What are the odds of twin brothers going off to the same college, majoring in the same subject, and choosing the same profession? It sounds like something straight out of a fiction book, but it really happened: Andy and Patrick Hueller (’05) were English majors at Hamline and both are now English teachers and writers.  According to Patrick, this didn’t necessarily happen because they’re twins; it had more to do with their upbringing.

“Yeah, I don’t think it’s a twin thing. I think Andy and I would probably both share memories of both our parents reading to us constantly,” Patrick said.

Andy agreed with his brother; both of them felt that growing up in a reading-friendly household had a lot to do with their decision to become writers. Andy also added that he loved reading and creating his own stories from a very young age.

“Both my parents were readers; they sat around the house reading the newspaper and novels, and I went to a school where I picked all of my own books to read, and so I never knew until maybe junior high that reading was something someone ever made anyone else do,” Andy wrote via email. “I was often behind on my other work when I was in elementary school because I snuck off to read books instead. I also used to love when my parents or other adults read to me. And so I grew up wanting to be a part of storytelling.”

Although Andy said that he started writing stories around age five, and then went on to write more seriously in college, Patrick didn’t write until he was in high school, and most of what he wrote was poetry. He went on to say that his poems were so wordy and abstract that even he didn’t know what they meant.

“I first started telling people I wanted to be a writer when I was in high school; I had no idea what that meant. The only thing I could think to do was when I would sign people’s yearbooks I would write underneath it, ‘author.’ And then I came here to Hamline and ended up taking a couple years off to write, although I still had no idea what that meant, because I didn’t read all that much. And I decided, ‘You know what I’ll do, I’ll write poetry, “cause it’s short.”’ And so I did,” Patrick said. “I wrote a whole bunch of poems despite the fact that I had never really read any poetry, other than like ornate Romantic poetry from the 18th century in high school…I should say also that in high school I lugged a dictionary around with me, because I thought that to write you had to know every word.  So, my poetry was nothing but abstract ideas and really big words.”

After college, Patrick and Andy both went on to write for young adults, and Andy has also written a couple of children’s books. Even though they both write for a similar audience, they maintain that they each approach writing differently and have different styles of writing.

“The hardest part [of writing] is almost always just sitting down to do it. Some of this has to do with time—I work long but meaningful days as a teacher—and some of it has to do with motivation. Something (the Twins game, binge-watching something on Netflix) almost always feels more immediately exciting, and the words don’t generally string themselves together when I do sit down to write. That said, I’ve never once felt after I’ve written that it’s been a waste of time. I don’t like the blank screen, though, so if something’s not working for me I move to another piece. The best part is when I do get on a roll—when I wake up with an idea and then that idea becomes another idea which becomes another,” Andy wrote.

While Patrick did agree that motivation can sometimes be an issue for him, he said that for him personally the most challenging part of being a writer is the marketing that goes along with it. Ultimately, though, he and Andy both feel that one of their favorite things about writing is creating something out of nothing.

 “The worst part actually is having to start thinking about what I’m writing, who I’m writing for, whether or not this is going to take off, how I’m gonna make money, all that sort of thing. I don’t like promoting writing. What I like is the idea of having nothing, and then creating something. The best part is just the idea that I have made something from nothing. But the worst part is just all the other stuff that goes with it, the idea that, ‘Oh am I supposed to be marketing myself right now, am I supposed to figure out how to position myself to make my career go?’ I hate all of it,” Patrick said.

When asked if writing comes naturally to him, Patrick said no; he doesn’t think that’s the case for anyone.

“I don’t think writing comes naturally to anyone, ever, in the same way that I don’t think basketball comes naturally to anyone including Michael Jordan or LeBron James. There’s no question that there is some sort of natural inclination to write, just like there is a natural inclination to do anything else, but I don’t think that writing is mysterious, and I don’t think that basketball is mysterious.”

Both Andy and Patrick had advice for aspiring writers: find out if it’s for you, and if it is, just keep writing.

“For those of you who think maybe you want to write but can’t seem to find the time: Make it. See if this writing deal is really your deal or not. For those of you who can sit down and stream-of-consciousness vomit words onto a page: If this is what you want writing to be for you—a release of some sort—then keep doing what you’re doing,” Andy wrote. “If the writing is all work, you probably need to figure out why and change something. If it’s all fun, you probably need to do the same.”

“Just do whatever you need to do to keep producing words…I think that presumably, if you say you want to be a writer, what you’re saying is you want to be writing for the rest of your life. And if you want to do that, then you’ve got to find a way to just keep producing words and to keep enjoying writing. And I say enjoying, not in the like ‘Wheeee!’ sort of way; I mean enjoyment like, maybe the better word for it is you need to love what you do. And I don’t mean love as in the ‘Whee’ sort of way, I mean love in the way that you might like love your parents, that you often hate your parents, but you actually underlying—it’s a more complicated idea than that,” Patrick explained. “I think you have to be always pursuing writing that you’re interested in and that you want to do. So an example of that would be every single book I’ve ever written, I’ve pieced together differently. I have written books where I just could not stare at that damn word processor cursor anymore, so instead I’ve sent emails to myself, and I just wrote an entire novel of emails because it just felt less formal and it felt easier to do. I’ve also written entire books where I don’t think about paragraph breaks and I just keep going the whole time— just whatever it is that allows you to keep your fingers typing, that’s what you should do.”

The Huellers’ books can be found at Barnes and Noble, online via Amazon, and as eBooks. Also, many of Patrick Hueller’s books are written under the pen name Paul Hoblin.