IntShoWriMo 2015: Sign Out & Winners' Medallion

IntShoWriMo 2015 Winners' Golden Badge

Copy and paste on your site if you participated

in this year's challenge.

The guy in charge of the store where I buy my diaries asked me the second time I walked in there to grab a few more copies (less than a week to the previous date) why I still bother. One of these A4 plus size jobs ought to take a year’s jotting of all my college classes combined, he pointed out, while the rest of my collection are probably gathering dust on my bookshelf.

            “How did you figure I used them to jot down college notes,” I asked.

            Thomas, that isn’t his real name but it should do for this write-up said, “What else would you use them for, you can only have so many things worth recording in one lifetime?”

            “I write.”

He looked me, his eyes full of questions. “You’re not reselling them, are you? Cause if you are you’d be running at a loss since you’re buying at retail cost.”

            “I ain’t reselling. Besides, if I was I’d buy wholesale.”

            “Then why on God’s earth would you need so many giant-sized diaries. What do you write to demand so much blank space?” Curiosity and a trace of what passed for perplexity tinged his words.

            “Stuff,” I said. “I write stuff.” A mischievous grin played on the edge of my lips.

            “Then what do you do with your spare time. Ha! Ha! What spare time?” Then Thomas took the time to drill me on how too much writing or even reading can place the mind on the sharp edge of insanity and eventually, make it yield its control toggles to it.

            “At some point in life, everyone exhibits some form of insanity,” I said. “What you relinquish your sanity to is the payoff.” My memory of what happened next’s a little rusty but I think Thomas cracked up and I collected my stuff which, weighed a ton and made my exit.

Five years, five diaries and over five hundred thousand words later and I believe I’ve justified my insanity. Those diaries have been the archives for all my IntShoWriMo stories. And as I write this (though it’s not been easy getting my work online cause I have two left hands when it comes to typing), my total word count for an overall four years of bending my imagination to invent 30 short stories in 30 days hovers just above 200,000 words (two hundred thousand words).

I’m thinking of sending Thomas a copy of the collection when I finally gather some of these tales into book form. You know, as proof there’s a method to this madness.

            Thanks to the owners and administrators of these websites, without them I’d run short on story ideas; WritersDigest.Com, Writing.Com, CreativeWritingPrompts.Com, Reddit.Com, PW.Org.

            Thanks to the late legend Chinua Achebe, for writing the bestseller, ‘Things Fall Apart.’ Snippets from the book added some to my prompts.

            Thanks to Stephen King (the King of Horror). I read so much of his stuff that ideas grew out of me.

            Most thanks to you whether you joined in or not for taking the time to watch me and cheer me through this fire.

            June 2016 is a date. Hope you’ll hang in there.

Keep your pens bleeding.

Eneh Akpan,

July.1st.2015

Day 29: Soul Brother

Beware, Soul Brother

Cause we only got each other.

The day ain't over without the shedding of a bit of blood.

What is is not.

So I struggle ceaselessly

While competition unceasingly

Cast my trophies at the feet of controversy.

Do you see why my brother

Reasons enough you shouldn't sweat the bother

Trying so hard to command respect

When no one expects

To see you succeed

But die the death of a scorched seed

In the very bosom of fertility?

Beware, Soul Brother,

Cause we only got each other.

So I illustrate life in a parable.

Living words on breathing marble.

The essence of truth is defected

And trust relationship's relegated.

If the future got eyes

I pray it can visualize

The past so that it arrive

With a perfect plan

For the race of man.

The goal of our mission

Was to rewrite the story of destruction.

Why can't we get our act together?

Beware, Soul Brother,

Cause we only got each other.

Akpan

100 Quotes From 'Things Fall Apart'

My first real experience of "Things Fall Apart" was as a kid and a big fan of television. The way I remember it, it was beamed into the homes of over '30 million Nigerians' by the Nigerian Television Authority broadcasting network as a weekly television series. Before then, I'd only heard about the book in snatches from my brothers. We might have had a copy or two of the volume in our home, too.

According to Wikipedia, 'Things Fall Apart' has sold well over 11 million copies worldwide and got translated into several languages. It is also considered the most read book by an African author residing in Africa. The entire plot of this great book might have been summarized in a one-liner delivered by one of the characters on the last page; the words of the District Commissioner who came to effect Okonkwo's (the MC) arrest but instead got a body dangling off the branch of a tree. Here's what he had to say:

"The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading."

Bet my pen he didn't know his statement was on point. I'm thinking that one-liner could have been all the legendary author, Chinua Achebe had when he drafted his masterpiece. But that's just me and my unshakable hunch. In any case, whether you've read the bestseller or not, these personal clippings are going to lead you by the hand into the heart of literary beauty.

May I have the pleasure?

Did your world seem to stand still? Did you hear the drums beat; heard the flutes as they sang? And did you feel your breath as it caught in your throat? I know I did. Thanks for your time.

Keep your pens bleeding.

Akpan