It’s a long, lonely road to the kingdom of creative writers

A week hardly elapses before I receive enquiries from aspiring writers on the craft of writing. The enquiries range from how to write and where to publish.

I have also noticed that many aspiring and up-coming writers have all manner of nasty words to say about publishers. They argue, albeit incorrectly, that publishers are simply interested in big names. I should say this is a tired and boring line. It is a pity that aspiring writers have not been made to recognise that their problem has much to do with their own lack of mastery of the art telling stories.

Mastering the craft of writing is, however, not easy and is not acquired in a day, a week or even a month. It is a product of an excruciating process that can take years to acquire.

That is why if you cannot endure the pain then you may as well forget becoming a published writer. I can best compare it to swimming or playing a guitar. The skill cannot be learnt in a day. Never!

It all has to start with an obsessive interest. You have to remember that intending to be a writer is one thing and being a writer is another. Millions of people intend to be writers, but they never become writers. In short, they are not obsessed enough to translate their intentions into tangible results, or they are simply undisciplined. This is because they seldom want to pay the price for success.

Listen, to this if you are an aspiring writer: Writing, unlike other activities, is a lonely endeavour. One has to sit, all alone, for long hours to create an imaginary world, populate it with characters and control their lives.

A creative writer is some kind of a god.

After creating characters, the writer knows all of them and gives them joy and unhappiness in equal measure and even destroys some.

To be a god of a kind is not easy. In this enterprise, there is very limited inspiration; it’s perspiration all the way, as someone once said. There is no short-cut.

It is a joyful moment to be struck by an idea. The idea may be so compelling, but if you do not work hard to create a story around it, then it goes to waste. I always advice my creative writing students and all those who ask me about writing to remember that the more they write, the more they internalise the skill.

It is a well known fact that to be a good writer, you have to write on a daily basis following a strict timetable. This calls for discipline.

One has to forgo more interesting things like talking to people and sit all alone to write. Ask yourself if you can forgo that drink with friends to go home and write! Can you skip a chama meeting or going out with the girls or boys to write? If you cannot do that then perish the thought of becoming a writer.

The road to the kingdom of creative writers is very delicate, lonely, individualistic and labour-intensive.

WRITERS WRITE

One of the first rules I know of is that writers write. They do not just talk about how good they are as writers. Many would-be writers waste a lot of time talking of writing, but they never get to writing publishable material.

A writer has to write something every day even if all that is written will never be published. Writing something on anything every day enables the writer to build up the discipline and commitment required to produce a complete manuscript.

The most important point I would like to stress here is that an aspiring writer has to get into the habit of writing daily.

Carry a notebook along everywhere you go even on a matatu. Do not trust your memory to recall things that stories are made of. If you develop the habit of writing, you will discover fascinating things that happen; things that ordinary people do not see.

In other words, you will be in the process of acquiring a sixth sense.

This is the sense of seeing a story where others do not see one.

To be a writer, you should also be a reader! Good writers do research before they write anything. They have to master the background information about the setting and subjects of their stories.

Great writers present a wealth of interesting information to their readers by combining their creativity and research. As an aspiring writer, read some of the great writers as models for your own writing.

Now let us try these steps to create a story. Take four pieces of paper and on each write one of the following headings: plot, characters, setting and climax.

Now take the paper with plot on top of it. Think about a story and write down the main events in the story briefly. Take the paper with characters on its heading. Develop one or two main characters that are easily recognisable.

Write down what will make these characters stand out as individuals with distinct attributes. Under the heading of setting, create an environment that will make the plot and the characters believable. The guiding question is; will your characters fit in Muthaiga or Korogocho?

Now turn onto the climax. What will happen to make the story interesting and bring your plot to a fabulous denouement?

How will that event get resolved? On the four papers you have an outline. Now begin writing your story. Identify people genuinely interested in writing on social media or in your locality and explore possibilities of starting writers and readers clubs and share your story with them. Best of luck.

The writer is professor of literary communication and deputy vice chancellor, planning, research and innovation, at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology ([email protected])