Why I chose to write.

By Peter Schechter Thursday, 13 November 2008 21:21

A lot of people ask me why I write.  Don’t I have enough to do with running a fifty person political consulting firm in Washington?   Doesn’t the board of directors of a six restaurant company keep me busy enough?  Isn’t co-owning an Israeli winery exciting enough?  And a farm with sixty goats, three donkeys, three llamas and two horses; isn’t that sufficiently “extra-curricular”?

The answer is yes to all of the above.  I live a wonderful, exciting life. But for a long time, I knew I wanted to write an exciting novel, a thriller.  I did not know if could do it. I had to try. After fifteen years of advising presidents, writing advertising for political parties, ghost-writing columns for CEO’s, and counseling international organizations out of crises, I decided to take on a client-less, deadline-less world.  Taking two days a week from his office, I wrestled my computer to the floor and fulfilled a dream by completing my first novel, Point of Entry, in nine months.

It was my first experience with no bosses, no deadlines, no clients, no partners, and no colleagues.  Nobody breathing down my neck. No “COB” today.  It was just me – alone – against a blank screen, with no clear direction and none of the pressure that has accompanied me all of my adult life.

Let me tell you, that is a scary thing for a type –A personality like mine.  

But writing Point of Entry and, now, Pipeline, has been one of the more fun things I have done in my professional life.  It ranks right up there with my first political spot with Mandy Grunwald (President and Hillary Clinton’s media genius), winning my first political campaign (in Ecuador); participating in the “NO” campaign in Chile; advising a political effort in Nigeria; and finally in creating with two dear partners my own consulting company.  

The writing worked out marvelously well because creating a book is a blast.  One of the most exciting things about writing is that there are surprises – even for the author.  Fights between friends that weren’t planned, killings that popped up from one minute to the next without warning or premeditation.

I know that some authors feel an enormous pain in writing.  A pain which is unburdened with each page that gets closer the writer closer to the end.  It’s not anything that I have felt.  Writing has been a delicious pleasure.  Sometimes it’s easier. Sometimes it’s harder.  But it’s never been a burden.