“If you’re going to write, you have to read.”Larry Warwaruk, The Outlook feature story by John McPhail October 2011
The road to becoming a writer is not an easy one but Tony Peter, local author, playwright and poet, says the end result is definitely worth the effort and he is inviting other aspiring writers to join him on the journey.
Peter, the author of several published works including Bones of the Holy Man, Genome, and four volumes of The Crystals of Goern, began writing as a child in about the sixth grade. “The first thing I remember writing was drawing some comics. There was always some sort of science fiction or science basis to it,” he explained.
English was not his strength in high school and admits he “skimmed through first year English” at university, but even then he enjoyed the writing component of the course, and his creativity was already becoming well formed. “I remember writing an alternate history from about 800 BC to the birth of Christ, set in an imaginary country.”
Peter went on to become a teacher and found little time to devote to writing. But it was while teaching in Rama in 1987 that the spark was rekindled a bit when a fellow teacher asked him to cover her grade 5 & 6 English class. They were reading Fantasy literature so he asked what selection they were studying. In what turned out to be a significant request, the teacher asked, “Would you write a story for them for Monday?”
Peter protested saying, “It’s Friday. I can’t have something ready for Monday.” But his colleague assured him, “Oh, I think you probably can.” Despite warning her she better have something prepared for him, he sat down that night and wrote a short story which he called The Crystals of Goern.
In the years that followed he spent more time thinking about what he had written. “I did a little bit of a prelude to the short story, wrote a little bit after, but it just didn’t seem to come together.” He couldn’t see yet where it was going, but he knew there was more to tell.
A move to Quill Lake got the creative juices flowing. “We were living on a farm and I got the urge to write. Everybody would go to bed and at about 11:00 at night I’d sit down at the computer and honestly there were times an hour and a half or two hours later I would look back and say, ‘where did this come from?’ It was just flowing. It was exhilarating and so much fun,” he shared. The Crystals of Goern was now a novel.
Another move brought Peter and his family to Outlook where he became principal at LCBI and had no time for story writing. But upon retirement he felt he should try and do something with his story. So he wrote a sequel! Eager to get some feedback, he reached out to well-known local author Larry Warwaruk. “He was hesitant,” Peter shared, “and I understand why. He could be inundated with people wanting him to read stuff.” But Warwaruk agreed to read one chapter.
They met at a local coffee shop for a chat, and that conversation put Peter’s writing on a new trajectory. “I got the paper back and it’s got red marks all over it,” he said with a laugh, including a very exciting statement Warwaruk wrote at the end: “You must get this published.” That was thrilling, since it was an assessment based on a single chapter and it gave Peter the encouragement to keep writing. But there was more. Warwaruk invited him to join a writer’s group in Beechy.
Peter became part of that group and has been deeply appreciative of the experience for the past 15 years where he received help with all aspects of writing including editing and finding character’s voices. But with changes occurring as members moved from the community, or sadly, passed away, including Warwaruk who played such an influential role, the time has come to look at a new opportunity.
Peter is determined to keep a writer’s group going and is looking to Outlook as the place to make that happen. “We need to increase our numbers,” he said. “There’s just a few active members in Beechy but there are people around here interested in writing and it would be good for us to get together, to form a group, and read each other’s writing.”
A writer’s group would meet about once a month to read what others are working on. “Everybody gets a copy of what is going to be shared,” Peter explained. “People read through it and then there’s a critique. We’re very careful that it’s style and grammar, not the material that’s up for critique, because that’s the writer’s own material.”
Joining the Outlook Writer’s group also means joining the Saskatchewan Writer’s Guild. There is a fee involved which opens doors not only to membership in a local group, but wider opportunities as well. “The benefit of that writer’s guild fee is that a portion comes back to the local writer’s group and then we can use it to put on workshops or attend workshops elsewhere. In the past we’ve held several workshops or we go on a retreat,” Peter remarked.
If joining a writer’s group is something you might consider, you are encouraged to contact [email protected] to find out more. The group is gauging interest and recruiting potential members, hoping to get going in the near future. All genres and styles are welcome. Peter himself has presented poetry, plays, and fiction to the group and says they’ve had all kinds of writers including a very technical writer. “We welcome new people that may not have a big portfolio behind them but that are willing to put something down and let it be shared,” he said.
Peter will be taking part in the River and Rail ArtVenture June 26 & 27 and would enjoy talking with anyone wanting to learn more about the group, whether you are a seasoned writer or just starting out. His words for all are, “write from the heart. I think Shakespeare was right when he said ‘to thine own self be true.’ As a writer I think that’s really important.”
When it comes to opening yourself up to critique, American novelist Harper Lee once noted, “I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.” Peter said his experience in the writing group hasn’t required a thick skin but instead has given him confidence in his content. He recalls presenting a story to the group who told him it should have ended at an earlier point and didn’t need the last chapter. Driving home that night he asked one of the writers if she agreed with that assessment. She assured him the story belonged to him and that he could end it wherever he wanted to end it. “That’s the best piece of advice I’ve gotten,” he remarked. “Whatever you write, it’s yours.”
