Eneh Akpan Writes: Wikipedia

Showing posts with label Wikipedia. Show all posts

Saturday, March 1, 2014

10 Favorite Sites I Found While Googling

When I was new to the internet, I was engrossed by the internet phenomenon called googling probably, just like everybody else. I plugged words and phrases which fell in line with creative writing or literature into the popular search engine and let it go to work. Much of the stuffs I ran into on the result page were... well, search results. I didn't have much use for these but there were sites which tipped the scales and reined me in, readily. I was obliged to browse beyond the landing page. I'd like to list a few of these Googling bounties in this post. I imagine it would be the reasonable thing to do considering the great deal of insight I gained trucking with these online resources.

1. Writing.Com:

This is the premier online writing community and the site I ever signed up for. And it is ‘where the writers go.’ I googled the word writing. And this site was the first to come up on the result page. I was drilled in the art of writing on this online community.

This is where I was introduced to one of my favorite writers Stephen King.

2. Lifewrite.com:

Before I went deep on writing.com, I was all over this site. Steven Barnes, the owner of the site and a mentor reawakened my passion for fiction writing. Over 400 newsletters on the craft have been delivered to my inbox. There are also lessons on personal development.

3. WritersDigest.com:

I can'remember what exactly I was hunting for on Google when I stumbled on this site. But I know whatever it was don't matter anymore; I've been coming back for more since I discovered WritersDigest.com. 93+ years and still going strong, this website is always pulling new stunts to keep a writers’ creative juice flowing.

4. Wikipedia.org:

I don't know how popular Wikipedia was when I went online but I got my hands on this loaded web-based encyclopedia by googling. It’s amazing how much information I have accessed for articles through researching Wikipedia.

5. FictionFactor.com:

Now there's one website that's true to type. I probably googled the word fiction and the giant search engine coughed this one up. Did a lot of print outs too. Fiction writers can access abundance of writing resource right here.

6. About.com:

As the name implies, you'll find information about almost anything on this site. I'm almost certain my search term included the word about. About.com goes bores deep into the heart of its subjects with its how-to articles. No dull moments here only copious party favors.

7. NPR.org:

Here's one that takes me back full circle. I was curious to know what Stephen King sounds like so I plugged the phrase “Stephen King Audio Interview(s) into the Google homepage.” I got npr.org (National Public Radio) for my troubles and my, did it pay? It’s probably, where I heard Tabby (King’s wife) mention Stephen King married her for her typewriter. *coughs*

8. CreativeWritingPrompts.com:

I went hunting for writing prompts and got a little more than I bargained for. I kept coming back, too. I used some of my finds for my annual 30 day fiction challenge. You ought to give this site a shakedown if you’re stuck for inspiration. It’s guaranteed to thrill.

9. NaNoWriMo.org:

I know this one's really popular I could have found it without Google but I did not. A site like this one was like a dream come true for a young writer; a community which challenges writers to create a novel in 30 days was too good to be true only it wasn’t. Last year, I finally, wrote the first draft of my novel thanks to nano (or should I say thanks to Google?).

10. Blogger.com:

I discovered a few blogging sites through Google. My writing instructor had me search for them, signed up with a few actually. But somewhere down the line, I got stuck with blogger. This blog is one of the first I created and it’s gradually evolved into my principal platform.

Dare I say, I have been made better (enhanced seems the appropriate word) by these and a few other sites which I have withheld (or this post would be much longer and I’m not really up for that). So, what are your googling keepsakes?

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan

Thursday, February 6, 2014

What Sir Taught Me About Talent

Back when I was a child (to coin a phrase and a swell one too if I may add), I would lock myself up in my room, turn my back to the world, set the muse to work and, explore all the depths of my creativity. There were times I skipped meals and just got lost in my muse creating lyrics. A feeling of nostalgia often accompanies my recall of those early days of trying and failing and you can readily associate if your childhood hobby morphed into a lifelong career.

Sir (if you have read my post “On Identity,” you know I called my father, “Sir”) was well aware of my obsession—how could he not, I spent more time writing than I did doing anything else. I recall one uneventful evening, that’s one day which has evolved into one of the most memorable of my entire life. An unusual hush garbed the entire household. The way I remember it I suppose my sibs were out playing soccer on some stubbed patch of undeveloped lot.

My improvised desk flaunted a clutter of school notebooks. I was buried in the pages of an exercise book flanking the heap when Sir invaded the privacy of my room.

“I haven’t seen you do too much song writing, lately,” He said, his fatherly aura eclipsing my tiny frame.

The smile, which abruptly, lit up my face, came uninvited and uninhibited because I felt I just had my legs pulled.

Don't get me wrong, though. Sir was a big fan-he loved me and loved what I did.

“Seriously.” He eyed me the way fathers do when they're trying to make you pay attention. “You've not been writing those lyrics of yours like you used to.”

Sir went on to tell me something that rearranged my overall psyche and triggered a new sense of purpose within.

1. Your Talent is ‘Who’ You Are

You can't discover the inner self and not find your talent. Towing the same line, you can't straddle your talent and not know who you really are.

“That’s one reason sloths can’t discover who they really are,” Sir said.

If someone has talent, they still have to work very hard if they want to be very good at something. Some people become quite good at something even if they do not have much talent, but if they are willing to work very hard at the skill. Some people “waste their talent” (they have talent but do not work hard at it, they do not “use their talent”). — Wikipedia

"Inspiration exists but it has to find us working." Picasso

2. Your Talent Ought to Define Your Career

This line rather blows its own trumpet. Nevertheless, that's not the situation much of the time. With unemployment and underemployment running the game and as we all know, a man's gotta eat, sometimes, we defer.
Fact remains you can't be waist deep in your talent and still be, metaphorically speaking, out of a job.

Once you find something you love to do, do more of it. You will improve your skills and refine your technique this way. WikiHow

You should consider making a career of it and help change the world with something only you could rightly show off.

3. Your Talent is No. 1 Priority

Here's what Sir said to me, "Education was invented so gifted people could learn from like-minded folks who have through drill perfected their craft." (I can name a few of my high school teachers who signed up for the job because they ran out of options, though.) "People get an education to polish raw talent. The intent wasn't to get a qualification you can't defend for beans so you can apply for a fine job that pays handsomely."

You should nurture your talent by finding a teacher, even if it's just somebody else with more experience at something who can give you advice. WikiHow

“Thomas Edison (electricity), Benjamin Banneker (clock), Garret Morgan (traffic light), Henry Ford (automobile), and Alexander Graham Bell (telephone) had 8th to 12th grade education.

Bill Gates (Microsoft), Ted Turner (CNN), Bill Lear (Lear Jet), Soichiro Honda (Honda cars), and Howard Hughes (Hughes aircraft) never earned a college degree.

These geniuses had average IQ but made the world a better place by using their intuition.” — The New York Times

That's my idea of a well-rounded education. As Sir said, “In a difficult situation where your talent is pitched against 'formal' education, choose your talent.” Put differently, do it in a heartbeat. No questions asked (to coin a phrase).

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan

Friday, January 31, 2014

The Single Most Powerful Social Network Tool You'll Ever Need

I tweet a handful per day so I suppose, I'm qualified—to a certain degree—to talk (or write) about this.

Forget all the magnificent social media tools you ever used for a second. What I got here is the most powerful of all social network tools and the very soul of networking.

Social media optimization (SMO) is social network's answer for the search engine's SEO (search engine optimization, as if you don't know that already, ugh?). But methinks, the SMO is a bit more interesting because it is a human-powered search engine and thus turns up a much viable search result (this topic would be treated in a different article).

On the side, Wikipedia says SMO "refers to the use of a number of social media outlets and communities to generate publicity to increase the awareness of a product, brand or event.”

It is amazing that the social network's most powerful tool is also its simplest and defining essence. Social networking, by definition and function, cannot exist without this activity. Why, social networking was invented so people could communicate with their networks.

That kind of communication has a name; share/sharing. You can choose any of the phrases and you will be alright as long as you keep in mind that it is an action word. Share is a verb.

Sharing effects the freeflow of information between local and global social networks called glocalization.

Perhaps, you have been stuck in a rut as a blogger or site owner. You're especially, hung over driving traffic/awareness to your platform. Let us look at your situation from a perspective. Since you are not exactly MJ who could get himself on the FrontPage of the Times for sneezing the wrong way, you are left with the solitary option available to everybody else to connect yourself with the rest of your network. Share.

There are several forms of social networking including the email, push mail, IM, RSS feed, video and blogging sites, phone calls, social news and bookmarking sites and social networking sites like twitter and stumbleupon. Social networking instrumentality varies with sites too. You can interact with your network across several social media platforms through comments, replies, DMs, +1s, retweets, hashtags, tagging, mentions, likes, upvotes/downvotes, hangouts, tweets. You can share bare text or text with links, videos and pictures. The more you share with your networks; the more you put yourself in their faces; you increase chances of awareness for your blog/site.

This is the easiest to use tool to manage your social media presence; to maximize your social media marketing and let us not forget, drive the much-desired traffic to your blog/site. Sharing can be a ball of enterprising fun. I recommend you engage it with a degree of enthusiasm that is one click short of addiction.

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan

Thursday, January 23, 2014

7 Sources of the Contemporary Fantasy Genre

This post is not so much a collection of exhaustive or even major sources of the modern fantasy genre but a list of some elementary stuff, which feeds this spectacular category of fiction. The fantasy genre has risen in popularity in recent times and it hasn’t showed any signs of losing steam.

1. Epic Poetry:

A long narrative poem in elevated style presenting characters of high position in adventures forming an organic whole through their relation to a central heroic figure and through their development of episodes important to the history of a nation or race. (Harmon and Holman)

The first epic poetry were oral since speech came before writing or so we want to believe (we weren’t there in the beginning, were we?) And back in the day poetry was transmitted from person by word of mouth. Therefore, oral poetry can also be epic poetry.

2. Urban Legend:

This class is also known as urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend. And is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true but merely that it is in circulation, exhibits variation over time, and carries some significance that motivates the community in preserving and propagating it.

3. Myth:

According to Alan Dundes, a myth is a sacred narrative explaining how the world and humankind assumed their present form, although, in a very broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story.

Myths are usually historical events, which are truly depicted or gilded over with elaborations and are usually endorsed by the rulers and priests of a culture. Usually, the narrator believes the tale as true and it’s used as allegory for or personification of natural phenomena, or as explanation of ritual. Myths communicate religious or idealized experience, and teach moral lessons.

4. Fairy Tale:

A fairy tale as a form of short story features characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants, witches mermaids, or gnomes, and in several cases, magic.

Unlike legends and epics, they usually contain trivial references to religion and actual places, people, and events; they take place ‘once upon a time’ rather than in actual times.

5. Superstition:

The belief that one event leads to the cause of another without any natural process linking the two events through a process that contradicts natural science.

Superstition as it relates to folklore is an excessive fear of the gods or unreasonable religious belief. It also applies to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, prophecy and spiritual beings, particularly the belief that future events can be foretold by specific unrelated prior events.

6. Legend:

A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude.

The events within a legend is perceived (or better yet, believed) to be possible even though the narrative may include miracles and outrageous details of the hero’s exploits.

The Brothers Grimm defined legend as folktale historically grounded.

7. Folk Art

Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople.

Unlike, fine art, folk art preserves the ideals of a culture and is practical in purpose for example, it is used to tell a story or communicate information/instruction. The nature of folk art is specific to its particular culture.

So, there you have it, a succinct inventory on the constituents of one of the most fascinating genres you would read or write.

Keep your pen bleeding.

Akpan

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Bond... James Bond: Thought You Knew 007? Think Again

Ian Fleming's sketch of 007 and Barry Nelson, American actor
noted as the first actor to portray James Bond

While serving in the British Naval Intelligence, Fleming once told a friend with reference to his dream of becoming a writer when he retired, “I am going to write the spy story to end all spy stories.” And that’s exactly what he did.

Since the writer invented 007 in 1953, the books and films have gone on to become the definitive spy stories for every other work in the spy genre. How much of this British spy character do you know? Let’s find out in 20 ways, shall we?

Seems I almost lost you back there, ugh? Well, at least, you can look at this on the bright side; you had a good shot at reacquainting yourself with Bond… James Bond.

Akpan

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Profiling Fantasy's Terrific Triple Terrys

I thought I’d start off this year by writing an article that’s been eating me up on the inside for the best part of the previous year. It was all up on the walls of my mind the last months of 2013 like a neon sign in front of a night club. There are three writers whose first name is Terry on the top 10 bestselling fantasy series of all time, I thought I’d profile the Terryfic authors in a unique article.

The trio has managed to sell copies of their series in excess of 20 million each. The least books sold by any of the authors are about 21 million copies. They are all in the same age group born in the 40s; two of the men have wives whose first names start with J; two are American and there are several other similarities.

Terry Brooks

Terence Dean ‘Terry’ Brooks was born in January 8, 1944 in Sterling, Illinois, USA.

Brooks’ choice of genre is epic fantasy of which he has sold millions of books. He practiced law before becoming a gentleman of the page. Brooks’ kicked off his writing career in high school. He wrote in several and diverse genres until somebody offered him a copy of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. That single act decided him. Tolkien influenced the author’s choice of genre—the genre for which he’s become internationally known. Brooks now writes only in the fantasy genre

Despite Tolkien’s influence, Brooks credits Faulkner for his style of writing. In 1977, he began his most famous work—The Sword of Shannara. The series which, combines magic and primitive technology, has spanned over 20 volumes and still counting. The Sword of Shannara has sold over 21 million copies worldwide.

Brooks is quoted as saying, “I find it harder o write short stories than long fiction. Give me a 500 page sprawl as an assignment any day.”

Brooks has written 23 New York Times Bestsellers and as a bestselling fantasy book series author, he is one of the living highest selling fantasy authors.

Terry Goodkind

Goodkind was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1948.

Goodkind was once into painting, carpentry and auto racing. He still finds time to drive a race car for his own Rahl racing team. He also built cabinets and violins before turning to writing.

The prolific author started writing his first novel, Wizard’s First Rule in 1993 while constructing his home in Maine and his writing career was launched by the time he published the book the following year.

Besides, Stone of Tears and Wizard’s First Rule, every other book by Terry Goodkind was a New York Times Bestseller. Even though, he writes fantasy, Goodkind’s works focus on philosophical and human themes and are strongly influenced by the books of Ayn Rand. His first book was auctioned to a group of three publishers at a whooping sum of $275,000!

One critic described Goodkind as part of a “host of brand new writers (with) no previous experience writing fiction but who could turn out one large epic adventure after another.”

The author’s popular series The Sword of Shannara has sold over 25 million copies across the globe making it one of the bestselling fantasy book series of all time.

Terry Pratchett

Sir, Terence David John ‘Terry’ Pratchett (OBE) was born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England on 28 April, 1948.

Terry Pratchett writes comic fantasy; his most notable work is Discworld which apparently, has sold over 70 million copies and therefore qualifies as one of the top 10 bestselling fantasy book series.

From the time he published The Colour of Magic in 1983, Pratchett has churned out an average of two books a year.

Pratchett is the UK’s second most read writer. The famous author had dreams of becoming an astronomer but lacked the mathematical skills required for the trade.

The young Pratchett read H.G Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle and “every book you ought to read.”

He published his first story at age 15. It was during his interview with Peter Bander Van Duren, co-Boss of a small publishing outfit that Pratchett let slip about his then manuscript, The Carpet People. It landed him a publishing deal.

Pratchett resigned his job at the electric firm where he worked after he wrote his fourth Discworld novel and took up writing as a full time job.

Three Terrys doing their thing; strung up on their craft while churning out bestsellers at will you wonder, could being a writer be more fulfilling than this? But who wants more when you can settle for an accomplished less?

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan