This author wrote debut during redeye flights while working as flight attendant

Author T.J. Newman says she has always been a storyteller.

“I’m not sure the alternative was actually ever an option,” Newman told TODAY.com. “I was constantly in a world of make believe, dressing up, playing someone different, imagining a story.”

But her path to becoming a New York Times bestseller and securing 7-figure million-dollar movie deals was hardly conventional. She studied musical theatre in college, and humbly admits she “failed” as an actor in New York City. She then moved home to Arizona and took a job at a local bookstore.

Even as soon as three years ago, she was far from the glamorous world of Hollywood and publishing — literally.

Thousands of miles in the air, Newman was serving drinks and explaining safety protocols to passengers as a flight attendant on Virgin American and Alaska Airlines.

But Newman’s untraditional path might be her literary superpower. Using her 10 years of in-flight experience, Newman wrote two terrifyingly plausible thrillers set on planes: "Falling" (2021) and "Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421" (released May 30).

Her debut novel, "Falling," centers on a character in an impossible quandary. The pilot of an airplane is faced with an ultimatum by kidnappers on the ground. Either he crashes his New York-bound plane, killing the 143 passengers inside, and save his family being held hostage, or he lands safely and says goodbye to his loved ones forever.

What makes Newman’s stories so gripping is the accuracy of the details. She isn’t just postulating what might happen in these scenarios; she’s been trained for them, and can imagine how the scenarios would unfold. In fact, the LAX-JFK route featured in "Falling" was one of her most frequent.

“I spent more time on airplanes than I did on the ground,” Newman says.

Newman writes from experience the functionality of the aircraft and the role of flight attendants, who, she reminds us, are not waiters, but trained safety personnel.

“If you have a heart attack, I’m not going to bring you a Diet Coke,” Newman says. “I’m going to get the defibrillator and restart your heart.”

“Falling,” her debut, was rejected by agents 41 times before a boutique literary agency, Story Factory, finally took a chance on her. The book was later published by Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon and Schuster.

The literary star spoke to TODAY.com about her path to success, where she finds inspiration and her message to aspiring writers.

From air to page: How Newman became a writer

Newman didn’t study writing in a formal setting. Her education? The movie theater.

In addition to being a “voracious” reader, Newman says growing up attending screenings of the action epics of the 1990s like “Twister,” “Jurassic Park,” and “Apollo 13” inspired her love for thriller writing and that studying other forms of storytelling, like movies, made her the writer she is.

“I‘m not going to watch a movie; I’m going to see it eight times,” Newman says. “I‘m going to study that movie — how did they do it?”

She started "Falling" while working as a flight attendant, writing on airplane cocktail napkins and her iPad during redeye flights.

All the while, she kept her project a secret from her family and friends. It wasn’t until she got her book deal that they found out.

“I did it in private, because I felt like I had used up my personal quota of public creative risk,” Newman says. “I was writing the story for me, and for the characters in that world. And for that story that I knew needed to be told.”

Newman on her latest novel, 'Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421'

Newman took a different approach to writing her latest novel “Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421" than she did "Falling."

The story begins when a San Francisco-bound plane crashes into the ocean just six minutes after taking off from Hawaii with dozens of people inside. The central plot surrounds a father’s fight to protect his 12-year-old daughter, while his ex is part of the rescue diving team above.

Whereas “Falling” was written using her own time in the air as inspiration, “Drowning” pushed her to employ new creative methods.

Using a scale replica model of a plane, Newman says she attempted to create the theoretical disaster from her home.“I’m a visual storyteller,” Newman says. “Anytime I got writer’s block I’d either get in the pool or get in the bathtub.”

To create an authentically terrifying scenario, Newman says she had to “reverse engineer“ the story. She knew the situation she wanted to take place — a survivor’s journey of a plane crash with people inside — she interviewed engineers, pilots and Navy personnel.

She chose Hawaii as the setting because it was a route she was frequently on as a pilot, and it had the geographic qualities prime for her story. She also got scuba certified — her first dive serving as inspiration for a vignette about the adrenaline rush of a character’s first dive in the book.

“That kind of authenticity isn’t even possible unless you unless you do it,” Newman says. “And I knew that I had to really immerse myself, no pun intended.”

Inspiring the next generation of writers

Once a dreamer, Newman hopes her journey inspires future storytellers. She deliberately shares her story to encourage writers, all while recognizing the high barriers to entry in the industry.

“There’s just so much content. Finding the way to cut through that is extremely difficult,” Newman says. “The way to that is — what is your unique angle, your unique story, your unique voice that nobody else can tell? Because that’s what will come through.”

In a recent column for Deadline, Newman penned an open letter called “To the Dreamers Who Read Deadline,” in which she shares her unique path to stardom and recognizes the odds stacked against creatives.

“I didn’t know anyone in publishing or in the film business,” she wrote in the letter. “I didn’t have a family name or family money. I didn’t study writing or screenwriting. I didn’t have a resume, a platform, or any experience that would support the notion that I should be given a shot. If it feels like the gatekeepers want you to think that it’s impossible to get where you want to go without any of those things going for you, I’m living proof that that is not true.”

The letter comes at a turbulent time in the creative world — especially for writers. The ongoing writers strike in Hollywood over fair pay and AI usage are starting dialogues about the value studios place on creative expression and storytellers' livelihoods.

“Everything feels uncertain, everything feels unstable,” Newman says. “And in those moments of doubt, and in those moments of change and transition, in negativity, the doubting voices usually are the loudest.”

If writers give up now, what is left for the future? How will we connect with each other? Whose stories will be told? Newman wonders.

“I was a flight attendant for 10 years,” Newman says. “This is my perspective; this is what I know. I had this story, and that authenticity makes it cut through. So, what is yours? What is that one story?”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com