Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts

Friday, June 7, 2019

Rime of The Block


I'm a character with a unique talent,
I'm a scrivener of a special kind.
I script every writer's torment
On the tablet of their confused mind.

I stifle the musings of the muse;
I dehydrate the juice of its issues
I throw a wrench in the wheel
Mess up inspiration's reverie.

I wipe the walls of memory clean
Throw sand in the eye of creativity
I type trash on their laptop screen
Bleed bilge the length of their sheets.

I have a way with words they don't
I wring them out till cadence is lost.
I send them away on literary vacation
Yet prey on them with a restless condition.

I am the silence of the muse,
I am the pent-up flow of the juice,
I am the blank page on their manuscript,
The fixed cursor on their computer screen.

Akpan


Thursday, June 6, 2019

Give Me Drama


Give me drama
A legit diller thriller
I gotta bust outta this monotone
Deal me a raw crisis zone.

Give me drama
A Stephen Kingish bone chiller
Get the hell outta my way
Hi time I ditch this stalemate.

Give me drama
Get me a grandmal
Stick a glock in my brain
I feel I'll ride the hell train.

Give me drama
Pitch me against the cheetah
I'll race through the Sahara
Better yet, I'll swim the Niger.

Give me drama
Give me Count Dracula
Hand me a rim of paper
I'll write the world's 8th wonder.

Akpan


Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Draft


Writing
As a matter of course,
Is rewriting.
And that's saying it short.
So my first set of thoughts
That hit the page running
May not make the final cut
May amount to total bilge.
Words trade places with new words
Sometimes morph into phrases
Building blocks that create a clause.
Jargons align against letters,
Making sense; cooked up nonsense.
With luck, they'll pull a caper.
Still a draft makes much pretense.
I write to rewrite.
And again and again,
Until I get it right
And explode off the page.

Akpan


Saturday, January 31, 2015

Finding The Best Ideas For Your Blog


The most appropriate ideas for your blog are probably, the ideas which unlock the flow and set your muse reeling to your side almost at the snap of a finger. That goes further to mean you have no business whatever wading in waters totally unfamiliar to your muse. In point of fact, if your plan is to be around the blogosphere for a very long time you need to stay on your grind by finding the niche that clicks—finding a unique voice, in other words.

Your biggest challenge while hunting ideas for your blog will be finding what works for you unless ‘you blog not to blog a subject but to blog’ (to coin a phrase). And as far as writing these breed of journals go, all you really need do is try your hands on a variety of topics (which includes searching deep within your heart) and if you can throw your back into it, there’s a 100% chance your niche will come within kissing distance.

If you intend to run a blog where you share a topic-specific content, be aware that sooner or later, you’re going to have to sit down (or stand or lay down, your choice) and consider the odds. Of course, as they say, ideas are literally everywhere and you can help yourself to as many as your heart desires. But before you do, here’s a set of really simple questions you will need to tackle if you must set off on the right foot;
“What would you like your blog to be known for?”
“Who is your audience—the readers you intend to connect with?”

Remember, we are discussing getting the best ideas for your blog. How can you get ideas that keep on giving? The ideas you come up with have to be in tune with your overall blog theme. It follows that, one of the things you must do is spread your theme so thin that it almost falls through (I mean that in a positive sense). Let’s say, for example, you blog about ‘writing.’ First of all, write down the word, ‘writing.’ Next, build a kind of wordweb around it with topics related to your subject matter. Words like ‘book reviews,’ ‘writing tips,’ ‘book excerpts,’ ‘film reviews,’ ‘writing quotes,’ ‘book updates,’ ‘author interviews,’ ‘personal essays’ (or essays in general), ‘bestseller countdowns,’ ‘author bio,’ ‘writing community information,’ ‘top 10 lists’ (these could include movies, books, television, short stories and so on), ‘book quotes,’ ‘book suggestions,’ ‘writing prompts,’ … the list goes on.

With a list like that, which by the way, you can further break down into smaller bits, you can’t run short on weird and wonderful ideas. The best ideas for your blog which also interpret as the most appropriate are the ones that feed your drive, hand you a twig to hang on to when your inner voice is drowning in a sea of life’s problems. This is the good stuff which may evolve into fresh and brilliant topics. Fetching the best materials in the long haul is setting up yourself for a unique and successful blogging.

Keep your pens bleeding.
Akpan


Saturday, September 27, 2014

Does a Fantasy Setting Need Its Own Language?


Inscription: "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"
quote from "Wolves of the Calla" by Stephen King
A good fantasy series does not need its own language. There is simply no reason for it to exist unless the author has a penchant for linguistics because any time it would actually appear in the book, it would have to be translated into an actual language, thus mitigating its usefulness as a distinct language. There are a few conceivable exceptions, like a short phrase or message that is presented in a native form, that is left concealed until later events. However, this usage is no different than a closed door or a locked chest in terms of plot devices.

Any fantasy author, by at least throwing in a few words and phrases in a made-up language, can communicate to the reader that multiple nations or multiple culture-groups exist in this world, which helps to make it believable.

Language is deeply tied to culture so when trying to create distinct cultures or subcultures within a fantasy novel it (language) can be a very useful tool. Language and culture are so inextricably linked that creating a language is essentially creating a culture and doing this really helps to flesh out and define a culture and particular characters from that culture.
Basically language is great for an epic, a story in which we see different cultures. GRRM (George R. R. Martin) does this well in A Song of Ice and Fire, because he uses it sparingly.

It becomes less and less practical to have one common language as the geographical and cultural scope of the story increases. Having various languages that work will also show that the author has put extensive thought into how their ethnic groups have developed—trade languages, regional dialects and divergent forms can all hint at how civilizations have progressed given their relationships to each other and to any observable barriers.

If a distinct vocabulary has been established, the reader might also be able to see distinct cultural values given the right opportunities. Do family names come first or second for individuals? Is poetry terse and succinct or long and flowery?
The area of Wheel of Time was somewhere between the size of Europe and USA. Nevertheless, all people spoke the same language with only few unique phrases per country. In Song of Ice and Fire the Seven Kingdoms are the size of South America, but there is only one common language.
In Stephen King's Dark Tower Series. They all speak English, but in Roland's world if you want a quick snack, you don't have a sandwich, but rather a popkin, and when your grandfather was a kid, he didn't walk five miles (uphill both ways) to get to school, he walked three wheels to get there. Frankly, ‘ka-tet’ sounds a lot better than ‘group of destiny-linked brothers-in-arms. However, when you are creating a new race or species, I don't think it's farfetched to come up with a new language.

Hope you learned a thing or two from all the suggestions. By the way, these were all clipped from comments from a post I published a few years back. I thought turning it into an article would make the whole thing an easier read. You can get the full gist here: Should You Create Language for a Broad Fantasy World? Knock yourself out!

Keep your pens bleeding!

Akpan



Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Writing as the Finest Form of Telepathy


“I’m riding in the backseat of a VW Vanagon and situated at the extreme left. Some lucky dude is squeezed into the scrawny space between me and another guy who is roughly my size. I use the phrase “squeezed” because there’s barely any wiggle room spared between seats. This takes it out on the knees thrust into the metal which shores up the backrest of the seats.

This fella is one tall son of a gun who just got his butt stuck in a tight spot (pardon the pun). Tucked away underneath this same seat is a medium-sized speaker and blaring loud music. The sound is all out of joint and effectively multiplies the drama...”


I just sent a picture directly from my mind to yours. And for the space of two to three minutes I made you hear my thoughts and see my dreams. I bet you saw the tall guy and tried to imagine him squirm in discomfort between the seats, trying and failing to find succor for his aching knees. You probably, winced as the jagged sounds poured through the blown-out speakers into your ears. On that one score, I have achieved my goal as a writer.
 
The level of telepathy transmitted through the craft of writing beats what is obtainable in any other form of art by a wide margin. In writing, all you have and grapple with are several letters lumped up together to fill a blank surface. No wonder a great writer once said, “Writing is an act of faith.” How true that saying becomes when we weigh the options under the light of thought transference—when we consider how much responsibility is thrust upon the reader’s shoulders, in other words. There’s an English proverb that goes like this, “Quick believers need broad shoulders” same applies to passionate readers.

Readers are trusted or entrusted to read the writer’s mind correctly and give appropriate interpretations without any interference from the writer. It’s the writer saying to the reader in other words, “I absolutely have faith in your discretion.” “Over to you, I trust your judgment.” And you know the amazing about this gig? It works 99.9% of the time as writer-reader minds intervolve and spit out a more refined universe.

“We were walking along the boardwalk in Ocean Park one summer evening, arm in arm, my friend Sid and me, when he saw a familiar sight on one of the benches just ahead, not far from the surf.”

Tell me you didn’t hear the sound of the waves crashing in on the beach or see the foam bubbling up in the wake of the breakers. It’s okay, go ahead and lie you didn’t feel the chill of the wind coming in off the ocean to the shore. And how about the vivid image of the narrator as he strolls leisurely, his pal by side as both men take in the scenery? With those few lines of words you’ve just been given a peek into the mind of a genius. The clip you just read is from a Ray Bradbury short story, “Tête-À-Tête.” A fine story that’s short on narrative prose but long on engaging dialogue. Any fan of the great writer will agree it’s what he’s known for and praised for.

But writing is in itself magic and the wonderful thing about it is that we need not do a thing to acquire the powers. We are born to operate naturally on this level of telepathy and nothing in this world can compare with it.

Keep your pens bleeding.

Akpan



Sunday, August 31, 2014

100 Similes I Grew Up With


My Grade 5 Teacher was fond of adding an English proverb or two at the end of her notes (especially, in a subject called, Moral Instructions). My interest in these gems was spurred by this favorite pastime of hers and lucky for me, my brothers had this English reader called Student Companion. I started collecting and memorizing similes. My love for them never diminished and this post is proof enough.










































































































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