Changes

As for me, I think I would have jumped ship. Climbing the ratlines to get 100 feet or more above deck would have terrified me, if not killed me. As far as what I might have enjoyed…. I would have liked to have been the helmsman on one of those ships, sledding downwind under full canvas with a full moon lighting the way, lines taut and straining with a freshening night breeze on my face. Under those fairweather conditions, I might also have liked to be offered one of Captain Morgan’s Havana cigars.

RL: I would say that fiction writing is quite different, and quite a bit more demanding. A news story is generally written quickly, hopefully understandably. Brevity is important. So is simplicity and accuracy. You want your readers, listeners or viewers to get the main point of your story. That’s the bottom line. The result is that you are telling the reader what you want them to know without too many subtleties. A long magazine article obviously is a bit more complex.