The Cmonionline experience.
Writing and the ability to pass information via text is unarguably an inbuilt passion in every one of us.
Good writing ability is not just a fantasy or a mere wish but something our whole being is programmed to crave after, something we consciously or unconsciously strive to attain.
By saying this, however, I do not mean the journey to attaining proficiency in the art is an easy one- no, of course not! Writing as a skill needs to be developed and development takes time. But, yes, there are certain factors which can accelerate ones writing ability. These factors determine how good a writer becomes and how impactful his message will be. One of these factors is the love and passion for writing.
In my journey as a writer, from the point where I was just a little lad trying to construct alphabets in upper and lower case, I have always loved to write and, yes, I always loved to look at written texts, though, unable to decipher their meaning at the time, they thrilled me and constituted a form of adventure, a puzzle I needed to fix. Now, even as a young adult, with the ability to create quality sentences, which could either be simple or complex, make good use of punctuations and thrill a good number of readers, I have not lost even an atom of love for the art.
When I talk about my love for writing, I cannot fail to talk about reading. Writing, I have come to realise, is always complemented by reading. For me, reading the works of other writers had much to do in my own development as a writer. Growing up, I was always fascinated with stories and the way they affected my imagination, how the writers were able to make a text in a book seem like a T.V program playing in my brain, but with more detailing than the usual television programs. I still am fascinated when I read a good book. The ability to do this in the minds of my readers had been the star prize, the biggest trophy on the table which spurred me on whenever I picked up my pen to write, it still is. It is what makes me seek ways to improve, what creates in me the hunger and thirst to advance continually in the art and this leads me to another important factor that made me a better writer- CONSISTENCY.
I mentioned earlier that development takes time. I can’t agree less with that. I, however, failed to expatiate on it. Development does not just take time but takes time along with a good deal of conscious efforts. No one becomes skilful by just staring at a ticking clock. I have seen what consistency did in improving the quality of my write-ups. I probably could still be struggling with writing the upper case A if I wasn’t picking my pen often enough. Consistency has taught me the clear truth that however good one might be; there is always a chance for improvement. It is what makes me take on writing challenges daily, probably, what made me take on the writing competition organised by Cmonionline.com.
Cmonionline. I pronounced this as “see money online”. Funny you might say but this made me think of how I could earn from my writing skill.
Scrolling through Facebook in search of an episode of a story I had missed, I came upon an advert that caught my attention. Cmonionline needed good writers to participate in its weekly essay competition for a ten thousand naira cash prize. “pheeew!”, I had whistled. “see money online!”
I had quickly assimilated the details, rules and requirements and as time went on, I had submitted an entry which was published and then, I became known as a Cmonionline writer.
Writing for Cmonionline has had its challenges. Being a student, I have had to adapt to the workload of coupling academic work with research for the weekly essay competition.
Again, being a Cmonionline writer emphasized the fact I raised earlier; that there was always room for improvement no matter how good one thought he was in the art of writing. It was not difficult and didn’t take much time noticing that there are other writers far better than I am who are also competing for the same prize.
With the absence of a good Smartphone, I had to get used to the fact that I would need to be visiting computer centres very often to have the work typed and sent to the submission website via E-mail. This all brought me to think on effective time management which has helped in other area of my life.
However, Cmonionline seemed not to intend making things easier for me when it tweaked its deadline from Friday to Thursday. Well, as the saying goes, we learn as we grow. This move taught me how to deliver within a short time, the ability to create master-pieces under pressure with great urgency and, yes, this was helpful for an optimist like me.
It is often said that a good writer needs to know his/her audience and deliver to their taste. This is not quite possible because of the uniqueness of personalities. One man’s cake could turn out to be another man’s poison. In the same vein, knowing what the Judges wants in a piece of write-up posses a tedious task as one is expected to write to captivate their attention. What a man thinks is seldom seen on his countenance and this is what I and most other writers have in mind when we submit a piece for “judgement”. It would be better if Cmonionline could provide a little more profile on the judges. Not just the name but who they are and what they do would go a long way in assisting writers submit good entries.
What can I say? partaking in the essay competition has been a good thing. I have learnt a lot. I have read good write-ups as well as bad ones.
One way writers tend to shoot themselves in the feet is in the part of punctuations. Every one of us must realise that punctuation is a very important part of writing; giving more attention to flowery and rhyming words while ignoring punctuation is one way to quickly bore a reader and convert your nice ideas into a series of verbose.
In conclusion, I look towards a more fulfilling writing experience while keeping in mind that no matter how good I am, there is always a chance for improvement, also with the belief that there is always space at the top which needs to be occupied.
Emmanuel is a student of civil engineering at CRUTECH, Calabar, Cross River State. He loves writing fiction and currently has some books he’s working on and wishes to publish this year. He’s hearing impaired but jovial. He wrote in via enakuemmanuel@gmail.com
