Particulars:
Name: Spanner Spencer
Age: God, I suppose I must be in my 30s by now.
Status: Married – no children
Occupation: Full-time freelance writer
Employment: Self-employed
Location: Yorkshire, England
Hobbies: Videogames; kung fu; immaturity; archery; work (what can I say. I love my job!)
Other skills: Qualified electronics engineer; kung fu teacher (several styles, including xing yi and tai chi chuan); artist (more enthusiastic than talented, though); speak Mandarin Chinese (enough to get by, at least).
Autobiography:
After leaving school I trained as an electronics engineer; a career which served me well enough, right up until the point at which I couldn’t face another day of it. Working on surgical equipment in operating theatres and clocking up enough miles on the M62 to have circumnavigated the globe 20 times has provided the kind of surreal life experience that would be impossible to obtain any other way. So I can’t look back on this career as anything other than a necessary journey which brought me to where I am today. It may not have been a journey I particularly enjoyed, but that’s not a prerequisite of valuable life experience, is it?
WRITING
Writing was always my creative outlet, and I count myself very fortunate that my first published work was a comic script for Viz (a VERY adult orientated British comic book) while I was still too young to actually buy the magazine. Receiving 200 quid for being deliberately and outrageously offensive is the kind of inspirational moment in a young person’s life that determines not only their career, but their entire personality.
I then began writing articles for any and all magazines I enjoyed reading, discovering quickly that articles and scripts had a much higher acceptance rate when they were as similar to previously published material as possible. Once again, although I’m happy to admit I didn’t realise it at the time, this is a fundamental skill for any writer; adapting to a publication’s individual editorial style. It’s since become a skill I pride myself on, and a quality I rigorously maintain for all forms of writing, whether it’s a comic or film script, character dialogue, an instruction manual for a videogame or even just a post on a forum – adaptability and flexibility are paramount in my written work.
In and amongst penning sordid tales of juvenile vulgarity, I’ve followed another passion; martial arts. My father is an army man, and when a local kung fu class opened he saw it as an excellent way to vicariously berate some discipline into an out-of-control 7-year old. He was not wrong.
KUNG FU
After learning several styles and eventually being disqualified from the England Wushu team trials (another story for another day), I took up Taijiquan and was fortunate to train with Master Vincent Jones; a very well respected kung fu teacher and winner of the Heavyweight World Pugilistic Kung Fu tournament held in Tai Pei, 1991. Eventually, I was accepted as a closed door disciple to Master Jones, and now, some 20-years after beginning my kung fu lessons, I’ve become one of the founding members of a national Chinese martial arts association, Feng Huo (meaning Wind and Fire).
Although writing seems, on face value, to be a considerably more ordinary hobby/profession, it’s actually my kung fu which has kept me firmly grounded in reality. Without the principles and philosophies of kung fu , and without its vital lessons in stalwart and unshakable self-discipline, I can’t imagine how my life might have turned out. Writing and kung fu are, in a very real sense, the yin and yang of my life, and I feel genuinely thankful that I’ve been so fortunate to enjoy a properly balanced life. I certainly needed that balance when I decided it was time to become self-employed.
THE GRAFFITI WRITER
When I began training in electronics, it was a very popular course. The first year workshops were literally bulging at the sides. During that year, however, the IT boom hit, and suddenly, everyone who would have looked toward electronics as a career headed for the many and varying opportunities offered by computer studies. This resulted in a distinct lack of electronics engineers ever since; a matter which those few engineers, such as myself, reaped the benefits of.
The shortage of engineers caused wages to rise quite dramatically, and I reached a point working for an x-ray equipment installation and servicing company when I knew it was time to make a decision. Just over five years ago, my position within the company was about to rise, and with it there would be a great deal more responsibility and a considerable wage increase. It was no secret this promotion would take a significant bite out of my free time, and any hobbies would be forced to take a back seat. I had to decide whether I wanted to enter the upper tax bracket, or continue writing.
To my own surprise, I gave up the hefty wage increase and posh company car to become a full-time freelance writer, and I can honestly say without pretence or melodrama it’s been the best decision of my life. Now, when I go to the cinema or play a videogame, I no longer know whether it’s for work or pleasure: the truth is, there’s no distinction between the two. My life is at once simpler and considerably more satisfying. Separating our short lives up into weekdays and weekends, holidays and overtime, coffee breaks and laborious task is a shortcut to stress and hardship, and is an aspect of modern life I am infinitely glad is behind me. Jumping out of bed early, eager to get to work, is the kind of essential fulfilment everyone should experience in their lives, and my only regret is not becoming self-employed sooner.
Span.