Hmmmmm well writing eh? Funny game...
The fact is that due to time or other constraints of the features I write in a year and there are a lot of em (let's see Rimmer News, Rimmer American News, Rimmer European Airport News, Rimmer UK Airport News and Rimmer American Airport News). I dunno off the top of my head hmmm ok let's say...oh... eight to ten a month (which dosent sound like much but then theres news and interviews and what not)
I'm probably really truly happy with no more than four or five...a year. Which either means I'm really not very good at it or I have high standards...I'm not sure which ...but guesss what when I talk to colleagues and the wine is flowing that's pretty much what everyone says...
Here's another thing...
In defence of the GA colleagues I have the advantage of having a readership base witha a fairly uniform knowlege level - so there's no need to explain things to those that need it at the risk of hacking of those who already know it. The same cannot be said of a newstand/general public based readership and that needs to be taken into account.
and another...
Folks submitting articles....it's like this... most people think they can write - most people are wrong. Writing is a craft like any other and has skills which have to be learned. Honestly, some of stuff we get is appalling beyond belief. In fact if one of our folks produced it would be frank chat with NO biscuits time. (no matter HOW much weapons training they've had WO79 ...ya havent got yer SA80 now and I'm not scared of your exploding sandwich either).
Moving on, just because you send something in (OK it's different if it is comissioned) you are in effect touting for business in the same way that a mailshot or an insert in a magazine is after your business. You don't reply to mailshot unless they want to buy right? Why should this be any different? (actuallly I don't think the "but I worked really hard on this" arguement stands up here since the mailshot folks work really hard on their fliers too).
Finally...
I read and enjoy ther three main GA rags and there isa good stuff in all of them - of course not all of it is interesting to me but I accept that
Ref Flying yeas there is some really excellent stuff in it - in many ways It is a benchmark but I can't help thinking that it takes itself just a wee bit too seriously and as a consequence tends to be almost without humour (Ahhh Bax where are you now?)
Ah well chunter over back to writing