Timothy McGhee
Thank you for the opportunity to tell my story of being a storyteller. To answer your question about motivation, the truth is I don’t need motivation. I think in prose, with a lifetime of easily firing up my active imagination. Inspiration surrounds me; everything is a story, to me. I’m a keen yet rather naïve observer of the world around me. I take people and the situations they present at face value. I’m honest, especially since I left my first wife on December 28, 2018, during my 39th year of pretending to be status quo husband material.
My writing process is simply this: I have written something nearly every day since 1991. I don’thave a special writing place, like some writers. I joke about it, but it’s rather accurate: I’ve written in 200 bars and taverns in 35 states of The Union as well as England, France, Mexico, and New Zealand. I’m writing this interview now at Lola’s, a quaint restaurant on Bridge Road in Charleston, West Virginia. The most hilarious instance was writing on a legal pad at the same hightop in a tavern in Marietta, Ohio, from autumn 1990 through summer 1992. After a year-and-a-half, the proprietor finally asked what I was doing. I told him the truth. Turns out, he thought I was FBI getting ready to bust his illegal sportsbook operation. We became friends.
My characters are an amalgamation of just about everyone I’ve met. I’ll be 69 years old on July 28th, so that’s a lot of characters. I love to set up unusual characters; that’s how I survived my “faux status quo” days. Three examples: a. a Roman Catholic priest named Padre Guns who played a year at linebacker with the 1960 Philadelphia Eagles before he heard the calling, b. a fashion model who’s hotter than a $2 Rolex, optimistic to a fault, and is a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, and c. from my film script entrant at Berlin – American Money – a 39 year old lady stockbroker thriving in the financial world by being contrary in a profession dominated by men.
American Money was conceived during my stockbroker days of 1983 through 1990. I had lost my mechanical engineering job at a time (1983) when unemployment in the United States was double-digits. I was 26 years old. The only “hot job market” was Wall Street. Despite not knowing any wealthy people, I found a nice book of clients the old-fashioned way: I worked my ass off. October 1987 rolls around; I’m 31 years of age and earning a lot more than engineers, but the stock market looks tired. My associate with whom I consulted regularly was interviewed by an international financial weekly, the highly-respected Barron’s, in which he essentially said in print, This 5 year party is over! I agreed, but not one of my clients would sell. Two weeks later? Black Monday. October 19th. The stock market dropped an unprecedented TWENTY FIVE PERCENT in one day. That stoked my imagination: What if I would have bet the farm on the stock market collapsing? I published my second novel Risk, Return, and the Indigo Autumn on iBooks in 2006. American Money is the screen adaptation of that widely-ignored novel.
I bring a unique perspective to storytelling since I’m in my 7th decade on the planet and I’ve lived a full life. I was married for 39 years. I’m the father of two daughters, ages 38 and 41, with four grandchildren. I’m divorced after my wife systematically subjected me to gaslighting, then I bravely laid my 60s heart on the line twice, survived losses of romance, melanoma, and being ostracized by my children. I’m magna cum laude mechanical engineering and I’ve never been the boss. I did research, development, design, and sales. I’ve been a beach lifeguard, a school janitor, a bartender, taught engineering in the late ‘70s then kindergarten in the third decade of the 21st I was recruited by the United States Naval Academy to play football because they loved the way I threw my 180 lb body into larger people. I’ve been fat, skinny, and in shape. Before I began lifting weights in my late 40s I was a distance runner, with a fast 19 minute road 5K in my late 30s. I find most everything fascinating, but the last way I’ll choose to spend the day is playing golf despite being money inside 50 yards. I’ve paraglided from a 2,000 foot cliff in New Zealand. I possess a great deal of physical courage, but I’ve not hit a creature of God since high school football. Every new day excites me; I cannot wait to see what’s around the next corner.
Doing exclusively spec screenwriting, I’m prepared to work with producers and directors, but I have not yet. Actors and script advisors tell me I’m easy to edit, that I’m unusual because I take nothing personally and I’m receptive to better ideas. The script I entered is the 13th rewrite; since then I’ve made three adjustments after speaking with festival judges. When I was an engineer selling to primarily blue-collar machinists and mechanics, I would introduce myself, “Hello. My name is Tim McGhee I’m the engineer and I don’t know shit from shinola.” I’ll have a similar greeting prepared for producers and directors.
My primary challenge in writing was a wife, then lovers who either didn’t believe in me and seemingly delighted in being passive aggressive with their obstruction. They must have wanted me to be a status quo golfer. Recently, I’ve received awards from film festivals for the first time ever. My loves are not around to enjoy the success,but I am enjoying a fantastic celibate storytelling life.
There is a big question about the future of storytelling in the age of artificial intelligence. AI reminds me of Harlequin Romances. It’s a formula. There will always be a need for Native Intelligence. Please reread answer #5 of this interview. I doubt artificial intelligence could have conjured Timothy A. McGhee.
My advice for budding writers? Live a full life, get a good well-paying day job, write every day, never ever give up, and most importantly, fall in love.