Celebrating 5 years on Drivetribe

I wrote my first car review in 2006, during lunch break, using Windows Notepad. The subject was the Mercedes E320 the company I was working for occasionally let me use. The tone was ambitious. I still have that file, probably stored away and forgotten in some old HDD or SD card. I was 19.

I kept on writing, and I kept sending unsolicited - and usually unanswered - emails to every print and online publication I could think of. “Hey, I wanna write about cars, please publish my story”. Most said no but a few said yes and several years and several million words later, I happened upon this tweet:

I applied, got accepted, created my tribe and by November 28, when the website went live, I was fortunate enough to have accrued a significant following with my tribe, which helped me a lot, and then in February 2017, I travelled to London to attend DT's launch party.

Writing is a skill. Same as reading. Same as waiting. Same as anything else. The problem is at first I was convinced that in order to hone your writing skills you had to prioritise style, make it complicated, use difficult words nobody wants and understands. But you don’t. You have to keep it simple.

There’s a great line in the film The Big Short, allegedly overheard at a Washington D.C. bar, "the truth is like poetry, and most people fu**ing hate poetry". This is probably true for most people (except James May) and that's because poetry is fascinating but complicated. And difficult. And slightly highbrow. And most people hate those things as well.

a picture taken with the SsangYong Musso, the least highbrow truck in the world

a picture taken with the SsangYong Musso, the least highbrow truck in the world

The way I see it, there are essentially two reasons why people write: to inform or to entertain. And you need clarity to do both. You need to get your point across and the best way to do it is to keep it simple. People don't read as much as they used to these days, or at least not in the same way they used to, and at the end of a long and tiring day, when John and Jane Doe sit down to read whatever it is they want to read, they probably don't want it to be complicated. That's because life is already very complicated.

That's why I abandoned my proclivity for needlessly pompous words like "proclivity" and gradually but quickly began using simple words to express simple concepts. The Lexus LFA is not the "byproduct of an astoundingly complex sequence of events and engineering decisions". No. The Lexus LFA is simply "phenomenal". The Fiat 500 is not the "perfect representation of what unites practicality, usability and fun". No. The Fiat 500 is simply "pretty cool". Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think I am.

This is me in Luton, pretending to be interested in buying a Bentley Turbo R so I could drive it (we've all been there)

This is me in Luton, pretending to be interested in buying a Bentley Turbo R so I could drive it (we've all been there)

I've also learnt that irony always, always works. Nobody likes serious, smileless words unless they're reading an obituary. I've also learnt that words are extremely powerful. And most important of all, I know that hateful comments don’t matter. They’re just a background hum.

I write (mostly) about cars because, well, I like cars but the act of writing matters more than the subject you're writing about because I've also learnt that writing is the best form of therapy. And sometimes you don't even need an audience. In fact, I'm fairly convinced that most of you will have stopped reading two or three paragraphs ago. If you're still here you have my utmost respect for humouring me and keeping up with this balderdash. And thank you. Cheers.

How long have you been on Drivetribe?

This post was originally published on November 12, 2020 for my 4th anniversary on DT, I’ve edited and published it again on November 12, 2021

View gallery image