The Joy Of Writing

"There is, perhaps in all of us, an inherent desire to entertain."

In the world of writers it would surely be the Poets who have the most freedom and derive most pleasure from their efforts - though many, if not most, struggle to have their work published and read. At the other end of the scale, Essayists, Biographers and Historians who work within the bounds of a more disciplined form, with targeted subjects and markets in mind, will have far less freedom of expression.

Poets and novelists of the fiction genre are better able to let their creative juices flow, often with wild abandon, and their pleasure in doing so usually translates with immediacy from page to reader. Those firmly intent on commercial success, however, may find themselves bound by dictates that frustrate their artistic freedom. But for those not so commercially driven there is great pleasure to be had in the telling of a tale, and in the process of trying to tell it well – whether it be widely read or not.

Writing, for me, is an obsession. It started many, many years ago. Not at school where I did poorly at Literature and English, but later, when I was overseas and away from family. I would write lengthy letters to them (and to any girlfriend willing to wait for my possible return).

Later, as I continued to remove myself geographically from the folk and friends at home, I came to write lengthy and regular descriptive epistles. My readers at one time even included two friends who found themselves respectively in Her Majesty’s, and Turkey’s prisons. I wrote to describe my new-found surrounds with its novel flora, fauna, customs and people. I would also write of what my partner and I were achieving and experiencing. It was personal.

My compulsion to write, I can only conclude, emanated from a need to share what I experienced and witnessed with absent others who loved and knew me. The act of writing and describing my world was always a pleasure and, for my small group of readers, of sufficiently ‘exotic’ content to be of ongoing interest. From this evolved Zamoa Productions and a travel journal - call it a blog, I don’t mind.

But . . . a Novel?

ART WILL OUT. Sometimes, and from where I have no idea, small flights of fictitious fancy would come to me and I would commit them to paper - and with the onset of computers they began to be transferred to the digital format.

The genesis of The O’Hara Inheritance was no different. Many years ago, a lone Polish sailor anchored his yacht off Alofi, the capital of Niue Island where I was living with my young family. His yacht, a 35ft sloop, was named Miranda and, notably, had no motor – making him a very adventurous globe-trotting sailor indeed. In the week or so he spent visiting the island we shared much knowledge, experiences, hospitality and tales. From this, and just as mysteriously to me, a story evolved. It was somewhat longer in body than my previous ones.

In retrospect, I can see that my experiences while working on yachts in Gibraltar, and the characters that I met while living in various places as a young man, form a large part of the tale: thus a short book, Miranda, came into being.

Naïve as my first literary offering was, I was encouraged to extend the tale into a proper ’book’ by an editor at Sunbury Press in the U.S.A. My wife and, critically, a close friend of mine, Freddo Dirk (a published author), both gave me the encouragement to proceed and instilled the necessary positivity for me to give it a go – to complete it - so I sought the ‘muse’ and, not to mention, some self-discipline. The O’Hara Inheritance was born.

I found it fun, enjoyable. It gave me pleasure to dream up weird and wonderful events and challenges for the characters and to research the places and events that became their lot.  

But, of course, not being a professional ‘author’ requires some learning and, inevitably, there was much re-writing, re-working and vast amounts of re-editing (followed by more re-editing) and so on to bring the tale to a reasonable, readable standard. Being an avid and eclectic reader, too, gave me plenty of work to draw upon for 'technique' and 'style'.

With my wife’s help I managed to do the lay-out work to get it to print-ready stage. Only then was I able to get a small quantity printed and sent out to friends and family. My job was done, I wanted no more.

But then the opportunity arose to publish (free of cost) The O’Hara Inheritance as an eBook - this was only possible with the assistance of my wife who is far more computer-savvy than me. I jumped at this chance as it provided a great opportunity to re-edit the book once again, and to correct many of the printed version’s small spelling mistakes and typos, etc. It was also an opportunity to make small, last-minute improvements.

Ultimately, whether I sell any, few, or none on-line is academic. The whole experience has been one of great pleasure and learning for me and, who knows, because of this eBook manifestation, someone unfamiliar with this ‘writer’ may yet find pleasure in my tale too. That would be a bonus. Happy daze.