I was recently asked by a fellow writer, Jeff Goins, to review his latest work “You Are A Writer.” For all writers and aspiring writers, there are many things which conspire to block, frustrate and otherwise cramp your writing style and overall progress and success. Jeff Goins has established a name for himself as a passionate and capable writer … find out how he did it! For more information about him and his book “You Are A Writer,” please click here. My review commences below the line.
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Having just finished, edited, polished and published my first novel (of which I wrote the first words over twelve years ago), it was an interesting feeling reading Jeff’s impassioned words of wisdom in ‘You Are A Writer.’ More than one wry smile formed, as I recognised myself in his descriptions.
Firstly, what he says in this book is all true. It is also heartfelt, and appears to come very genuinely from having done some hard yards travelling down many paths he would probably prefer to have avoided (or at least known more about beforehand). Having had to overcome many of the blocks and traps he speaks of in order to get past the finishing line of my own novel, I know firsthand that Jeff’s advice here should resonate with any writer, regardless of their current ‘perceived status’ as such within the writing world or otherwise.
Jeff’s motto, which underpins this book is that if you are not writing for passion (as opposed to money, fame, or to please other people, etc), you are most probably wasting your time. This is an extension of the principle which I believe strongly in … that if you are not living your life passionately you are probably wasting your life. This world would be a far better place if people were taught all the way through school that they should simply discover their passions, then follow where they lead. A more fulfilled, enjoyable and rewarding life is an inevitability of recognising and then having the courage to live that simple truth.
‘You Are A Writer’ encapsulates this philosophy and then specifically focuses on how it applies to making oneself a writer, and then a better writer. For anyone who is a writer, or fancies becoming a writer, it is difficult to see how this book could not form a solid philosophical and practical foundation from which all other good writerly things could take root and flourish for years to come. Accordingly, it is well worth the price of admission.
About Nick Vasey
Nick Vasey was born in 1968, raised in various parts of Australia, and completed a Commerce degree in accounting, marketing and law in 1989 at Murdoch University, in Perth, Western Australia. Thereafter, one year of working in a multinational accounting practice was all it took to convince him to quit the typical career-path, and go travelling instead. Wise choice!
Over the next fifteen years Nick had a variety of adventures in over forty countries around the world. It would be safe to say that travelling itself became his primary passion. These experiences have confirmed in Nick a profoundly anarchic streak, and repeatedly proved to him that governments rarely have their citizens' best interests at heart, and by default, should therefore be regarded with extreme scepticism.
Two of these years of global gallivanting (94/95 & 97/98) were very joyously spent living, working and partying in the nightlife industry, or mizu-shobai (water-trade), of Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan. The purpose each time was simple; to save as much money as possible in order to fund further travelling adventures. Suffice to say these two years in Roppongi proved to be more than sufficient in terms of providing both the material and the motivation for writing his first novel, 'Roppongi'.
Out of curiosity, in 2004 Nick briefly returned to Australia and plugged back into the 'Matrix' for a while, but found he still had no use for it. Dumbfounded and disappointed by people's mindless pursuit of material wealth, AFL Football and reality-TV, in 2008 he quit the first-world altogether, for a more tranquil life in the Southern-Sierran township of Vilcabamba, Ecuador ... where he now lives simply with his menagerie of animals, in the mountain-top sanctuary 'Motu-Iti'.
In 2008 Nick also founded the real-estate consultancy "Vilcabamba Real Estate Company" (VREC Properties) ... which helped many people relocate to Vilcabamba and find their dream property. In 2016 he and his VREC business partner Santiago moved on to their new project, InstaCasa (www.instacasa.biz). InstaCasa is based in Ecuador, and manufactures state of the art prefabricated modular housing.
So, currently, Nick is pretty busy, but he is still writing! If you'd like to get in touch, please email him directly via: nick AT nickvasey DOT com
Roppongi - the Novel
Roppongi is an 'adventure-travel-fiction' story, exploring the crazy and often dangerous world which is living and working as a foreigner in the Roppongi nightlife industry of Tokyo, Japan. The novel follows the (mis)adventures of its travel-addicted protagonist Zack, and in that respect is similar thematically to Alex Garland's 'The Beach' or Gregory David Roberts' 'Shantaram.' Accordingly, the reader is viscerally transported into the surreal realms of Roppongi, as Zack attempts to come to terms with a series of life-changing events unfolding at rapid pace. In the process, the novel punches through the impossibly glamorous surface of Roppongi and plunges the reader deep into its seedy underbelly ... showing a disturbing side of Japan not often written about in the English language.
Roppongi the Novel by Nick Vasey 