From Behind The Lens

By Colleen Swartz

Bitching on my Soapbox

So what is the difference between pissing and moaning and editorial? It really is a fine line especially in this magazine because Wildman pretty much lets all of us speak our mind no matter what it is (a refreshing thing indeed to a writer). This month I had prepared a piece when I was in a particularly rabid mood about corporations and “the man” and after re-reading it I did think it sounded just a bit bitchy. Not that I don’t agree with the basic premises of my personal preference to not work and live in a corporate atmosphere (I hope Wildman runs the piece next month so you can read it) but then I read Wildman’s homage to Hunter S. Thompson which was pretty rough in it’s own beautiful way and it got me to thinking….. are we bitching too much?

One of the things that irks me about some magazines (be it motorcycle or otherwise) is an attitude that “we are right, you are lame and screw you all”. I don’t want to sound like that. I have always been the one that thinks we should have “Bike Week” and not “Black Bike Week” and “White Bike Week”. I am the one who welcomes the Honda as well as the Harley to any event and I am the one who strives to point out our similarities instead of our differences.

Writing a column or an article or an editorial or a fiction piece is always a challenge to a writer because you need to follow basic guidelines to make it interesting. You need to have a clear subject, you need to have an antagonist, you need to create a thesis and you need to pull it all together. Those formulas alone often times leads a writer to clue in on a controversial topic, take a stand, and in the case of Cycle Source, do it in a writing style that is extremely conversational and direct. To the point, you sound like you are bitching.