Eneh Akpan Writes: Publishing

Saturday, October 16, 2010

It's Electric. Boogie. Wooogie

Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it.

If we wanted to take some time to study the phenomenon of the electric current before we fed our household gadgets with its magical juices, we just might never get around to using it.

For some of us based in Lagos, Nigeria or any parts of planet earth, where power supply brings you the worst kind of drama-where power's on the other side of erratic, any research in that quarter is absolutely forbidden. Take as example, a fellow trapped in a relative environment takes his chances, he tries to understand the flow of current, the technicality behind the stuff. He works himself to a rust researching and researching.

The odds are 99 to 1.

Several years after our guy is six feet under, he'll still be wishing the lights had stayed on 'just a few moments longer'.

'Just a little longer'. Could regret evoke a richer melancholy streak? I doubt it.

We don't have to go through this guy's traumas to unravel the mystery called talent. We are sure to come off exhausted and burned out. And, we still wouldn't experience the thrills of creativity. It's the worst kind of defeat. Inspiration is an unstable quantity-unpredictable but it is not changeable. It only stays this long and then it fizzles away.

Understanding your talent is grabbing at it every chance you get.

We all got potential. A measure of ability. A capacity to be inventive and so little time to ravel the functionalities. Experience teaches. It’s all in the long haul. A way to be on first name basis with our creativeness is to be constantly creative; we have to keep having a go at it. And soon enough we would have a feel of our habitat.

The zone is where we go to understand the muse. To enter the zone, we strip ourselves of mutual tensions and accept our gifts for what they are: gifts. You know how sickening it feels to have somebody scrutinize your present to them. Guess what? You are doing it to yourself.

The everyday little activities we perform, when we bring our heart to it and make out time to be creative in that, reveals a little bit of our talent. It is the mystery we are within.

The core of the individual’s characteristics is revealed in his talent(s).

Talent trapped exclusively in pods of spectacular art is not pure talent and consequently, unbeneficial to the talented.

Our lives, the daily chores that define us are often the channels for personal and artistic eruptions.

Bleed your soul’s juice. Charge up a world gone to hell in a hand basket.

Akpan

Monday, December 7, 2009

Fear is a Writer's Toy

I remember the many times I sat before my computer and dreaded touching the keyboard afraid of what strange words might find it’s way to the screen.

Many of those times I knew there was a story waiting to be written. I could see the actions played out in my mind, it was like watching a theater act during rehearsals. What then was the underlying cause of my unrest?

I was afraid that my 'limited' vocabulary would be insufficient in communicating the world on my insides to the mind of my readers. I felt I couldn't be true to the images flickering on the walls of my mind owing to a lack of words to 'appropriately' express them. Hence, many of those stories died before they were born; they experienced literary stillbirths.

Have you ever been hindered by a seeming 'remoteness' of your story-ideas? Have you ever had a moment you regarded a picture in your own mind as superior to your writing abilities?

The story might be mightier than the warrior but definitely not the storyteller.

If two distinct authors could reproduce the telling or the showing of a specified event using exactly the same format-vocabulary and writing style inclusive-I suppose then the idea of originality would be defeated. You probably share my sentiment, don't you?

Here are a few tips from Steven Barnes which I believe could transform any writer's fears into tools for mastery of the craft:

1. What will a writing career add to your life?

2. What is the greatest risk connected with your goal? Greatest potential reward?

3. There are voices in your mind speaking to you about your plans. Whose voice speaks most loudly?

After listing these three leading questions Steven has this to say:

The more clearly you understand the potential benefits of actually fulfilling your dreams, the easier it is to feel the motivation necessary to accomplish them.

In the following lines he takes a step further suggesting that the writer ought to turn his fears into his character's fears thereby enhancing the plausibility of his story:

1. What does your lead character want, and how will her desires affect her life?

2. What danger lies ahead for your character?

3. What ghosts from your character's past keep her from seeing things clearly?

Remember, ideas in your mind sound different on paper. You can only tell a good idea from a bad one after you put it down.

Put it down. I guess that's the hardest part. The hardest moment is always before you start. This blog is my little way of learning how to conquer my personal demons.

Until next time.

Write Everyday!

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan