My Writing Journey

Hi all
My reading and writing began early. Within my first eight years I was reading Sir Francis Chichester’s exploits, Desmond Bagley and Alistair MacLean. I tried writing but with no premise or characters I rambled about nothing. Between ages 10-12, I did two years at a small country boarding school superior to my previous school and where I wish I could have stayed longer. We focused on fitness, reading, writing and maths. I read The Hardy Boys by the truckload. I wrote a ghost story based in the English town of Tring and got top of the class. I’ve always been interested in ghosts and the supernatural. One of my goals is a night in a haunted castle. I score Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor 10/10.

At boarding school, we looked forward to regular movie nights. I remember that well. We saw it all, from Clint Eastwood to black and white horror to The Alamo to Murder on the Orient Express. These movies showed us different ideas and what was possible out there. From seeing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Alcatraz and The Eiger Sanction, Clint Eastwood was my first screen idol. After seeing Rocky 111 at age 15, Sylvester Stallone became my second. My mother wanted me to see a quieter, locally made film. Sorry, not happening. I was an action/thriller guy, the dark horse in a conservative/business/academic/more literary family.

By age 14 and 15 I was good at dreaming up essays.
Between my late teens and late thirties, I read but my writing fell off. For years, I drifted through various jobs, traveled/backpacked as many do and drifted some more. My parent’s aspirations, albeit well-meaning, were not quite for me. A chance set up date with Jan turned into marriage and got me into commercial flight and then instructor training, something I’d never considered. The flying was top notch but commercial maths stopped me. The private license process was fine but New Zealand commercial training involves Airline Transportation (ATPL) exams, including maths. I’m good at the basics but this was a degree and none of my preparations worked. I walked out of the exam and the industry. Only recently did I find out, by chance, that in English and US aviation they don’t worry about maths. It’s about the flying.

I switched into driving/guiding and eventually began my own tourism business but within two years the assassin-like 2008 GFC got me. I would survive the beating and the lessons around costs, revenue and saving. In the middle of that disruption, I was at the traffic lights one day when the idea of writing a novel randomly popped in. Could I translate my school abilities into a novel? Lock me in a room to brainstorm with pen and paper and I will fail. Leave me to my own devices and the ideas come. I was around forty-five. Better late than never. I thought it was possible but I’d not written anything of substance for a long time and I couldn’t nail down what to write about. On a whim, I looked up one of the masters of the game – the late Wilbur Smith. His advice was to write about what you love which broke the deadlock. I have years of experience in the hills and mountains. Why didn’t I think of that before? No idea.
Immediately I started writing about two guys blasting up a hillside – that remains but in different form. My flight instructor training, usually done in pairs, was a hard, solo experience. So it was with writing. There’s reading your favourite authors and then there’s your own effort which is an altogether different matter and much harder. Creative writing courses conflicted with my business high season. The business had to come first so I went at it alone. I read every week. If you can’t do a proper course, read books, articles, short stories and watch movies. Try to learn how others do plot development and characters.
My premise was alright, but in developing it I would make all manner of stuff ups. Weird plot ideas, dead ends and crap writing cost me about half of the decade that this took. Often, what I thought was cool and well done, wasn’t. I watched movies on the computer with the script sub-titles up. I would get an idea and type it out in my draft and within two days it looked bad. There were re-writes for Africa. You never worry about that. Practice, practice, practice…and practice makes you better. Eventually I did a once per week introductory course at the Creative Hub off season which taught me about the hero’s/heroine’s journey/story arc and about weaving in other ideas and characters. Gradually I figured it out and rewrote two thirds of my work. I kept going because I like my core characters and subject and I was determined to see it through. Tapping into my imagination has been interesting and rewarding.

It seems to me that many are in careers/jobs at the behest of someone else. If you write, make sure that you do so for yourself.

See you
Drew

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