Hard Water

Owen Rodewald 6/14/15

English Period: 1

Context and Reflection

Reading over pieces of writing that you’ve written before is challenging, for me at least. I chose to write a new piece and to start over with a new idea. Starting with a new idea is simpler but it may take longer. Writing a new piece of writing means that you’re free to write about any idea you could possibly think of. I chose to write a new piece because I wanted more possible ideas to write about, because once you have already written your plot it’s hard to change the whole storyline. For example, in my piece of writing Hard Water is mostly about how fly fishing can be adventurous by finding things you usually don’t, and messing up. If my setting was in the river and I were fly fishing, it would be random to just change the setting to outer space. It wouldn’t make sense. But when you write a new piece you don’t have to worry about that because you can change your idea before you write it down, you have no limits for the amount of ideas you could use. And that’s why I chose this process instead of revising an old piece of writing.

Hard Water

As I slid my heavy boots over my big and loose socks I could hear the rushing water right beside me. You could hear to so clearly that you could picture in your mind exactly what the river looked like. And of course you're imagining yourself reeling in huge trout and taking it home for dinner, but lets face it, what are the odds that that will happen.

After a minute of dreaming what could happen today fly fishing and tying on my boots, I start to walk down to the river. Once you take one step in these shoes it’s as if you’re walking with a bunch of nails on the bottom of your shoes. If traction is to help your shoes get grip, and this wasn’t traction, I don’t even know what is.

I walk to the stream and pick up my fly rod that has been laying on a rock for a few minutes and I look at the line to see if there are any tangles or knots, but before I can think I see a couple of mayflies. Looking at them up close you could tell why some would call them “fish food.” As the little bug walks along my line I pinch his two wings together and gently set him on a rock, only forgetting that the rock is almost underwater. I see him walk a bit closer to the water and just like that he is taken away by the current. I focused on him floating downstream prepared to see a fish jump up out of the water and get a quick snack, but he got swept right into the hard water and just like that he was underwater for good.

I tie on my fly and look around at the stream and thinking where to start. I see a nice deep spot right behind a big boulder in the water and I decide to start there.

I take my first cast, wiping my fly line through the air and then letting it fall down on to the water. I watch my dry fly floating downstream. I let it drift into some harder current a bit more then right as I’m about to cast again, I get a strike.

The fish is going almost as crazy as my head is right now. All of my dreaming in the parking lot may just come true, all I know is that I hooked into a big trout. But before I even get close to landing the fish, my fly pops right off the line.

And after that day, all I think about is how big that trout might’ve been. I tell stories about it too, like any other fisherman, the fish in the story is a lot bigger than it was in real life. But one thing that is true about my story is how I end it, just thinking why I didn’t take my time to tie a good, strong knot, and then just maybe, that fish would’ve stayed hooked.

About the Author

Throughout the school year, I believe that I have improved as a writer. I never was a good writer to start out with, I never knew many ideas to write about or I didn’t know how to check my “GUMS” correctly. I feel like you become a better writer step by step. The school year feels like it’s going on forever but in the end, if you haven’t been practicing enough, there's not much improvement. For example I started out the year not writing that well and that’s mostly because of summer break and how I forgot a lot of editing techniques and writing skills. This is why you need to learn the most you can through the school year or else you’ll find yourself learning a lot of the same things every year. During my seventh grade year we have gotten a lot of writing assignments. I have practiced my editing and used the rubric to check things over before turning it in. I believe that I have progressed as a writer because I am using more editing techniques that I didn’t use before. Also I am thinking of more ideas, mostly basing my ideas around the activities I enjoy to do.  When you write about a activity or thing you like doing, you enjoy it more than you would if you were writing about something boring. Becoming a better writer also depends on how you think of it and what your attitude is about for your form of writing. This is one way I improved as a writer, choosing ideas that you enjoy so you can write something that you would like to share or even just talk about. I believe choosing your idea is the one of the most important parts of writing and I improved in choosing my ideas and that’s why I think I’m a better writer.