Time’s Ripe for a Short Story Month

OFFICIAL BADGE FOR IntShoWriMo 2014 (MODIFIED)

Isn’t it about time there was a Short Story Month? Why short stories, you ask. And at this late date? In the following paragraphs I’ll try to present valid whys and wherefores. You, Dear Reader, are free to accept or refute the idea; it would do little by way of changing my opinion, though.

IntShoWriMo was founded on the unpretentious principle that the short story cannot be allowed to go extinct. There has to be a new way to reinvent the craft, the art, and keep it fresh in the heart of the reader. Cast your minds back to a time you were much younger than you are; recall all those stories, fairy tales, you grew up with; Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, Lil’ Red Riding Hood, and so forth. The stories we heard where animals assumed human qualities to teach us a moral lesson or two while we sat, innocent and rapt in awe, on Mama or Papa or even Granny’s bosom.

Many of those tales were spoken and (those we read in books) written in the short form of fiction. Our first taste of fiction came in the form of the short story; we can’t deny where we came from just as we must not deprive the next generation a stab at the treasures we inherited. For the short story is itself a peculiar variety of legacy. Facts through fantasy expressed in short, memorable lines of creative imagination which must not be conscripted to the paddy wagon of rut. That's the idea on which IntShoWriMo was created.

Keep your pens bleeding!

Akpan

When Your Ideals Are Threatened

When you crash and burn at your first attempt working a project that cost every muscle in your body to put together, same one everybody around you felt different about, you feel the white-hot glares of scorn peel through layers of your skin like sun rays through a hundred lenses incinerating an entire colony of black ants. The only difference is this beam is sucking on your faith, seeping out your very life-force. Do you marvel how fear of failure cripples the desire to venture out into strange waters? It makes us long for support from our peers. In any case, there isn't a single thread of fault with folks sharing their dreams and aspirations with other people. The principle thing is not to leave the door too wide open so a desire for companionship morphs into a ruthless dependency; a belief we are nothing without someone else's opinion.

Courtesy: Naja Niketa

The quest to achieve is an inseparable element of every man’s psyche; a burden to increase and multiply. To excel in a chosen field, an area of interest. And thus, fear on any level should be kept on a tight leash. I have come to terms with my weaknesses. Not compromise. I have studied and garnered ample info from my shortcomings, and I understand the limits of my abilities and strengths. I cannot deny the fact that I’m inclined to make mistakes or that the best of my pains might fall through like a castle erected on sand. Nevertheless, my calling raises me up high above all limitations and plants my feet on a pedestal of sweet possibilities. And I am persuaded to declare this privileged position in which I have found myself fortifies the essence of my zeal. Faith can stand, walk, run and fly incontestable even when evidence indicates the contrary.

I stay my course trailing my own path. Besides, shaping a life is an individual responsibility. Dexterity in the mental realm and otherwise, cannot be taken out of the equation. We are heroes of what we pursue and conquer but not before we conquer nor even before we lay pursuit. Until we tread less traveled paths, experience can only be measured by a stretch of imagination like a paradise possessed from a distance. The haunting knowingness that I might walk away from the life I was programmed to multiply agitates my creativity. I sense a threat to my very existence every time I am reminded I am surrounded by opposition.

“All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.”—Maya Angelou.

And that’s why I keep a simple creed but fire it up to get me through the heat.

Keep your pens bleeding!

Akpan

The Discipline of Feeling (Intuitive Writing)

When was the first time you heard the phrase intuitive writing?

I probably, heard it coined this way from the late legendary writer Ray Bradbury.  Notice I said coined this way because I think Robert Wallace was towing the same line when he wrote up the phrase ‘random writing’ in his book ‘Writing Poems.’

The best way a writer achieves or perfects writing intuitively is through the discipline of his emotions or feeling. This is the state of inventiveness Bradbury refers to as writing from the heart or writing with little or no interference from the mental faculty. This level of creativeness involves transferring raw emotions directly to the page thereby, turning intangible material into meaningful coordinated form of writing.

So, how exactly do you go about this seemingly complicated method of flow? I'm a little bit in the know with stuff like this. I got my gears well oiled from years of practice long before I came across the twin phrases listed above. I tried it with lyrics then poetry. I'll have some tune dropped in my heart and I'll just go with the muse and set the sound to words. I bet a lot of folks reading this didn't know that sort of thing falls under intuitive writing. But it does.

Writing in this way doesn't come easy sometimes; you just have to take the plunge-nothing on your mind, not even the faintest idea where the whole shebang would come out or what exactly it is you are dribbling about. I wrote a lot of poetry straddling that line.

Stephen King calls it writing without an outline, going with the flow, or listening to the muse. And you can master it by consistently striving to dredge up words from that bottomless void-that incitive convolution of nameless emotions inside you. If you look into the deep long enough, you go deep. And that's a given.

Practice. Practice. Practice. Until it becomes a bad habit that hangs around even when you're totally unaware of it.

Scribble one word on paper, any word, then string it up with another then another until it creates a meaning. Is that a picture in your mind? Recreate it on paper with words. If you see this in the realm of the impossible maybe, it's cause you're trying to see the finished product before you start. That's not writing intuitively, at all.

The magic of intuitive writing lies in falling and getting right back up only to start all over again even though, you are aware you might bust your nose walking into a wall the next minute. It is the expectant certainty that eventually, you're going to be alright.

Keep your pens bleeding!

Akpan

Collected Riddles From The Dark Tower IV (Wizard and Glass)

The author, Stephen King

TheDark Tower is a series spanning at least, eight books by the foremost horror writer, Stephen King. A bestselling fantasy series which has stimulated a dying passion for stories of the fantastical in the hearts of fans of the genre all around the world, the volumes are a blend of science fiction, fantasy and horror.

However, our concern in this post is not about the entire series only the fourth installment aka TheDark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass. In this volume, Roland and his ka-tet are challenged to stymie a suicidal mono called Blaine with riddles. Blaine is the last aboveground tool of the vast computer-system which lies beneath the city of Lud, and it has only one remaining interest: riddles. If its passengers cannot pose a difficult riddle, Blaine commits suicide taking everybody aboard to a fiery grave. Proceed with caution, for this riddles may mean the difference between life and death.

The final six or seven riddles silly as they sound are the cruncher that stumped Blaine theMono-the suicidal machine. The artificial intelligence choked on its words trying to solve these then blew a fuse. They were posed by Eddie Dean of New York, just in case you ever wondered. Hope you had fun, though.

Keep your pens bleeding!

Akpan

IntShoWriMo On My Mind

The month of April holds a special spot in my heart and it’s besides the fact it’s the month dedicated to my pet genre—National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) 2014 ended officially on 00:00 hrs on 30th April, 2014.

                One reason is I was born on a Good Friday in the month of April several hundred years ago. Then the internet became second home to me about five years ago when I joined an online writing community on April 7th. And then again, Maya Angelou, who happens to be my favorite mentor/poet, was born on 4^th of April.

And now you know why April gatto be the greatest month of the year.

The month of June is just around the corner. And just as April is known as the Poetry Month, June has become at least, for me, the Short Story Month otherwise called IntShoWriMo.

          IntShoWriMo is short for International Shorts Writing Month—formerly, NaShoWriMo; I was forced to change the name the previous year because a couple of sites around the internet have used it. Although, these sites are no longer operating, I think safe is well, safer than sorry.

The challenge is about writing 30 shorts in every form—short shorts, flash fiction, and the longer short stories—in 30 days to be written on/before midnight June 30th. I’ve written over 90,000 words since 2012—the year of inception. I’m not striving for more words than I did last year in 2014. Nope, that’s not in the plan. But I do hope to have my 30 stories down pat before 00:00 hrs on 30th of June.

                Just in case you were wondering, this is an official invitation to take part in this great and exciting adventure. I’ll be speaking more on this soon.

Keep your pens bleeding!

Akpan