Making of A Writer

Making of A Writer

 

                                                                                 By Lee Hyon-soo

 

The ability to write well may not necessarily be a gift in the sense of an innate talent. But at an early age, I came to realize that I did not have what it takes to earn a living off writing. So I chose to pursue a career as a banker. By so doing, I would have nothing to do with writing. Or so I thought.

 

After graduating from college, I landed a job at the Seoul branch of an American bank. Contrary to my expectations, my job involved lots of writing. I had to pen well-reasoned write-ups to get internal approval for financing proposals that I put forward for corporate customers I looked after as a relationship manager. I also had to write numerous internal and external correspondence. I wrote in English, which was the working language at my bank.

 

Later on, by an amazing stroke of luck, I was hired by a Canadian bank for a position at its head office in Montreal. After I moved to Canada, I became a full-pledged international banker. In that capacity, I did more writing at work than I had done in Korea.

 

As the years passed, I got bored of writing the jargon-filled, hackneyed business papers that filled my days at the office. To divert myself from boredom, I set out to try my hand at writing newspaper articles in my leisure time.

 

When my first article was published in the “Thoughts of the Times” column in October 1981, I really got a kick out of seeing my writing appear in a newspaper I had admired since I was a teenager. Since then, I have kept up writing for The Korea Times, albeit intermittently. And I am grateful to the paper’s editors who helped me along the way.

 

When a seemingly insightful thought pops into my mind, I put pen to paper to share it with other people for what it is worth. As words do not come easily to me in English, I have to exert myself to articulate my thoughts into words. But when I manage to produce a piece of writing that turns out to be presentable, I feel a sense of fulfillment. And nothing delights me more than the favorable feedback I receive from those who have read my articles in The Korea Times.

 

Having made my debut as a contributor to The Korea Times, I started to pass myself off as a self-taught writer. Not only do I write in English for The Korea Times, but I also write in Korean for the Canadian edition of The Hankook Ilbo, as well as on social media. I have also compiled my writings into books, publishing three in Korea and two in the United States.

 

So far I have written 120 pieces for the “Thoughts of the Times” column. Considering the length of time taken to produce them – more than 43 years - my quantitative record of contribution is nothing to brag about. My excuse is that I had to take extended breaks whenever I ran out of topics to write about.

 

The writer (tomhslee43@gmail.com) is a retired international banker and the author of “Tales of A Modern-day Nomad” published in the United States, among other books.