Eneh Akpan Writes: fiction

Showing posts with label fiction. Show all posts

Monday, September 15, 2014

How to Write a Story and Not Get Shot

Updated: June.18.2015

Nobody ever told you becoming a fiction writer would involve life-threatening situations, right? And you didn’t choose a writing career so you’d end up in jail or worse, in a casket. If like me, you pick your inspiration from your immediate surrounding, there are a few pitfalls you just have to watch out for. I’ve listed about five here applying well-known proverbs but there might be more.

“A Good Name is Sooner Lost than Won”: You probably heard it said, “Give a dog a bad name and hang him and the name remains.” The saying also applies to fiction writing. Folks don’t take kindly to being made the butt of the joke especially, one where the clown gets paid. Use names that cannot be traced to persons, living or dead. Even if your story is not inspired by an event in your immediate vicinity, make it a personal commitment to avoid picking names associated with local, real people around you, for your story. Most of the time, folks won’t mind becoming a part of your story yet the few exceptions would spell the difference between a fruitful career and an embarrassingly short, unhappy one.

“What is Sauce for the Goose is Sauce for the Gander”: Have you ever considered writing a story not sex-driven? Your story people do not have to be male or female. They can be genderless, if it furthers your cause, or even bisexual (we used to call that hermaphrodite back in my high school days.) Here’s a story in your hands that’s a best seller in its own rights but you know you’re going to step on toes if you lay it out the way it is. You’re especially worried about how to keep your story faithful to the character without blowing the real life inspiration out of the water. I think you ought to give this a try; trade genders.

Chinua Achebe:
Legendary writer who almost
got shot for doing his job.

“We Can Live Without Our Friends but Not Without Our Neighbors”: Setting is important to story and for a yarn crawling with sensitive topics, setting is probably everything if the story must hold true. This gig is not called fiction for nothing, you know? Relocating the situation of your story and fine-tuning it to blend in with the adapted setting adds a different twist to the entire deal. If it’s trading places your narrative needs to retain its appeal among local audience, change your story setting.

“The Habit Does Not Make the Monk”: Story is king. Forget about all the misconceptions going the rounds about making your work fit into a standard genre. If attempting to mold your tale into a particular fiction category is going to spell trouble for you, ditch the genre and get the story done anyway you can. Going for the obvious might wake the dead, drawing painful and better-forgotten memories to the fore. Believe me, you don’t need the drama. The habit don’t make the monk and the genre don’t make the story. Your readers are bound to see it for what it is, anyway.

“Speak Well of Your Friends and of Your Enemy Nothing”: What gives profiling its appeal is how it injects life into your fictional characters and gives them the feel of real people. And whether the process is accidental or otherwise (the peeved individual would most likely tell you to ‘shove your excuses where the sun never shines’) most of the conceits you feed into your character are things you notice in the people around you. You can do yourself a favor and add a creative twist when drawing up traits of folks who populate your story. Business can get nasty in a hurry if your mother-in-law spots how the toothless old hag living up a tree in your fantasy series shares her peculiarities.

This is a reheated version of an article I wrote way back 2012 called “Entirely Coincidental.” Just in case, you noticed.

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

Friday, March 28, 2014

10 Ray Bradbury Quotes Embedded in Pictures

Here’s about ten Ray Bradbury quotes to get you fired up for the next assignment—something for your muse to chew on for a little bit.

Some of these pictures might have copyright (not the ones w/ the Ray Bradbury close ups) I'm not sure. But just in case, I hope the owners ain't mad I distorted their works w/o written permission. Look on the bright side, at least, I used it for a good cause. Thanks.

Just saying, did any of the quotes/pix get your juice flowing?

Keep your pens bleeding!

Akpan

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

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Science Fiction: Vehicle of Change

Long before I knew what the genre was called, an unalloyed sense of something deeper than awe always accompanied my views of any science fiction flick. The reason is not far-fetched cause the plot of a science fiction film 'looks like something that could happen' (advanced readers would call that plausible but my shoestring inventory couldn't afford such words at the time).

It is close to impossible reading or watching a movie or literature of the science fiction persuasion and not feeling the weight of urgency press down your pair of shoulders. No other genre drags you to the edge of your seat and sets your mind reeling off into forbidden places (were you to voice these in the dark ages, you’d be laughed out of court) that might be the future of the race of man. Science fiction is the one branch of literature that accepts the inevitability of change. Without the initial assumption that there will be change, there is no such thing as science fiction.*

Courtesy: guardian.co.uk

Once upon a memory, a post I had authored averred predictions were staples of the science fiction genre and a commenter on Reddit almost bit my head off for it. Obviously, it meant a lot to him (or her) that Sci-Fi and predictions be on bad terms. Well, here I am with a typically wholesome head and I still stand by that declaration. To boot, although I do believe a science fiction story shouldn't portray something that is going to happen, before it can be important, I do not totally agree science fiction can survive and thrive as a genre that suggests change without forays into the predictive. Besides, a good deal of the world's inventive genius has been the upshot of this invention-triggering genre. Films, books and art presented in a form that all but screams in your face; this could happen anytime soon even though much of what is portrayed may seem off-the-wall.

Individuals who have been inspired by science fiction run into hundreds, thousands by extension. People who read science fiction come, in time, to know that things will be different.* Beneath all the rise of the machines and alien invasion is a tour-de-force genre which appeals fiercely to the imaginative genius within us all. Science fiction tunes us up and opens up our hearts to perceive why things need to be different. Why techniques will change, why cultures will evolve and what we must prepare our minds to accept as inevitable. It is the preview of both the immediate future and the distant.

Science fiction foresees the different and alerts its fans to stretch the wings of intuitiveness and get hold of a spontaneous stimulation of sorts. It prepares the minds of people for technological advancements and real engineers and scientists are challenged to get productive. This is the function of science fiction; to incite a need—a deep-seated craving for the over-the-top—a desire to seek out unusual and out-of-the-way technique of finding answers to many of life’s problems. A need for change.

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan

*Asimov, The influence of Science Fiction

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

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Grounds to 'Read With a Pencil Close By'

Here are a handful of grounds to “Read with a pencil close by.” I found out it is still one of the best advices ever given to writers or students of the printed text.

Mark Phrases/Sentences & Paragraphs

When a phrase or paragraph catches my eye and sparks up a desire for complemental musing, I mark it using a colored pen/pencil or highlighter. I feel much better having a textual landmark around it, knowing it will arouse zeal whenever I spot it.

A Sign of Commitment

I pick up a fiction/nonfiction text then grab for a colored pencil or highlighter and I feel a sense of commitment. The pen/pencil informs every nerve in my body that I mean business. I aint just doing this for fun, I intend to come off the reading project with a lesson and some learned.

Recall Entire Textual Matter

It’s a lot more easy to call up words from memory if you underline/mark them when you read. I do that often and when my mind coughs up those peculiar sentences they usually appear on the wall of my subconscious as images. I visualize the interesting set of words hemmed in by my scrawls before the title of the book essentially floats to the surface.

Spot Peculiar Phrases/Sentences/Paragraphs

I find I can navigate the text with ease when I circle or box words that chase my fancy. For me, it’s become less stressful identifying a line or box in the middle of a page, to find the sentence or phrase it guards. I can pick out these phrases during my research period. The lines and symbols seem to beg for my attention.

Lookout for Peculiar Twists

Having a highlighter close by where I can reach it and tag a phrase keeps my faculty amped up and on the lookout for expressions full of shades of meaning. The search for inspired language morphs into a conscious, energetic process and for somebody out to learn a new thing that’s a lot.

That’s all folks. I guess you know what you need for your next reading exercise besides the text, that is.

Keep your pen bleeding.

Akpan