Growing up outside of Philadelphia, Tom Coyne spent enough summers caddying for rich Main Line bluebloods to absorb the golf culture. He also soaked up the complex personalities of his fellow bag handlers. Here, Coyne talks about the craft of writing his first novel/turned film A Gentleman's Game.

Most young writers struggle for years. The lucky ones might get a few early breaks: a short story published in an up-and-coming writer's journal, a byline in a regionally syndicated magazine, maybe an agent willing to skim a couple of clips. Few come out swinging like Tom Coyne, the 27-year old boyishly handsome redhead with a penchant for Irish literature and a habit of writing when the rest of the civilized world is asleep. Few write their senior MFA thesis, only to get that thesis published as a first time novel by Atlantic Monthly Press. Fewer writers would be lucky enough to sign on with a prestigious literary house in New York, and then to have that book made into a film.

If you attribute the Notre Dame graduate's success to luck of the Irish you'd be right and you'd be wrong. Yeah, Tom Coyne's got a lot of luck. But more than that he's got talent, and loads of it. Tom Coyne is a blessed writer. Coyne penned A Gentleman's Game, a coming of age story about a young caddie studying the game of golf and grappling with becoming a man in the process. His story unfolds cleanly, or in golfing terms what one might call "pure." His book was adapted into a film by first-time director Mills Goodloe and made its world premiere at the 16th Annual Fort Lauderdale Film Festival. In the film the characters come to life on screen as if stepping from the pages of Coyne's lyrical novel. Some of the grittiest scenes take place between the young caddies. It is here that the film takes on the kind of Stand by Me feel of adolescents facing themselves and the dangerous world called life. There are several strong acting performances. But this film belongs to a character outside of the caddies unit -- Gary Sinise gives a standout performance as has-been golfer, Foster Pearse, a man who gave up the tour and buried a past mistake that haunts him like an albatross. Ultimately it takes the young protagonist, Timmy Price, a kid with a pure swing, to bring Pearse out of his hardened shell and to face his past.

A Gentleman's Game is not merely about the game of golf itself, but the people who walk the tree lined paths of upscale golf clubs everywhere. Equally it's a story about the relationship between a young man and his father. In the first chapter Coyne writes:

When he came to see me at the driving range, he did not hover over his son like the other fathers. He didn't stand behind me with his arms crossed. He didn't lift his fingers to his lips and watch the pieces of my golf swing, studying me as if I were something to be deciphered. The other fathers stood close, reminding their boys of their bad habits, shaking a finger at the same mistakes, but my father would only stop for a second to tell me to stay in the shade because that Irish skin of mine was fertile soil for melanomas. If he saw that the back of my neck was getting pink, he would shake his head slowly, as if it took all his strength to do so, and tell me that only a real jerk would stand out here in the sun with skin like mine. Then he would turn and walk off toward the clubhouse, his shoulders hunched, his hands tucked deep into his pockets.

In November 2001 Reelwriter.net caught up with Coyne a few weeks prior to the film's world premiere. Sitting down at a Borders Books and Music in a suburb of Philadelphia, Coyne shared some of his writing tips. "For me it it's all about writing sentences, good sentences," he says.

Coyne on Coyne:

Kelly McCarthy: When did you start writing?

Tom Coyne: Probably the first article I had ever published was about school spirit at Notre Dame. From there I was writing for the newspaper and magazine. In my junior year I studied in London and came back from that deciding that I wanted to pursue the writing as far as I could. I didn't entirely know in what capacity, so I was taking some journalism classes and I started taking fiction workshops as well. I applied to a couple of MFA programs and Ph.D. programs in English lit. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do but I knew that I didn't want to get a real job. And I wanted to continue going to school knowing that I didn't want to go to law school. I was lucky enough to get into the MFA at Notre Dame. The program [Notre Dame] is only eight years old. There were 100 people applying for five spots in poetry and fiction. I was # 6. I was actually going to Ireland to get my masters at Trinity, because my background was Irish literature as an undergraduate. But before I was about to leave for Ireland, Notre Dame called and said a spot had opened up. If I went to Ireland I would have walked away with a master's in Irish literature then I would have gone on to get a Ph.D. somewhere, and I would have taught. But I really wanted to write. So I didn't go the academic route.

McCarthy: What was your writing schedule like?

Coyne: I was writing every night from about midnight until six in the morning. I'm a night person. I like working when no one else is around. It sort of feels weird and interesting when I'm awake and the rest of the world is asleep and it helps me to mentally get into a weird kind of place. I think you have to sort of lose your mind a bit to write interesting sentences. I would write until six in the morning, get the paper, have breakfast, then go to bed and sleep until about noon. Then I would go to work. I worked in the admissions office for two hours a day for my stipend and I had classes at night. I had one story that had some success and then published a collection called Virgin Fiction, which was published by William Morrow. It was a big boost and that was just coming out when I finished A Gentleman's Game , which was my thesis. I wrote the first draft in about four months.

McCarthy: Some people believe in writing workshops while others think it can cramp individual style. What's been your experience?

Coyne: We had writing seminar once a week like our workshop that was once a week for three hours at night. We just sat around and sort of made each other feel terrible about ourselves, trying to crush everyone's ego. But it was helpful. The professors were excellent. But after two years of the same people you see the same stories over and over again, the people have the same objectives. It gets a little nit-picky and it's ten people who have been together for two years. Lines are drawn and it gets to be like Survivor. But you try to stay above that. When good work comes across the table everyone has to enjoy it. You have to find your way for criticism as to what was valuable and what was crap. Because it could just drive you nuts and make you not want to write again. So you've got to stick to your guns.

McCarthy: How much do you devise the plot before you start writing?

Coyne: I'm not a big planner. I take notes as I go along as to where characters are going and where I want them to go.

McCarthy: Do you ever never know what the ending of chapters will be before you start writing?

Coyne: Yes, I'm a person who wants to have a sense of what the endings of chapters will be, not that I'm afraid to go into other directions because I think it's important that you do allow yourself to go into other directions.

McCarthy: Do you edit as you go along?

Coyne: I edit the next day by rewriting what I wrote the day before. But I try not to self-edit too much. I just want to get the story out. A writer described it to me once as throwing up on the page and getting out all the ideas and emotions. Don't censor yourself and you might get some really interesting ideas, phrases, and sentences.

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