Locally Writ: Near-death experience inspires Ike Andrews’ ‘Lessons From the Trail’

Following the loss of a dear friend, Ike Andrews felt moved to take a break from his old love, fiction. His latest work, “Lessons From the Trail,” relates a series of anecdotes taken from decades spent “exploring the intersection between grief and adventure.”

Years of journaling brought him quickly through the first draft. But after a particularly discouraging round of editing and a bit of tough love from his editor son, Andrews was so close to quitting that it, quite literally, took a near-death experience to get him back to work.

While surfing off the coast of North Carolina, a rogue wave sent him hurtling toward the seafloor.

“I fractured my C6 lamina,” he said. “I don’t know if you’re familiar with anatomy, but, usually, you break something there, and you’re either quadriplegic or dead.”

Luckily, Andrews couldn’t have been with a more qualified group of friends at the time, among them a pair of nurses who knew exactly where and to whom they should bring him.

Waking up in a hospital, Andrews had an epiphany.

“I’d put the book away for over a year out of frustration and disappointment,” he said. “But then I just got this sense. I’d just survived something that I shouldn’t have, and I thought maybe that was a message for me, that I had some unfinished work to do on this planet.”

He dedicated the following years to completing the book, getting it sold and published.

Returning to the project with fresh eyes and a new sense of purpose, suddenly what had been a drudgery before was enjoyable. The feedback that had once taken him aback made perfect sense, and the way forward was clear.

“I pretty much changed the entire structure of the book,” he said, explaining the switch from chronological narrative to a more distinct, anecdotal series. “I have to thank my son for that because that was totally his idea.”

Andrews begins every writing project – every novel, every poem, every song – with a pen and paper in the early hours of the morning.

“There’s no editing on that first draft, there’s just that drive to keep going, keep writing, keep going,” he said, explaining that the cutting only begins once he’s finally transcribed his longhand drafts into his computer.

“I try to write from the heart, and writing out that first draft like that seems like the easiest way,” he said.

To aspiring authors, Andrews offered the following advice: “Find an environment where you feel comfortable expressing yourself, and then make that a discipline,” he said.

“There are times when you really don’t feel like writing, but go ahead and sit down there even if you just have the pen in your hand or the keyboard under your fingers, and just keep trying. Sometimes it doesn’t come easily, but sometimes it flows like a stream. So, find your environment, go there every day, and keep working at it.”

“Lessons From the Trail: Exploring the Intersection Between Grief and Adventure” is available online through Auntie’s Bookstore.