Tag: writing process

One Word at a Time

January 16th, 2021

I expected my first blog post of 2021 to be a grand one. No fireworks, drinks, laughter, just a good feeling in my gut as I typed away, and I planned it all until I woke up and saw it was the 16th of January and still nothing!

It’s 9:29 A.M. here in Mbita and the weather is chilly, cloudy and I’m still on my first cup of tea.

It feels wonderful writing this morning and maybe all the plans I made in my head just needed me to act, to take that first step and just write. So here I am.

I started out this year by getting twenty print copies of my novella, In the Quiet, and I’ll be sending out copies that have been bought this Monday. The joy of seeing something you dreamed up come to life is precious and I feel the same kind of rush for every book!

I have started writing another story and right now the ideas are all over the place. What I am truly grateful for thus far is that I am able to to keep going, to keep writing one word at a time, even when the picture is still fuzzy and anytime I am about to talk myself out of writing, I remind myself of what I have written so far.

Have a wonderful weekend.
Getting Ready for NanoWrimo 2020

October 30th, 2020
We are one day away. I previously struggled with the notion of taking part and following through on this year’s National Novel Writing Month (NanoWrimo) challenge because I have a book out and another novella in the making, so I was afraid that it’d be too much for me to handle.

I’m waiting on the proof copies of In the Quiet, the novella I wrapped up last month and finally settled on a different cover as well.

However, the part of me that lives for a challenge could not let this go without an attempt.

So, this time around I’m set and looking forward to a couple of key things that I need to work on:
- A well paced writing schedule; including designated writing time, break time and a bit of review time.
- Interacting with other writers, learning new tricks, marketing tips and writing styles.
- Writing more than 40,000 words ☺️
- Focusing on a project to substantial progress. I tend to start or think of ideas and let them slide, this time I am hoping to follow through on my writing project to the very end.
And in true fashion, I went ahead and bought stationery and got so psyched for this coming month…

50,000 words in 30 days means 11,669 words in a week and 1,667a day. In the previous years, I got exhausted at the halfway mark and this time around I am hoping to get breaks in between and schedule a writing sprint every week to try and catch up. I’ve also been greatly encouraged by the Writers in our NanoWrimo WhatsApp group and I hope to keep on writing.

Until then, I’ll check in with you along the way.

Have an awesome weekend and new month ahead.
Updates on the writing life, and other stuff.

November 11th, 2015

It’s the NanoWrimo month and there’s a lot of writing going on in different parts of the world, except in my world!

I have been on the road for a while and cannot seem to settle down and get my thoughts on a piece of paper, and it’s starting to frustrate if not really scare me.

So, today on my way to town, I decided to stop by a cobbler and ask him to fix a pair of heels that I’d love to wear to a meeting this Friday and the man was talking to his friend about the importance of reading quality writing. As I sat down to wait for him to fix my shoes, I found myself feigning interest in their conversation. His problem was that his friend was reading The Nairobian instead of reading The Standard Newspaper or The Daily Nation. He told his friend that The Nairobian was for women who had nothing but time to gossip and read slander, and he was a man- he was supposed to read things that should concern him not go on wondering or gasping at how much someone spent on their birthday or the prominent man who was caught sleeping with a pastor’s wife.

I almost joined the conversation in support of the man, but their banter got to a whole new level when a cook and a tailor voiced their opinions.

The cook, was a young man in a dusty green apron and black gumboots whom I had passed as I was making my way to the cobbler. He held that anyone could read whatever pleased them, and even God knew that not everyone could handle the serious stuff that’s why the book of Revelations comes at the end of the Bible.

The tailor admonished him for quoting the Bible, but said that she was a woman and she couldn’t stand The Nairobian, and her concern was “who had the time to spread all this rubbish about people?” She went on to say that she would rather buy sukumawiki for her family that spend her hard earned money on gossip!

They went on for a while until the cobbler handed me back my repaired heels and I paid him his due. Their conversation stayed with me for a while because I could easily jot down what they said, but cannot sit still for half an hour continue working on my series.

My Mentor said that it happens to everyone and no one loves to say goodbye, but I know that The Currents Series has to come to an end, so I can focus on other stories.

I just need to pull myself together and get it done, and I know I have to…so that’s what’s up with my writing life, as for my other adventurous life…Supercosmetics opened a new shop in Kisumu…and I couldn’t resist the urge to get some of my favorite body products plus two new sticks of lipstick which I’ll probably never wear that much…
Beneath the pile of Grey

October 8th, 2015

There are some scenes, but for me it is mostly dialogues, that always put me in a state. Sometimes I read and ask, “where did that come from?”

Sometimes I read and nothing resonates within me, but with Wind there was a moment that made me stop and put the manuscript down and go about the house cleaning rooms I had already cleaned.

It is a conversation that takes place five harvests later between Wema (the royal guard) and Baraka (Princess Amani’s husband). Wema and Amani were in love but Amani was a Princess and she was already promised to Prince Baraka- their marriage being that one of allegiance.

Baraka tells Wema;

Sometimes when I look at her, I see it, like grey ashes that are a reminder of a fire that once raged, and sometimes when you blow on them, you see a spark, a bright orange spark that burns beneath the pile of grey, is it too much for you to be here? Would you will your tongue to tell me what is in your heart?

Wind is only seventy-five pages, but of all that is said and done in the book, this moment made something in me stop.

It is also the only bit of dialogue that was not edited out of the story, and it makes me wonder what would happen if Amani did leave her husband for the first man she loved?

I am writing.
The pain that is revising a manuscript with an Editor.

September 22nd, 2015

Revising a book you’ve written is tough.

It’s frustrating especially when you have an Editor who is keen on questioning not every word but every scene and character as though you were in some CSI show trying to solve a murder! I am frustrated. However,other Writers have been through this and working with an Editor is like seeing your work in a new way. You hate it and love it at the same time but most of the time you are definitely choking your Editor in your head.

Looking back at book two in the Currents Series, I came across some bits of dialogue that reminded me of why I was writing this series.

Pepper is pepper no matter how much you overcook it.

He is like a dog, just like you say, but the dog is the only beast that you will pelt with stones but it will never leave you. His acts resemble madness but remember that the man who is mad is not so without a reason.

The river is never in a hurry to get to the lake, but when it rains, it flows and takes everything to the bottom of the lake with it.

The one who has crossed the river knows where to step

Ai, it is a curse my boy. i use my tongue but the people who witness its use never have ears.

I have given myself one week to complete the revision of book three which is titled Wind and get started on the final book called Earth- and then after that…well, who knows a lot can happen in between Earth and my next writing project.
What Reuven’s father taught me.

March 17th, 2015
There’s nothing as disappointing as what comes after reading a good book.

I am not talking about just a good book, because trust me, I know that every Writer sets out to write a good book. Do you know why every writer’s book is good? It’s because of what goes into it.

I am not saying the hours, but the process that comes with writing the book. A Writer bares a part of himself/herself every time they take to writing. This is why every book is a good book. Forget the sales, reviews, or rankings on best seller lists- trust the process.

This is why, I say that nothing is as disappointing as what comes after reading a good book and then going online to find out about the writer. I read books, and then look up the writers later on.

So, having read The Chosen by Chaim Potok , I decided to look him up and stopped at “Chaim Potok, was…” I do suffer from grammatical errors but I know the “past tense” when I see it, and it’s always sad when I look up a writer and find that they are dead.

And it hurts because :
1. It’s hard being a fan of a dead person. I know I am a fan of Chinua Achebe’s works, but even so there is always the desire to write and let him know that ‘hey, thank you for writing that book.’
2. They are gone, but their voice, style and written works live on- and you cannot help but ask, “what about me?”
But, I learned something from Reuven’s father, one of the characters in Chaim Potok’s “The Chosen,” and he tells his son:

I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing, but the man who lives that span, he is something.

…A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life.

I have thought about this for two weeks now. I finished reading the book last month, but today as I was making my way home from work, I opened my notebook and there they were, looking up at me, reminding me that my life is mine to leave, and whatever happens after, should not worry me so much so that I forget to live now.

Tag: writing process

One Word at a Time

Getting Ready for NanoWrimo 2020

Updates on the writing life, and other stuff.

Beneath the pile of Grey

The pain that is revising a manuscript with an Editor.

What Reuven’s father taught me.