Eneh Akpan Writes: Author

Showing posts with label Author. Show all posts

Monday, September 22, 2014

7 Ways Social Networking Makes You a More Confident Writer

Social networking involves a lot more than sharing on Facebook or joining conversations on Twitter or even posting photos on Instagram, Pinterest and StumbleUpon. Running a blog on Blogger or Wordpress or any of the other blogging sites is also social networking. And that includes participating in online writing communities like Writing.Com, WritersDigest.Com and GoodReads. Keeping these points in mind I’ll like you to tag along as we explore the limitless resources a writer can avail himself of by indulging this great web tool.

1. Connect with Writers Who Write Similar Genres –

Connect is the realest word in networking right now and social networking sites have made it perfectly easy to connect—you can follow, add to circles, friend, add to a list, receive notifications from folks who share similar interests with you. But the word carries well over social media platforms so much so that its present weight of meaning has made its basic interpretation inadequate. When you are surrounded by folks who share your passion, the vibes come off you in waves and charge up the atmosphere with electric potential.

2. Develop an Authoritative Voice –

Whether we realize it or not, the more we share content with our network, the bolder we become in constructing descriptive titles. If you are a twitter fanatic, you know you’re stuck with 140 characters to express yourself less, if you add links. This goes to boost your writer confidence in a whole lot more ways than you could ever possibly imagine. You learn to believe in the power of your own words and ideas. You also fine-tune your creative ability in crafting sensational titles because you get to judge firsthand how catchy your words are in grabbing people’s attention. This is especially true if the posts are re-shared articles by big time websites.

3. Hook Up with Mature Writers and Publishing Insiders –

Social networking would be a pretty sleazy neighborhood on the cyber sphere if this option was not a given. I signed up on Writing.Com which I found when I googled the word writing, because I wanted to learn more on fiction writing within a community of experienced writers. I’ve had no cause to regret that positive step. Besides, this blog is a reality because of that earnest decision I made five years ago to join the wonderful folks of a community I’ve come to call Facebook for Writers. By engaging your connections, you create a personal niche and find your place as a writer. And you know the feeling that accompanies being accepted by folks you revere; personalities you aspire to be associated with.

4. Boost Your Site Traffic –

By driving traffic to your site or blog, social networking offers you an avenue to express yourself; to be yourself. You find release and discover the true meaning of self-expression as art blends with communication to create personal relevance in a highly competitive marketplace. All at once, you are transmitted from a lonely quiet world into a full-blown broadcaster. SMO keeps your audiences pouring in and puts your site out there where it ought to be. And that sort of changes everything. It gives you faith in what you can achieve as an individual.

5. Maintain Your Online Presence –

Networking is the world at your fingertips. Microblogging—conversations, mentions, comments, shares—are all ways to keep yourself buried in the craft of writing. Your writerly ego gets a boost every time you create something with words and you other people to respond. Social networking is kind of big on stuff like the ones listed above. Never a dull moment as you are constantly served opportunities to present yourself as a writer to the cyberspace and to make your subconscious aware of the fact. In other words, networking helps to groom the fellow on the inside.

6. Site Branding –

All that talk about networking falls through with a shearing sound if people cannot identify you for who you are or what you do. Social networking makes it easy to talk about what you are up to, what you’ve been up to and what you are all about. Your site gets the recognition it requires; it’s a medium to advertise your private little corner and call the world’s attention to your personal space. Back in the day, you would have paid one of the big media channels to do this for you, not anymore. And when your audience acknowledge your site for what it is through personal effort, your writerly ego is enhanced.

7. Market Your Talents –

You can put your books and other products out there where the buyers are. Market your wares like a big advertising firm would and it makes you feel big. If you can open up about your talent, letting the world in on it, spilling your gut out in the open, you can consider calling yourself a writer a piece of cake. I don’t think this last bit needs much rambling but it’s one thing to discuss the big authors on your network and a whole ‘nother talking about you and your books. The latter sort of changes your perspective; changes the way the writer on the inside takes on the world around him.

Yeah, that’s 7 ways to get your ego positively fired up through active, consistent participation in social networking; 7 ways to turn your world around and pointed in the right direction all because you tried. Wouldn’t you rather walk this path?

Keep your pens bleeding!

Akpan

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Guest Blog: A Little Christmas Fun by Regina Puckett

I requested for Christmas poems from guest bloggers and here’s the first one up by author and poet, Regina Puckett. It’s a short poem that touches on about everything the season stands for. Thanks, Regina for giving this poem to the world!

Courtesy: missmadeblog.com

Across the world there are eager girls and boys

Waiting for Santa’s arrival with his bag of toys

Long lists scribbled, letters written, stamped and mailed

Cookies baked, milk poured and stockings carefully nailed

Mothers kiss and gently tuck each and every child into bed

Leaving them with dreams of Christmas frolicking in their head

Out in the crisp December air Santa soars through the sky

Twinkling stars and the man on the moon waves as he flies by

Because this one day of every year the entire world becomes one

Wishing for peace on world, goodwill to all men and a little Christmas fun

Author's Bio
Regina Puckett is an award nominated author for her short story, Balloon Wishes.

Author Regina Puckett

Borrowed Wings, has received the Children's Literary Classics Seal of Approval.

Memories won first place in the 1st WSBR International Poetry Contest. This poem may be found in her book of poetry, Tilting at Windmills and Words.

Slowly Drowning won second place in the 3rd WSBR International Poetry Contest. This poem may be found in her poetry book, My Words into the Beyond.

Sir Galahad Comes to the Rescue won third place in the 3rd WSBR International Poetry Contest. This poem may be found in her book of poetry, Ramblings and Dreams.

She has been writing for over forty-five years. She lives in Tennessee with her husband of over forty years. She has two grown daughters and four grandchildren.

She writes sweet romances, horror, inspirational, picture books and poetry. There are several projects in various stages of completion and there are always characters and stories waiting for their chance to finally get out of her head and onto paper.

Books by Regina Puckett

Please come and visit me at

facebook.com/regina.puckett1
http://reginapuckettsbooks.weebly.com/index.html
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/154116.Regina_Puckett
https://twitter.com/ReginaPucket

Friday, September 13, 2013

The Most Important Thing

Story is the most important thing.

It is so much more important than plot, than characterization, than setting. Story is king.

It's to the writer's credit to focus on story, the expression of story, and the exploration and discipline of story. To coin a phrase.

English: penulis = writer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Every other writing technique comes after not before and ought to be tested under the lens of this solitary literary code.

The writer steps way out of line when he turns the strobe light on other people's weak points to downtalk these individuals with his art. And his craft won't thank him for it.

There's nothing remotely off tangent when a story tackles moral issues or attempts to set certain societal values knocked off the pedestal back on its feet. I know you agree with me thus far. You'll also agree that story is not a whip for lashing out at people.

When you craft story, your duty is to get the reader swooped off his/her feet and shoved into your fictional world; help them get lost and forget everything about this terrestrial plane at least, for the length of the story. It's a confrontation as you try to make them reckon with your characters and their peculiar dilemma. This is pure art. It's beautiful when you invoke the muses for a worthy cause.

Things get pretty ugly if a writer collects words in a sling and flings, the full weight of bitterness propelling the projectile.

It's always best to focus on story. Delete every scene forged by malicious intent; get rid of characters that are apparently, twisted repros of real life persons and just tell the damn story.

Keep your pen bleeding.

Akpan

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Do The Thing You Love That Sells!

We often hear people say, ‘Write to Please Yourself!’ (Which is true.) We are told to choose subjects we are deeply passionate about and I’d like to take this a step further in this write up.

Do the thing you love that actually appeals to other people.

How can you tell people are going to buy into your idea? Well, you can’t. That sounds mean, don’t it? But you can rest in the fact you did the right thing.

Study the market!

Of course, we may not always know for sure, in what genre we will make our big hit. And it’s been said, ‘Do not set a deadline for success.’ I agree with that 100%. I guess I’m one of the lucky dudes who found role models who have made it to the top rung of the ladder from the depths of their dungeons and went one step at a time. The beautiful thing about this is I can relate. I can copy their examples.

Break your talent(s) or gift(s) down to the basics:

What’s that you have in your hand;

What uses can you put it to;

Which of these functions lead upward;

Which aspect appeals to your audience;

What will give you the satisfaction of achievement and trigger the cash flow?

‘Successful art or Commercial art is Self-Expression plus Communication.’

- Steven Barnes

You have to save a little love for the guy who needs what you got to give. You must have enough of that kind of respect for your audience so they know you’ve been looking for them like they’ve been waiting for you to come out of incubation.

Think of it. There’s actually people out there waiting for somebody like you to come along with your stuff. Showing you need them as much as they need you can make all the difference between a hit and an all-out flop.

Seasoned artists are true to their hearts while watching out for the hearts of their readers or audience.

Work on what you love and spill your passion over into what the market wants. There’s no greater gig on earth than getting paid for doing something you’re truly in love with.

To be straight up about this, it’s not an easy job. Finding something you’re good at and turning it into what sells are on opposite sides of the coin. Sometimes, you might look to the money instead of the art. But if you keep at it long enough, at some point, you will exhale!

Keep your pen bleeding.

Akpan

Thursday, October 4, 2012

5 Tips on Reading Like a Writer

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

I have something for you. Especially, if you’re a writer but I guess any fervid reader might learn a few tricks from this post.

There is a world of difference between reading (despite the intensity of the reader) and reading like a writer. I know a lot of writers feel the same way, too. The tips which follow are not all there is about reading like a writer but they’ll suffice for now. For me, more than for you.

1. Live Inside the Story

This is an attempt to see the reader through your eyes as well as your senses. You’re learning how the reader is influenced by the printed page. Don’t act it. Really live in the pages and allow the words touch and move you until you hear the author’s pulse as the words pour through the windows of your eyes into your heart. Take the words through the follicles in your body.

2. Read with a Pencil Close By

If ‘Read a lot’ is the first part of the writer’s creed (The second part being Write a lot.), the writer ought to regard books as a student treats his/her textbooks. Underline words and phrases, which strike you as peculiar. Put a square around special words. Use curly brackets, asterisks, question marks, exclamation marks, any symbols that might aid sharp and brilliant recall in time of need.

The purpose of marking phrases or whole sentences and paragraphs is to help you find the appropriate words/phrases or paragraph during your writing period. It’s easy to identify a line or box standing in the middle of a page, to find the sentence it guards. Use highlighters and colored pencils/pen. Any word that kicks up your interest should be marked for further escapades.

3. Read between the Lines

Look beyond the obvious. Strip the words of contextual and metaphorical context and dig straight for the meat.’

Read guided by the simple but forceful truth: you are a writer. Make the words on the page appeal to you; listen to the author’s heartbeat as he speaks to you. Weigh each word on the scale of your emotion as the meaning slides home with an audible thump.

4. Add Your Own Words

Here’s one important reason you should have a pen or pencil beside you when you read.

Reading is a stimuli for creativity. A word, a phrase, an expression could spark a bust of inspiration and you would want to mark your place with… words. No other spot can serve that need like the space beside the words that initiated the inspiration.

Add your words to the ones already on the page; it will make you feel like you belong. The pages become less formal and more personal. To have your thoughts side by side, buttressing, explaining and magnifying the ones on the page gives the idea of everlastingness to the printed text. It keeps the memory of the experience fresh.

5. Observe the Writing Style

Ask yourself questions like, How would I write this, if given the opportunity? Or How would this look if I had penned it?

Be on the lookout for peculiar twists, things out of the way the author uses to achieve a particular effect.

Note the beginning, the middle (body, if nonfiction, rising action/climax, if fiction) and the landing of the story. We can always learn a thing or two from one another. Sometimes, it might be what not to do while writing in a particular field or genre.

What a writer needs to do above all else, is to live inside books. Read intensely and in every field there is. You need to be something of an expert at various times to write in a particular field.

So read. Let the words form pinions under you, fly you beyond the edge of reality until you tread unknown pastures, and smell the fragrance of the Shakespearean Rose.

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan

Friday, November 19, 2010

Breaking Atoms: Thinking Above the Curve

If you thought DaVinci's portraits are masterpieces only because they are inventions of genius then what you need is school. Better yet, ask Dan Brown. And you just might begin to see secret messages in every picture and coded calligraphy on the walls of your bedroom.

I think it's awesome how an author's invention can rework generations of tradition and pop open a can of really controversial worms. A handful pages of creative writing influencing a million mindsets, staunch, dogmatic, diehard or just.

These guys pulling such stunts, how do they achieve it? How does a writer pull off a bestselling novel based on a web of conspiracies built around a common theme, complete with his reader's eyes popping, jaws hanging and completely thrown off balance? There a million and one roads to a question. Let's start with the one.

What is the big deal about popular ideas? Popularity? Well, yeah. And to arrive at the stone castles of popularity or common items, get your swimming trunks we're going for a dip, you'll need to wade the larger-than-life moat defending its grounds. I suppose that would be rumors and household gossips, right? This may involve beliefs and unwritten constitutions commonly called, tradition.

So, here's how the gig works. Any serious-minded writer knows that to write a book or even a short story on a popular theme requires him/her to do heartbreaking research. The author gathers as much info as he can, heaping a pile of resources relevant to the subject of his project. A little research work at the local library or on the internet is okay for a short story or essay. He sits down and does a run up of the entire stuff he's accumulated, separating whiff from wheat and sets himself up to write when he believes he's ready.

The writer tries to be as realistically accurate as he possibly can with the facts and, here's the bottom line, somewhere in the course of the story he throws something extra into the usual mixture. Something not true, not popular within the crowd, not commonly known as fact, and yet, is not a lie. It's the element of surprise. You may be wondering, is it possible for something to be untrue, yet it isn't a lie? Of course. This is a world you, the author invented. It's got nothing to do with the one we live in. Your characters are just that, your characters, your creation. Anything and everything you say in your story is real and irrefutably true. Don't you just love being a writer?

Stephen King has authored over 50 bestsellers. He has a book based on a killer cell phone, there's another on a killer clown, and yet another on a killer car. He has a book on a log house possessing power to choose it's residents. Your story is all about your twist-ability. If you can twist the plots – interweave the real and the fantasized, you have a chance at churning out bestsellers.

And there's beauty killed the beast, King Kong, and somebody invented Godzilla, the mammoth lizard. Maybe, the guy had a morbid fear of lizards as a child. Ever witnessed such enormous creatures in your life? Atoms were believed to be indestructible and indivisible until some chap split 'em into, not two but three. A nucleus and two electrons. If you really want to be creative as a writer start splitting those atoms of popular notion and then transport the electrons into your plot development.

Keep your pen bleeding.

Akpan