Eneh Akpan Writes: World Wide Web

Showing posts with label World Wide Web. Show all posts

Friday, January 2, 2015

XIV: Dare to Dream

“Anything that works against you can also work for you once you understand the Principle of Reverse.”

—Maya Angelou

The radio announcer did lend a certain degree of weight to the phrase, “Come with your babe or don’t come at all.” I didn’t have a girl and I figured I couldn’t just pick one and play boyfriend and girlfriend, (the act would have fallen through with a shearing sound) I’d gone on and attended the event alone. Well, my decision did ruffle a handful feathers. The guy-at-the-gate’s for one. I gained access into the venue after a short and terse tug of words—in which I spoonfed him lessons on my peculiar situation.

It was October 1st; the studio was packed with radio DJs and upcoming acts. My teeny-weeny voice carried on the airwaves to fill ears of God knows, how many million Nigerians as I performed a solo number in acapella to honor my country’s Independence Day.

Way back in the early 90s, (I was in senior high school then) I started taking tours to TV and radio broadcasting stations and that’s besides the frequent visits to major recording studios of the time. You see, I had “waxed” this demo (that's demonstrational tape, for the uninitiated) a couple of months into senior high and you know what they say about youth and zeal; I couldn’t wait to get it published. In that when, you could still cut a music deal with a demo. If only I’d heard about singles earlier, eh?

Soon enough, I got burned out. It took a modest length of time but it did occur to me talent wasn’t the chief prerequisite when you set your sights on the showbiz industry. Cash, on the other hand, wasn’t everything but its claws dug deep into a good deal of everything. See, I didn’t have a lot of that to throw around and it pretty much drew a line between me and a spot in what was once considered the key arm of mass media. Good thing for me, I didn’t quit writing altogether, even when I had no idea how I was supposed to pass on those write-ups to an audience. I drew pleasure from my craft and my passion for it fueled the courage to keep at keeping on.

Enter the World Wide Web and Google.

Browsing became my fetish the very first instant I delved online and ensuing days had me investing infinite hours surfing the web and harvesting reams on reams of info via printouts. Months later, during one of such escapades, I googled the word, “writing” and from the top of the first page of the search results, like a love waiting there with outstretched arms, the link to what is possibly the greatest website for writers leaped out at me. I posted a poem or two in my portfolio (that’s what you call your personal page on writing.com) then I left off for a little bit. Sometime later in 2009, I revisited the website only to find that my account had been deleted. Some dude probably hacked into it and broke the site’s ground rules. I signed up for a new one and this time, I went deep. Somewhere down the line, I got involved in a writing academy on the site. This blog crawled out from beneath the loins of that little elbow grease. You know how the rest of that ball of yarn unwinds itself.

Life sometimes gives you a second chance and when it does, by God, you take it and run with it. I know the weight of freedom the web has thrust into my laps. I’ve had the privilege of taking my talent and turning it this way and that trying for new ways to put it to use effectively. I’ve also learned the heart sees further than the head—mine had been awaiting the coming of the internet and thus kept my back to the grind scribbling sometimes in a fever at other times, totally wracked out of my mind. What was supposed to work against me did cut me loose. From late January 2014, my blog had visitors from over 106 countries in less than 365 days. Do you think any of those media houses (or record companies) I stalked way back could have afforded me such a rich and diverse audience?

But hey! It’s a new year to break new grounds and new records. I’ll see you on the other side of 2015 and we’ll exchange notes. But until then, have a happy record-breaking new year.

Keep your pens bleeding.

Eneh Akpan

January 2nd, 2015

Thursday, February 27, 2014

The Role of the Writer on the Internet

A revival of the writerly variety is budding on the internet. There is a demand for writers who are caught up in this web revolution to look up and away from their curbed viewpoint and visualize a whole new way of life, an advanced plane of expressing self in art not constrained by walls of culture or ethnicity or color or nationality. A world composed of pen slingers who aim with their pen to deliver one purpose, one goal, one dream; to strip the craft of affectation and mail it to the individual internet user on a platform so personal it can walk right up to the counter for a cup of coffee.

Earlier generations of writers could not afford exclusive access to such profound resource at the fingertips of the contemporary literary clique. Rephrasing Dean Koontz, “what was science fiction a decade ago is reality today.” The thrust of responsibility on today’s writer as the internet and social media bring the world to the neck of the woods is delicately enterprising.

But is that outlook workable judging we all are part of some larger clear-cut community of people which demands our input in some form which includes but is not limited to our craft? I believe it is. We can’t lose ourselves in a world of compromise and we don’t have to. What the writer needs to understand is that this medium—the internet—is a community of itself and consequently furnishes its own peculiar culture. Individual interest is protected and respected. Yet, we are of the same color, culture, nationality, and interest. The internet is home to a synchronized diversity. The pleasure is in being different and yet pursuing a solitary refined cause.

Each one of us must adopt a style of storytelling that adds its inimitable voice to the virtual universe’s storytelling. We ought to feed the www with our unique views while trying to fit into the broader frame of collective narrative and blend the details of our prose into the complex tapestry of our invented cosmos. Writers on the internet must come to the full measure of awareness that the World Wide Web and our craft cannot be separated. We define the web and we do it with one voice without restricting creativity. We must issue a restraining order to national boundaries, ethnic diversity, cultural differences and skin color. And let the scribbles of the pen be the one solitary standard of evaluation.

Keep your pen bleeding.

Akpan

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

2013: On One Canvas

Come April, I’d have been writing for the internet for five years. December would mark my fifth year running this blog you’re reading. I’ve had times I wanted to cut and run but I’m still here, though. And after all has been said and done that’s what really counts for anything.

At the beginning of 2013, I typed my three primary goals for that year on a sticky note pad and pasted it on the desktop of my computer where it would be readily available for daily review. Writing 30 poems in 30 days—NaPoWriMo—the first of the trio was simple enough; it was my pet genre. The second one up was a challenge I invented way back 2012—IntShoWriMo—to keep my story writing tools oiled and sharpened. I’d done a lot by way of raising awareness on social media but that didn’t make writing 30 short stories in 30 days a walkover. Although come the month of June, I churned out a word count of over 49,000 words.

I’ve had NaNoWriMo in my sights the past three years. It appears 2013 was my year. Cause by the time November blew out the back door, I had a 52,000 word manuscript smack down on my desk. Ain’t that a treat? 2013 apparently, was cut out to be a year to remember.

For 2014, these three are still my primary objectives for the year plus I gatto get my rough drafts polished up and sent out for publication.

Well folks, that’s 2013 on one canvas. And there’s the canvas at the top of this post. It’s a succinct interpretation of my luxuriant writing the past year in a frame.

Have a happy New Year and an intellectually productive 2014!

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

7 Good Reasons Why You Oughta Blog That Idea!

Sometimes, ideas pop up into our minds and we don’t know what to do with 'em.
Had any peculiar thought lately and wondering if that idea is really worth blogging? Here, I present you with, not one or two, but seven terrific tips to lead you by the hand into the land of creative blogging.

1. The Internet Would Be a Seedy Place –

Why would you leave a piece of info for only one website when you got a relevant message to share in a unique voice? The www is filled with info and resources because people like you and me never give up on giving what we got to give.

2. Increase Your Knowledge Base through Research –

This one speaks for itself, really. The more you blog, the more you read across the web to get better ideas about what you do. The more you feed yourself through online/offline research, the more you will blog. It’s really as simple as that.

3. Show ‘Em What You Got –

There won’t be any online research, there might be, on the other hand, but they would barely be fulfilling. If people didn’t blog their ideas, google search staffers would be out looking for jobs. Blogging your creative thoughts is another way of sharing your knowledge and getting ‘em across to surfers that need it.

4. Inspire Somebody to Write –

On a personal level, I’ve read blog stories that got me so fired up I had to create something. There’s no telling who might get ideas for an article just by reading your stuff.

5. Build-Up Your Writing Muscles –

Keeping at your blog expands your creative glands. You’re practically working out therefore, enlarging and stretching your creative muscles.

6. Keep Your Muse Busy –

This point is not the same as the above. While point 5 is about exercising, point 6 is like trying to spark up a relationship, sort of. In relationships, a lot of sharing and communicating is involved. When you hang around your muse a couple of times you tend to sense the inward tugging of inspiration faster and with keener intimacy. I do, too. Look at the results!

7. Somebody Out There Needs You! –

Or your ideas. Whichever comes first. This should be at the top of your mind every time you try to back out of an idea. Write or blog until there’s nothing left to give!

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan