The Discipline and Curiosity that Leads to the AHA! Moment

It wasn’t until my mid-twenties that I had my “Aha!” moment. You know, that moment sudden inspiration comes, and you realize that you want to be a writer, and maybe, just maybe you could be “successful” at it. But in order to arrive at that Aha! Moment, I had to invest years of labor, passion, and curiosity into other types of work.

When it hit, I was working as a sustaining process engineer for a local company at their semiconductor manufacturing facility. The demands of the job were intense. It involved many long nights engaged in troubleshooting processes, repairing or modifying equipment, and years of days packed with statistical analysis.

This was back in the mid 80’s, and I felt fortunate to be picked to develop AI capability in the manufacturing of our semiconductor chips. It wasn’t AI as we understand it now but more so a knowledge-based system that was comprised of thousands of if/then statements. Through my mid-twenties this became a pet project of mine which I tackled wholeheartedly. My own “knowledge base” was challenged and broadened as I learned different techniques of programming and implementing new applications and interfaces.

It was also one of my first entrees into professional writing. While working on the AI project, I was asked to write a paper on one of the more esoteric processes used for metal deposition, and to draft the accompanying Design of Experiment results. I was proud to see this published in a quarterly physics journal, a personal writing “success” of sorts.

But I needed an outlet beyond that, something that would replenish me both physically and mentally in my downtime. I turned to Martial Arts, something I had been doing since my early tweens. Also, I began to read for fun again. Something that had been pushed aside by the pressures of everyday life.

My foray into martial arts, having achieved my 1^st degree black belt, concentrated on becoming a competitive kickboxer. It is safe to say that there were many early hour workouts and lunchtime runs to achieve what became a modicum of success in the ring. Through this I grew in mind, body, and soul. I also learned self-discipline and commitment, budgeting my time as needed, pushing myself to continue to achieve, to become more “successful”. This was a time of dichotomy in my life. I trained hard, developing a mindset to overcome both physical and mental challenges. In my fighting circle everyone new everyone else. Yes, I prepared to do bodily harm on another human being, but without animosity. We were all colleagues, all trying for the same goal, to win, but win by the rules. During this time, I was exposed to training that included working with some of the finest fighters and coaches in the world. I decided at that time my next goal was to own my own school, so I pursed the business side of the martial arts with increasing fervor. Over the next four years I learned a lot about the business of martial arts, the development of a fighter as a fighter, both mentally and physically, and even more importantly, I learned about myself.

A person’s body and mind can only take so much work, so in the little additional downtime I had while balancing these two careers, I turned to reading. Reading for me was a passion, something I had developed early in childhood. I still remember the stories of Bamba the Jungle Boy, and the Monster by The Lake, or the Miss. Pickeral series from second grade. Now I devoured books quickly, even those that were long and challenging, reading a multitude of genres. I read anything by Tom Clancy that I could get my hands on, A Clear and Present Danager, Patriot Games, Cardinal of the Kremlin, and others, often waiting expectantly for his next work to come out. There was also John Irving, I had started reading his material as a young adult, which had an enormous effect on me. While Setting Free the Bears was what made me a fan, I found The World According to Garp enthralling, and what I would consider real literature. Maybe not Don Quixote but a serious work nonetheless. There was also the Sci-Fi I loved, some fantasy and some hard science, Fredrick Phol’s HeeChee series especially.

One day, among the balance of all these commitments and passions, it happened. My “AHA!” moment flashed into my mind … a loose story that would include science fiction, martial arts, and espionage.

Everything I had mastered or managed in the workplace served as inspiration. My processing work had given me an idea of what to explore with distinct realism. Unknown to most of my colleagues at our manufacturing facility, we had been the target of industrial espionage. Our work was the reason for deep background checks, heightened security measures, and stringent rules surrounding data processing. Yes, there had been a “spy” amongst us. Martial arts had been in my life for so long, since being a “tween,” that I had intimate knowledge of it as an art, a sport, and a business. This provided another piece of the story which was quickly forming. The popular fiction I had been reading provided a base that I could draw from, a way to learn how to write, authors to emulate.

So, it began. My decision to write this novel gave me a sense of freedom. I told myself that if I could conceive it, I could write it and write it well. That was egotistical, but at the time it made sense. Since then, the story has turned into a book, a novel, that I keep plugging away at, even these forty years later, maybe someday to be published.

Now I write every day. Not necessarily on my book, but I write. I’ve tried to branch out. I don’t want to be known only for popular fiction, like many others I enjoy the challenge each project and genre brings. Journaling, travelogues, short stories, and mixed genres are among my new work.  Of everything I’ve learned, and there is so much more to go, the one thing that is common between myself and other writers is that we write every day. I’ve been told to set a schedule for my writing and stick to it, work at it daily, like a job. While that may work for others, now at the age of sixty-eight (at the time of this printing) I write whenever I have time, devoting the same discipline to it that I had when fighting.  Early morning while my wife’s still asleep, late at night while reruns are on TV, or even while I’m in a medical waiting room. But no matter what, I always make sure to create some writing time each day.

Once you have that “AHA!” moment, the major path to “success” is to write, every day, always. Because writing, in and of itself, is “success” to be savored.

H