Looking for constructive criticism

[Droopy]

The following is the second draft of the preface to my book about my experiences on the road as a trucker. I'm no literary genius and my formal training in the English language ended when I was 16 years old. What I learned after that I got from reading other writers. There will probably be some grammatical errors and I would appreciate you pointing those out to me as well. I know I will never get anywhere with grammar flaws in my writing. I'm about to get a job that will get me home every day and I'm going to sign up for a few basic classes in English at the local community college to make up for those grammar problems, but until then I will rely on you guys.

All of the following stories are true to the best of my memory aside from the short work of fiction at the end called "Lady Luck." You'll find that some of them have a political slant to them. That is because I wrote them for a political message board on the internet and also because I used to be somewhat interested in politics. I'm not as interested in politics as I used to be, but I included those stories here anyway because I think that they are good stories.

I haven't written this book to sell you a line of shit about how great trucking is or what a great bunch of people truckers are. I wrote this to tell you how it really is. As I write this preface there is a movement among trucking companies and trucking publications trying to "clean up" the industry's image. The "professional" label is being thrown around. To them I have to say that trucking does not attract people with college educations. It attracts poor people, misfits, drop outs, ex-convicts, and losers of all varieties. Trucking does allow people to elevate their status in society, but the majority of us will never be "professionals." We're going to be blue collar, hard working, stinky, grumpy, working class hobos. Some people have a problem with reality. So to all those folks out there who are basically calling truckers assholes by wanting us to behave like "professionals," I invite you to drive cross country for a year and get with the program.

What follows is how it really is based on my experience. I've been a trucker for ten years now. I try to behave like a decent human being. Sometimes I fail, sometimes I succeed. That's life. That's trucking.

[petgoat]

1. Hi Droop

That's a good preface, notably short. The "soul of wit" is brevity, I've heard.

If I were writing it, I would cut out a few words, but you might want to leave it
as is to preserve the "spoken word" flavor.

From the second sentence I would cut "You'll find that," "of them," and "to them"
to make "Some have a political slant."

I can provide similar comments for some other sentences.

I'm not sure I understand your assertion that trucking attracts misfits and losers.
I thought a tractor rig cost $100 K.

[Droopy]

2. Thanks petgoat

Regarding the "truckers are losers" stuff, I thought that the preface might be too negative for that reason. I guess not all truckers are losers. But the field does draw a lot of people who are down on their luck and who are looking for a new start. A lot of truckers start out as poor people for instance. I've trained 4 drivers so far for my company. They were all new to the industry. One was a college drop out. One was a 21 year old kid who was trying to emulate his father (not really a loser I guess). One was a convicted felon who didn't have a pot to piss in. And one was a homeless person. I started driving when I was 24 and I was mentally ill and broke.

Yes, them new trucks go for about 100k, but most truckers do not own their own rigs. They drive company trucks. And of the ones that do own their own rigs, a lot of them buy used trucks that are not nearly as expensive as a new rig. You can get into a good used semi for about as much as you can buy a new SUV.

[yellerpup]

3. Your voice sounds authentic to me

I was in the trucking business 30 years ago and will never forget the (mostly) men I met and worked with back then, and true, college graduates were rare on the driving side. I saw truckers then as the "new cowboys" and that still holds water for me, but I think most people have way too romantic an idea of what cowboys really were. Good luck to you. I'd like to read about trucking and I'm sure there are many more like me out there.