When I think of my almost 14 years of writing a weekly essay my mind goes to the variety of genres that focused on over the years. What began as stories of my childhood growing up in the Australian Bush written for my then small children has gone well beyond what my initial objective was.
I wanted my kids to know who I was and some of the stories from my eclectic life so that over time they could be passed down to their families, as I had very little knowledge of my parents lives or backgrounds. I guess it was my way of remedying the situation.
Now, my kids Zach and Sam are 26 and 24 respectively with lives of their own to lead perhaps my weekly essays aren’t as relevant as they perhaps once were.
Over the years I’ve written about my childhood, but also way beyond to include stories of reinvention based on my experiences after my dad passed away and my marriage ended all within months.
My writing helped me through this difficult time, and although not a skilled writer at the time persevered and buoyed by my readers encouragement.
Although one of the greatest personal pleasures of all my writing have been those associated with my travels. Exploring both the well-trodden streets of Europe, Asia, North Africa, the Middle East and North America, to a few off the beaten track countries and cities has been both fun and exciting.
My travels have been such a rich experience capturing these stories and sharing them with you, it also over time spawned a podcast series aptly entitled “Stories from the road”.
Another genre that I’ve enjoyed writing about over the years has been centered around self-reflection, personal growth and a positive mindset. Perhaps in many ways it has been an extension of my therapy but also topics close to my heart in terms of shedding light on these important personal topics and helping guide others with changing their outlook on life.
I realize sometimes that I’ve hit a cord with some of you, perhaps bringing up topics that are a little too close to home and that you may or may not have personally dealt with quite yet. Although not meant to be confronting, when you read the words sometimes your memories flood back into your brain and it becomes too difficult…
All I want to say is that I understand this type of situation all too well.
What I have fallen in love with over these past 14 years is the act of writing and expressing myself via the written word.
When I look back at my accomplishments over that period I’m proud to say that I have been able to not only write an ongoing weekly essay for so many months and years continuously, but also to have and published two books (Indelible Adventures and Una Storia d’amore).
In addition, to these writing activities I’ve also been working on a series based in Vietnam in the mid 1980’s which has been both challenging but engaging. I’m not sure if this micro-fiction will turn into a screenplay as I had originally intended or if it’s published as a written series. I’m currently working on episode 130 and getting toward the climax of the storyline.
The challenge in writing such a unique piece of work is the amount of research required to keep it relatively accurate while keeping the storyline compelling. Although the characters are fictional, the story line has be aligned to history and the thoughts, feelings and emotions and mores of the era. I would contend that for every episode my research time is anywhere from 2 – 6 hours.
Again, the love of writing along with the character development have been the most enjoyable aspects of this endeavour.
Who knew that when I began my weekly essay back in early October 2011 that I would still be writing today. Certainly not me!
A huge benefit of my writing career has been that I’ve learned to listen more, speak less and observe human behaviour with eye for the underlying storyline. This has also translated in the lens of my camera over this time and helps me set my photography apart from others.
In essence I’ve come a storyteller. Whether it’s one of my personal stories, my point-of-view on a topic or an observation regarding my travels and experiences all these abilities have coalesced into learning how to tell stories.
I suppose in all I’ve written over 720 essays, each on average around 850 words per essay which translates into 612,000 words just for my essays alone. Then add both books, scripts for podcasts plus micro-fiction series I think we’re looking at somewhere in the vicinity of over 800,000 words.
Now to put this into some perspective the critically acclaimed (for its storyline and its length) is War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy with some 587,287 words, and don’t forget the King James Version of the bible and its whopping 783,137 words. Each of these is voluminous in their own right but it’s a way to measure the scale of my writing.
If nothing more I’ve become an avid storyteller in all aspects of my life, but only you, the reader can determine if my writing is any good…
Until next week
Ciao!
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