Where does writing take you?
Lately I've had touching messages from young people who very much want to write and are looking for ways to start--but their studies or having to earn a living threaten to get in the way of creativity. I understand this only too well. I wanted to write from primary school but by the age of 19 I was still producing literary fragments that came nowhere near expressing what I really wanted to say. I was in my mid-twenties, on the other side of the world with my nomadic family, working as a part-time teacher, before I suddenly decided to use the evenings to scribble an historical novel. I was in France, so it was set in the Yvelines district where I worked, not far from Versailles, in the time of Louis XIV. An MS long since lost, though I did send it to a UK agent who said nice things.
So this is what I wrote back to a 19-year-old who messaged me recently: 'I'm not sure whether I'm the best person to advise on the writing journey--I wanted to be a writer from the age of 8 but didn't write my first novel as an adult until I was 25! This was because I thought I wanted a literary career but in fact my real desire was to write historical novels. I suggest a good starting place for you might be to decide what kind of work you read most--that is, are you keen on poetry, song writing, literary prose, short story, or maybe popular fiction, memoir etc? Then write a little each day to see how it goes. Good luck!'
To continue the theme for others, I just updated the photo on my Facebook page Cheryl Sawyer-Author as telling evidence of where writing may take you if you really dare to be creative. In 1998 my first novel, La Créole, was published. In 2007 Nicholas Gentile read it, loved it and wrote to me asking whether I'd help him write a musical of the story. He was 16 years old. I met him, was super impressed with his musicality, we went ahead with co-composer Julia Plummer, and La Créole the musical eventually received two partial performances, the first at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne in 2010. In 2017 I found myself writing the story and libretto of an opera and of course approached Nick to ask if he wanted to compose the music. This gave rise to Émilie & Voltaire the opera, then a cinematic film scenario, then a proof-of-concept film made in 2020, which won an award at the Paris Film Festival in 2021. With me in the photo are Nick, Julie Lea Goodwin (Émilie) and Rob McDougall (Voltaire) outside a private recording studio in 2020.
From my first novel to an opera film: what a totally unpredictable trajectory. To beginning writers: keep going! You absolutely never know where your writing may take you. It could be your best adventure yet.
To hear some of the opera, click on the YouTube button at the bottom of this page. For my latest historical crime novel, Murder at Cirey, click the Amazon button.
