How I grew up in a twin world  with stories of other worlds

A number of people, mainly those aspiring to become writers, have asked me various questions regarding my experience in writing.

Here are a few of those questions: How did you discover your talent in writing? How do you keep that talent nurtured and growing?

What challenges did you face in your creative endeavour? In a busy dizzying world, how does the creative writer maintain the impulse to write?

These and many other questions have concerned many a creative writer. Let me put down my own experiences and solutions.

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when I discovered that I had both the interest and, perhaps, a writing talent.

I grew up in a twin world (Christian and traditional) in which stories of “other worlds” dominated.

Often, when we, grandchildren, visited our grandma, the evening was pleasantly passed in storytelling. Her lifting voice still rings in my ears, rising and falling in the fortunes of the hero/heroine, complete with unforgettable, emotive songs, always ending with a moral lesson.

Then there was a Christian world of the Old Testament heroes that taught the immanent presence of the Lord in our lives and that (in a nutshell) walking in His way was the route to wisdom.

WRITING ON SCHEDULE

In this twin world, I was encouraged to tell a story — when it was my turn.

There were times I had none to tell and I was constrained to invent as I went along; often drawing quizzical responses from my audience when the moral statement at the end didn’t tally with the story (You don’t live happily ever after after you have stolen from a cripple and have been clobbered to death by the public for it!)

In a nutshell, that early twin world helped to shape my imagination and the compulsive need to create.

Then came formal education in which I had very helpful mentors (my parents and teachers) who encouraged me to read. When you constantly implode data, then the urge to explode follows naturally. Writing for me became that way out.

I was lucky to have a father (Pastor John Mulwa) who took very keen interest in whatever trite “stories” I wrote and he encouraged me along. He was my first critic.

Now, I do not claim to have all the answers, but my first conviction is that the urge to tell a story is inherent in us. What remains is to nurture that urge. Incessant reading of excellent writers is vital. At the same time, it is vital to remain creative in good and bad times.

I don’t wait for “the muse” or wait to be relaxed enough to write. I keep a schedule of when I must write, mostly very early in the morning (sometime at 3am) when all is silent around me. Even then, the urge may not come, but I still write what I had envisioned, and when I find the characters are not responding, I tear the papers and start afresh. I often repeat the process until the story line and the characters are clear.

In writing Redemption, for example, the main character (Kitaka) would ‘‘rebel’’ because I was forcing my own “per- theory” down his throat in a language that was too erudite for his reality and education.

Only when I regained the humility to fully see, feel and sympathise with his predicament would he “agree” and allow us to continue. There were times I cry as I write or bite my lip in anger as characters tell their story. Then I know I couldn’t write the incident any other way.

The antidote to not writing is often more and more writing, not shelving the work until when the muse comes visiting.

And what does one write about? Like the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, I find that what I’ve felt deeply about forms the basis of my writings, and if you are aware of your environment and think about issues, you will never miss a topic to write about.

Carry a note book that becomes your writer’s journal. All too often, monumental ideas occur in the spur of a moment. If unrecorded, they are flushed to the back of our minds, never to be retrieved.

WRITERS OF YORE

I learned using the writers’ journal from my friends — the late John Ruganda and the late Francis Imbuga. We would discus something at the National Theatre, John would abruptly stop the discussion and write something unique that Francis had just said.

Read a lot, observe a lot. And do your research if your work involves technical subjects.

In my newest publication Flee, Mama, Flee (One Planet Publishers), a character remains unconscious for a very long time. In the first draft, I glibly invented malaria as the cause.

A doctor disabused me of this and suggested alternatives. Or consider historical data: Kenya’s independence was achieved in 1963. You don’t bend that fact and credit 1952! The same thing applies to geographical data. Mt Kenya is known as Mt Kenya. But a lot of imaginary locations can be created from there.

I have greatly admired the writers of yore who kept at it without flinching. I was once astounded to learn that Charles Dickens often wrote two major novels simultaneously (he gets tired writing one, and switches to the other!). I have snapped out of creative laziness on realising that the novelist Ernest Hemingway threw away more drafts than the works he finally got published.

To date, I have published about 19 works of drama and fiction and shelved four, pending re-writing. Some have been examined in schools, including Ukame, Buriani, Redemption and Inheritance. One, Master and Servant, was translated into Russian in 1988.

As to what you do with your work after you have finished, after reviewing it, I would urge you to have non-partisan readers read it.

Let them give you their reaction: Did they follow it? Were there any sections they had questions about? In other words, you want to find out whether it communicated.

After that, I normally give it to a professional: a critic who will then go over it before sending it to a publisher.

BEGINNER'S CONCERNS

But choose your critics wisely. Many an aspiring writer gave up writing through carping, damaging criticism.

An example will suffice here. In 1978, when I finished Master and Servant and sent it in for publication the reviewer-critic wrote: “This work is unpublishable because the imagery and symbolism are neither here nor there.”

I was so stunned and discouraged that I momentarily vowed never to write again. The publication manager sent this work to another reviewer, who pointed out the merits of the work and the points I needed to correct to make it publishable.

The work is still on the shelves today.

I hope I have touched on some of our beginner writers’ concerns. When all is said and done, if you have the urge, write. As one short-story professional writer said, (in paraphrase): “If when you wake up and walk on the pathway, you think of nothing but writing, then you ARE a writer.”

So welcome aboard, Godspeed and Power to your Elbow.