Rod, Reel, and Record Book: Writing for Fur-Fish-Game Magazine by Kevin Dunse

My interest in writing really piqued when I was in middle school, and it arose because a good friend of mine began to write about his experiences in our shared outdoor hobbies—hunting, fishing, and trapping —and submit them to magazines for publication. Admittedly, I was surprised when he found success, and he encouraged me to write and try to do the same. Ultimately, I decided to try my hand at writing my first magazine article on a fishing method I’d developed for catching state-record fish. To explain the method, the Wisconsin DNR will accept records of any legally caught species, so by targeting species of fish that are not generally targeted by sport fishermen, I could catch and submit record specimens far more easily than I would’ve been able to by targeting popular sportfish for which the records are well-known and sought after. 

Writing the article came about pretty easily. It was just a simple, though stylized, description of the method and how I’d executed it, centered around one day where I’d gotten lucky and managed three record fish in one outing. Writing out a query letter was where the process became daunting for me. It’s quite simple, but the process was foreign to anything I’d done before. Though with a little help from my friend, I prepared and sent the email to the editor of Fur-Fish-Game magazine. He was quick to respond with questions regarding the article, which I answered, and he finally agreed to look at it. When it was sent, he told me I’d hear back within four weeks. 

The wait was grueling. My anticipation welled each day, and with every email notification on my phone, I felt my heart well in my chest. Finally, an afternoon weeks later, the editor’s email came, and my article had been declined. Initially, I was crushed. Anyone who has submitted anything for publication anywhere knows that declination is simply part of the process, but I had yet to come to that realization. Fortunately for me, the editor offered suggestions on some revisions that could be made that may better suit Fur-Fish-Game. Chiefly, a shift in focus towards storytelling rather than methodology. That nightI feverishly made the changes and sent the revised article back to the editor. 

The response to this email came in just a few days, and I was elated to find that, though the editor didn’t feel that the piece held up as a feature-length article, it was suitable for publication as a shorter piece. Months later, when the piece ran, I was able to walk into Walmart and take up a piece of my own writing off the shelf. Though I didn’t pursue professional writing in college, this experience instilled within me a profound respect for the discipline, and I have since published two more articles with Fur-Fish-Game, as well as having one currently pending publication.