the events of the story do not connect smoothly.That can drastically impact the flow of the story.

 

Catch- the beginning of the stroke when the blade enters the water. If done correctly, this powers the boat forward.  This is exactly like the beginning of our stories.  If we do not start out with power and grace, it is almost impossible to have a flawless story, just like a bad catch for a rower will never result in a smooth race.

 

Coxswain- the rower who is not rowing, but directing and guiding the other rowers.  They are responsible for steering the boat and coordinating the power and rhythm of the rowers. What a great description of the writer! We steer the story and coordinate the power and rhythm of the “rowers”, which in our case are things like characters, setting, plot, climax, etc.  Like the coxswain, we are also on the lookout for things that might interfere with our smooth story, and dealing with them before they ruin our journey.

 

 

Wishing all my writing friends a story as graceful and powerful as an award winning crew.




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