A Chinese friend asked me how to become a writer.  She wants to become a writer.  So, here's what I wrote in an email.

            As for getting published, several things happened.  The first was the most important.  In the same way, after I said "I speak Chinese" when I could only say "你好" I decided in high school that I would become a writer.  I didn't want to be a full time writer.  I had already decided I wanted to be a biologist, specifically, an ornithologist.  Nothing else interested me.

            So, how did I transition from an ordinary high school student into becoming a writer in about 45 years?  Two things happened in high school.  Since I hated studying English (my least favorite subject) I was delighted to find English teachers liked people who thought and wrote.  It didn’t matter if I used poor English if I tried to write and had some sort of idea of what to talk about.  Second, with nothing else of interest to study in high school, my friends and I decided to study journalism. 

            Since my high school had only about 250 student and only 33 in my grade, my friends and I suddenly found ourselves in control of the high school newspaper, as co-editor, news editor, and feature editor.  Suddenly, three unpopular boys had control of the school newspaper, in a class of four boys and seventeen girls.  We liked those odds.  We became writers.  How I became interested in biology and birds is another story for another day.

            Soon, I found myself in college (long story) and became involved with the dorm newsletter.  During my second year, I decided to create a newsletter in a new dorm when I heard they had no such newsletter.  I started printing it completely independently!  This led to my first officially published document.

            As a budding ornithologist, I was always disappointed newspapers had no articles on wild birds.  The closest thing newspapers talked about to my area of interest was hunting.  Hunting and killing birds was the last thing I wanted to read about!  So, I decided to submit an article to the newspaper.  I wrote an article about spring migration, the wild birds moving north though our area from their wintering habitat to their northern breeding grounds.  Despite my request to be paid, the newspaper printed my article and failed to pay me!  In fact, they printed two of them!

            As a scientist, I developed a desire to publish a research paper.  Unfortunately, my life led me into other ways to make a living.  For several years after graduation, I worked as a salesman, a carpenter, and a teacher, among other things.  Then, at age 36, I decided to go to graduate school for the third time.  (For the entire story, read my autobiography).  My desire to publish had never left me, even as I taught children how to write.

            When my first marriage showed signs of failing, I decided to write my autobiography, Windsong, my first book.  Photocopied in 1991, the first version of Windsong only covered my childhood (1952-1970).  It has grown in the last few years to more than 275,000 words and is still growing.  It will be completed on the day I die!

            I wrote my master’s thesis in 1989-1991 and wanted to see it published.  Finally, at the age of 42, I published my first scientific research article: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4033662?uid=3739744&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21103431062093 (paper copies available for the cost of postage worldwide).   I was well on my way to becoming a writer.  As a botanist and ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service, I was not pushed to publish, but I wanted to publish.  After all, good scientists publish their research.  I decided to write a book on the Carex sedges of Arkansas.

            Giving myself 20 years, I started on my book in my spare time as I worked for the Forest Service.  The government likes people who can write, so I had found my niche.  I started writing and editing agency documents and even edited every word of the 500+ page of the Forest Plan of the Kisatchie National Forest (http://www.fs.usda.gov/land/kisatchie/landmanagement). This led to an official job as a writer and editor.  From 2003 to 2008 I worked in the Southern Regional Office of the U. S. Forest Service as a writer and editor.

            After retiring early in 2008, I had some time and decided to write my first book, Moose Creek.  It should be sent to a publisher this spring.  Since then, I have started several other books:

            Fayetteburg: the story of a Chinese graduate student attending the University of Arkansas.

            Kisatchie: a love story of a botanist who unwillingly falls in love.

            松涛 (Windsong=风之歌): 中文版

            Arkansas Carex: only available electronically

            All this writing took an unexpected turn in the last ten years.  On Feb. 26, 2004, I walking into a bookstore during my lunch hour and wanted to find something meaty to read.  I found myself in the foreign language section looked at a Chinese phrase book for travelers.  I thought, “Well, Atlanta (my home town at the time) has Chinese people living here.  If I am going to learn Chinese, now is a good time.”

            This led to contacts with Chinese students at the University of Arkansas when I returned to my home state.  They led me to QQ and other websites where I met other Chinese people.  Both groups, students in the U.S. and people in China were delighted to find an American who could help them with English.  This led to editing companies.  As a result, I now edit scientific research papers from China and worldwide; last week one was from Lithuania.  I retired too early to get all my retirement benefits.  My wife, a nurse, and I now edit and help people in China full time from our home.  We also do a little teaching of English.  She enjoys teaching Chinese children.

            So, that’s my story.  To answer your question simply, let’s go back to it.  How do you become a professional writer?  The same question applies to “How do you learn Chinese when no one you know speaks Chinese?”  The first step is the most important one.  Decide what you are.  I am an ornithologist because I decided to become one.  I am a writer because I thought, “I’m going to be a writer.”  I speak Chinese because, once I could say “你好,” I started saying, “I speak Chinese.” 

            Much of life is that way.  One small decision changes our lives.  Don’t think, “I want to be a writer” or “I want to speak English better.”  Think, “I am a writer and I speak English.”  In this way, you will do things that make those goals reality.  I am a writer because, in high school, I thought, “I am going to be a writer” and I took action by writing poems.  I can speak a little Chinese because I told myself in 2004, “I speak Chinese” when I only knew two words in Chinese.  I am going to finish writing my autobiography in Chinese not because I hope to do so.  I already made that decision.  My task now is easy, the same task any writer faces, putting it down on paper.  The hardest thing to write is the first word.  The hardest part of learning a language is the first word.  The rest is easy.  It just takes time.  We all have the same amount of that to work with (=today).

            Lastly, I will end with my shortest poem.  It was the shortest one I ever wrote.  I wrote it while I was in college.  The poem has no title and you will soon know why.  Think of becoming a writer or translator simply, like this poem.

phar out