Senior Spotlight: Take up challenge of writing in retirement

By Gary Raham
North Forty News

For a child with enough learning disabilities that one teacher thought he was "slow" and needed special classes, Tom Viola has come a long way.

He earned degrees in physics, engineering physics and electrical engineering, not to mention an executive MBA. He also enjoyed a 30-year career with Hewlett Packard before retiring seven years ago.

Viola then decided to do the impossible--or something that seemed impossible to him: write a book of fiction. His entertaining first novel, "The Gumshoe Chronicles, 1920," (written with editorial collaboration from Judy, his wife of 40 years) appeared in 2009.

Viola is not alone. Many seniors either take up writing in retirement or expand their writing skills and talents after leaving the full-time work force.

Viola's initial goal was to write something for friends and relatives, but he soon discovered that friends and relatives rarely, if ever, provided enough constructive criticism to allow him to improve his craft.

Struggling writers can get the feedback they seek in at least two ways: hire a professional writing coach or join a group of writers who provide a more or less dispassionate appraisal of each other's work.

So far, Viola has opted for the first approach by hiring writing coach Teresa Funke. She has provided five pages worth of comments for nearly every rewrite.

"She didn't pull any punches," said Viola. "She told me what did and didn't work."

Writing groups can provide similar benefits. Nancy Phillips, a northern Colorado writer, said that one of the biggest rewards to belonging to a group is "getting good and helpful feedback from people who are not only writers, but also serious readers."

Of course, those writers may be working in a variety of genres and for varying age levels. Phillips writes fiction with older protagonists. Others in the group write poetry, children's middle grade and young adult fiction, memoirs, mysteries and science fiction.

Viola worried about his ability to give advice to other writers because writing came hard for him as a young professional, and he didn't have confidence in spelling, grammar and other technical aspects of writing.

He first tried science fiction because of his science background, but he didn't tend to read the genre and his attention wandered from the writing at hand when he got absorbed in some interesting research detail. He had read lots of mysteries, however, and he had grown up as an Italian in New York familiar with at least some aspects of street life in ethnic neighborhoods.

That meshed with Judy Viola's experience with big city law enforcement. "I had cops in my family," she said.

To improve his writing skills, Viola wrote a series of short stories. One of them about an aging private investigator--who later developed into the young, post World War I protagonist in "The Gumshoe Chronicles"--evoked memories of places Viola could visualize from his childhood. These places looked nearly the same in the 1950s as they looked in the 1920s.

"I could see these places in my mind," said Viola. "I've always been a strong visual learner."

Viola continues to write because he likes to see improvement in his skills, but also because each day is a surprise. "I'm very analytical," he said, "so I tried writing plot outlines at first, but that didn't work."

Now, he sits down at the computer, visualizes a scene and writes what he sees. "I never know what's coming next," he said.

Even people who wrote for a living, like Mim Neal, a member of Phillips' group, find rewards in the different focus that can come with retirement.

"I earned my living by writing for more than 26 years," said Neal, "but I was always telling someone else's story. Retirement has allowed me to work on telling my own."

Neal recently completed a fictionalized memoir based on the memories and artifacts of her female ancestors.

All the writers interviewed agreed that reaching an audience was part of the writing goal. That can include publication-- either by a commercial house (which can be very difficult), self-publishing or just the other members of a writing group.

The writers also agreed that satisfaction in seeing their writing get "better and better" (Tom Viola) and "knowing that I got it right" (Neal) was paramount. If writing is a passion or impossible dream, "give it a whirl," said Phillips.

To connect with other writers in northern Colorado, visit www.ncwc.biz. This group offers support to writers through various workshops, an annual conference and networking opportunities that may allow a fledgling writer to find a suitable writing group to join.

Also, the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators offers similar resources for those writing and illustrating for a young audience. Visit www.rmcscbwi.org.

Gumshoe debuts

Joey Batista returned from World War I with the "special ops" skills of a killer and the unsolved death of a former girlfriend on his mind.

As a former gang member in a tough New York borough, and with various "connections" with mobsters as well as the police, he opened a private eye business and hoped for the best.

As cases and various liaisons with gorgeous assistants multiply, the fate of his former love still eludes him until the very end of his violent first year as a PI. Joey learns "if you're gonna survive, you gotta call up your demons, and just hope they don't destroy you."

For more about T. J. Viola's debut novel, "The Gumshoe Chronicles, 1920," visit OutSkirtsPress.com. The title is available at www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com