Catching the big one

Still, fishing and writing had a good deal in common. You had to wait and be prepared to catch what came your way. You had to know the difference between a shadow and the real thing.

Alice Hoffman, The Invisible Hour

The above lines are the thoughts of Nathaniel Hawthorne in the novel The Invisible Hour, but we can be sure they are also the thoughts of the author Alice Hoffman, who has written nearly 40 books.

So are writing and fishing really similar? Any metaphor can be taken too far. Asking writers what they use for bait might be one example of this. Still, Hoffman has put her finger on a couple of similarities.

First, she suggests that writing, like fishing, is both an active and a passive pursuit. Those who like to fish put effort into locating the right spot and gathering the right equipment. Then, assuming one is fishing with a rod and reel, one waits for a fish to bite. A writer can do the research and locate a quiet place to write, but then must hope the right idea or the right words to express that idea will come along.

And then there is the matter of recognizing the right idea or the right way of expressing that idea when it comes. Which fish are keepers and which are not? Even after as many novels as Hoffman has written, she probably goes through dry spells. Some days the fish just aren't biting. Other days she reels in one big one after another. Some ideas works. Others don't and must be tossed back.

In her novel, Hawthorne is a young man who wants to be a writer, but the big fish or the big idea continues to elude him. The Scarlet Letter is still far in the future. But he keeps his line in the water.