I Never Dreamed About Being a Published Author

People often ask me if I always wanted to be an author. No. It never crossed my mind. I remember reading a novel and thinking I could never write something like this. I didn’t write stories as a child. I honestly never had the writing bug like so many authors. I liked sports, going to the movies, and reading.

Now when I read one of my book reviews, I will often shake my head, “They can’t be talking about me.”

I’ve always considered myself to be at best an average writer. There was a time when I was a horrible writer.

Sometimes, I believe that readers are just being nice. To a certain extent, I had the same thought pattern when I was working full-time. I am my biggest critic and fierce one at that.

“Willie Handler's book grabs you from the first paragraph to the last word.”

“I could start by saying what a talented writer Willie Handler is…”

“Handler's crisp, direct writing and sarcastic humor makes this a fun read.”

“Mr. Handler's writing is truly the good news, and I can't wait to read more.”

“There is a straightforwardness to Handler’s prose, as facts and figures are marshaled out, signaling that, while satire, the issues and processes of bureaucratic government are real.”

“The immersive narrative and witty, quirky characters are very Fargo-esque. Bravo, author!”

Although I was a serious reader as a child, it never seemed to help my writing. I remember really struggling in Literature classes despite the fact that English is my first language. I was very strong in Math and Physics. This played out in every aptitude test I’ve ever taken - well above the average in math skills while average or below average in language skills.

When I was entering university in 1971, we had to take a standard Canadian university admissions test. While purging my files for a move into a condo, I came across my test results. I scored 94th percentile in math skills, 63rd percentile in verbal skills, and 22nd percentile in language proficiency.

Scoring just 22nd language proficiency means that I didn’t possess the necessary reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills to succeed in university. Somewhere along the way, the education system had failed me. Or maybe I failed myself. I was none for not working very hard in high school and especially course work that didn’t interest me.

Not very impressive for a future author.

So what changed?

In graduate school I found public policy to be quite interesting even though it wasn’t my major. I was in a program for health administration. I began writing health policy papers and had one published in a Canadian journal in the 1980s.

In 1987, I was hired by the Ontario Workers’ Compensation Board (now the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board) to work on policy development. I had a knack for conceptualizing and analysis. Writing everyday developed writing skills that were no existent 15 years prior. For 25 years, I wrote briefing note, reports, Cabinet submissions, consultation papers, task force reports, industry bulletins, and stutory reports. I had transformed into a writer without even realizing it.

I walked away from that world (except for the occasional freelance job) 14 years ago. Wow, has it been that long? I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do back then. After several years of searching, a friend suggested I consider creative writing. “You already know how to write.”

I thought about it. I had always liked the idea of writing novels but didn’t believe I had the necessary skill set. Yet I had been writing for much of my professional life. How different can it be?

I can tell you now, it’s a lot different.

Technical writing is about informing and influencing. It all depends on who is your audience. The informing aspect is to educate the reader about a specific topic. Sometimes, these documents are large info dumps. The influencing part involves selling the reader an idea or public policy position. The reader might be my boss, a politician, or government stakeholders. The audience would really vary. I consider academic and journalistic writing to be similar to what I did.

Creative writing is nothing like technical writing. It’s using imagination or invention to entertain. Although I should point out that some fiction authors do use their novels to inform and influence. A historical fiction book about slavery may be informative and intended to influence readers on social justice issues. But for the most part, it has to be entertaining, Technical writing is rarely entertaining.

I finally decided to try writing a novel and had a particular story in mind. I began writing parts of the story down although not in any particular order. Probably because I didn’t even know where the story should start. I thought it would be prudent to take a novel writing course. That helped because at least I had some basic understanding of the structure of a novel, character development, plot, etc.

The biggest change for me was writing dialogue. I had never done it. I struggled with dialogue for a while until I literally found my “voice.” The structural part of dialogue took me a little longer, ig, the use of dialogue tags.

Several years into creative writing, I think I’ve successfully made the transition. I’ve landed on a style and genre that I enjoy and feels comfortable. Technical writing provided me with a strong base to start from, but I had to relearn how to write. It’s been a fun journey.

Then I decided to write my memoir which is totally different style of writing. Again, I needed to find a different “voice.” I found nonfiction to be a hybrid of technical writing and creative writing because it had elements of both. Even in a nonfiction book, you need to be able to tell a story and hold your readers’ interest. But like technical writing, it requires considerable research. I had already learned during my years in the government how to take technical information and make it understandable to lay people.

Having now written five books and launching into a sixth soon, I can say that I am an author and proud of my work.