My Writing Journey

Long story short, my writing journey began with my 11 plus exam (the creative writing part), followed many years later by a phone call from a then Disney executive who asked to see a treatment for a children's story I had outlined – on the strength of a persuasive letter I had previously sent to Michael Eisner, the then CEO of The Walt Disney Company.

 

At the time, I had no idea how to write a treatment, but three months later I had one and sent it off to Disney, with, what I thought were engaging, English countryside photographs depicting the story’s setting. 

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The aforementioned exec enjoyed the photographs – as for the treatment, they were “working on something similar”. No worries, I had the bit between my teeth by then and through my day job of graphic design, and love of food, I niched and wrote a regular, anecdotal food and drink column for Aga Living magazine. I've been writing creatively and corporately, ever since.

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I have read umpteen books on writing over the years, also taken screenwriting classes at Raindance, London, which helped tremendously with being economical with words, and as I'm a visual person I'm ever mindful of how scenes would look on a screen. That might be a good or bad thing, I don't know...

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The upshot of all this is that I love to tell stories and I love to write and it's this passion for storytelling that keeps me tapping on my keyboard. I expect my grammar and spelling needs help (thank you autocorrect and spellchecker), and I do endeavour to improve on this as I go with the help of Grammarly and The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr.  – plus the rest.

 

Good luck with your own writing journey, believe in karma and keep on writing.

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P.S. Michael Eisner recently bought Portsmouth FC, which happens to be down the road from me – karma or what? I just might have to drop him another line...