Writings as Fish Hooks

I was reading a collection of Friedrich Nietzsche‘s writing the other day and came across this statement from a preface to one of his books:

“From this moment forward, all my writings are fish hooks: perhaps I know how to fish as well as anyone?–If nothing was caught, I am not to blame. There were no fish.”

There is much to consider in this statement, and I plan on using it in my next writing workshop as a discussion prompt.

A couple of questions enter my mind: what if there were fish, and nothing was caught? Are readers to be considered something to hook? How does a writer even know he has caught a reader? Does it matter to the reader who the fisherman is?

It is an interesting notion to think of a piece of writing as a fish hook. It is an easy metaphor to apply and sometimes having a metaphor as a writer can inspire. Think archaeologist or chef.

I think with my next writing project, I might employ this fish hook metaphor.