Tom Regan
Writing Coach
My Experience as a Writer
PROFESSIONAL ​INFO​​
I've been writing for more than 40 years, with some success. That writing encompasses journalism, stage plays, radio plays, film scripts, documentary scripts and blogs.
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You learn to write by writing. It's always been the best way.
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When I work with someone on their writing, I ask them to write something for me and then we drill down together into how they can improve that piece.
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By the end of our time together, my goal is always improvement and enjoyment. Age doesn't matter. Writing demons attack all of us at one time or another. They can be calmed, however. I want people to enjoy their writing – to not be intimidated by it or afraid of it.
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Ultimately, my aim is to make myself redundant – that the person I work with doesn't need me anymore because they have learned how to write well on their own.
"If you know how to use words, no one can use them against you."
- Prof. Patricia Monk
WRITING EXPERIENCE​​
Journalism
I spent four decades as a journalist in print, radio, television and online. I worked for numerous well-known media outlets in Canada, the United States and Europe including the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, NPR, the Christian Science Monitor, Maclean's magazine, The Arab Weekly and NPR. I was a 1991-92 Nieman Fellow (journalism's most prestigious fellowship) at Harvard University.
Screen Plays
I was chosen as one of six writers from across Canada to attend the first session of DramaLab, an institute created to teach Canadians about making films. The National Film Board of Canada produced my script "Sidetracked."
Podcasts/Audio Drama
I wrote almost a dozen scripts for CBC-Radio in the 80s and 90s, including hour-long dramas and 25-minute dramas produced in five-minute daily segments. I also worked as an assistant producer on "Midnight Radio," which was nominated as one of the top podcasts in the AudioVerse Awards in 2018.
Documentaries
I wrote and hosted the CBC-TV documentary "Race for the Fish," an hour-long investigation of overfishing by Canadians, described by the Globe and Mail in Toronto as a great example of "guerrilla filmmaking."
Business Writing
Over the years I wrote about many business activities and interviewed many industry and financial leaders. I also worked as a copywriter for several years writing about businesses as varied as insects to be aware of in the spring in Arizona, to the right kind of skateboard bar for your child in Australia, to how to best promote your website on a crowded Internet.
Blogs
As a writer for the Christian Science Monitor in the early 2000's I helped create one of the first online blogs done by a major media outlet. In 2007 I was hired by NPR as their first full-time political and social issues blogger.