The Write Stuff

By Walter Kish

Last week I gave a slideshow talk on Ukraine to a meeting of the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association in Toronto and was absolutely thrilled with not only the number of people who attended, but particularly with the many kind and appreciative comments I received afterwards.

Writing is essentially a solitary art and it is rare that one gets to meet one’s intended audience.  As a weekly columnist for one of the largest-circulation Ukrainian papers in the diaspora, I always assume that my scribblings will eventually get read by a few thousand people out there, but it is not often that I receive direct face-to-face feedback.

Occasionally, I run across a regular reader in the course of my travels and day-to-day business, and it is always encouraging to find out that my words are indeed read and appreciated.  However, meeting so many enthusiastic followers of my column in one place at the same time as I did last week was somewhat overwhelming.  I extend my sincere thanks to all for such a warm reception.  In my many individual conversations on that occasion, I was asked a number of questions the answers to which I thought might be worth sharing. 

First of all, I have been writing this column since early 2000.  My original involvement with Novyi Shliakh (The New Pathway) was as chairman of the paper’s board of directors, with a mandate to rejuvenate a Ukrainian weekly paper, with a 70-year history, that had fallen on hard times. By the 1990s, changing times and demographics had led to a significant decline in readership and red ink on the balance sheet.  In 1999, with the help of  a number of like-minded activists, we undertook the task of significantly revamping both the content and appearance of the paper, giving it a more modern look, adding English language content, diversifying its coverage and adding more colour and photographic material.  In the process, having always fancied myself as a writer and journalist, I started writing short pieces for the newspaper as well.

What started out as the odd article or editorial soon became a regular weekly column with the self-descriptive and perhaps a little presumptuous title of “The View From Here.”  When a fortuitous career change relocated me to Ukraine in 2004, the title changed appropriately to “The View From There.”

I should like to add that my contributions to the paper are all “pro bono,” and I have never sought, nor received, any compensation for my efforts.  I have always viewed the task of raising the awareness and understanding of Ukraine and its culture and history as a personal calling and duty, one that I am only too happy to fulfill.  I have been blessed with a modicum of talent and the good fortune of having lived and worked in Ukraine, and I find it sufficiently rewarding to be able to share my experiences and views with whoever is interested. 

As for the specific process of writing a column each week, the most I can say is that it has varied considerably over time and each is a unique experience in its own right.  When I first started writing these on a regular basis, it would take me at least half a day to think up an appropriate topic, do the necessary research, prepare a draft and refine it into publishable form.  Having done it now for almost six years, I can now usually whip up a column in the space of an hour or two, though even now there are still times when I struggle over one for many difficult hours. 

Over time, I have also found it easier to come up with ideas on what to write about, particularly after I relocated to Ukraine.  The country is so rich in history, geography, politics, culture and interesting characters that I am seldom stuck for a subject.  Sometimes an event will spark an idea; sometimes I will read of something in a book or newspaper that starts an interesting train of thought; sometimes my wife, kids or one of my friends will suggest a topic, either directly or by something they say or do; and sometimes my ever-busy brain cells will, in the process of daydreaming, stumble across something that just begs to be written.

Once I have an idea in mind, I fire up my notebook computer and the words spill out until I have the requisite word count to fill up approximately a half-page of a tabloid-sized newspaper sheet.  I usually review and rewrite the original draft several times, followed by another editing pass by either my wife or my eldest daughter Zenia, both of whom are excellent editors.  The final draft then gets e-mailed to the newspaper, where it is edited one more time and then formatted appropriately and assembled with the rest of the newspaper. 

I usually do my writing on the weekend and submit my column to arrive at the paper by Monday morning.  By Tuesday evening, the paper is assembled and the proofs sent to the printer for overnight printing.  Wednesday and Thursday the paper gets distributed to various outlets and mailed to the subscribers, who hopefully receive it several days later.

Though the vast majority of subscribers are Canadian, the paper also goes to readers in such places as the United States, South America, many European countries and, of course, Ukraine itself.  I hope that all those readers who wind up reading my column find it to be the “write” stuff.