writing

Blog, Resources

Cmonionline Talkshop: Writing Resources In A Digital Era.

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Writing can be therapeutic and we can make it even more so given the countless resources at our disposal in this digital era. But one thing I’ve realised is that to save yourself some time and unnecessary headaches, it is advisable to choose a tool or app, master it and stick to it. It is like social media platforms. Some prefer Facebook while others prefer Twitter, yet many are on Instagram, TikTok and the rest of them. So what works best for you is what you need to stick with. Moreover, developers have mastered the art of retaining you, because by and large, we are basically the products. So you find out that if you start using any app and you get used to one, the likelihood of switching to another tool is very little. Now let’s dive in. Medium: I love medium and I say it is one of the best writing platforms on the internet. I’ve advised our writers, and others in our community to get a medium account. Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the world wide web said that the web is about connecting humanity. Knowledge is increasingly acquired outside the traditional institution environment, especially through the internet. The best way to start is to pick a domain of one’s own and that was how cmonionline.com was conceptualised in 2017 shortly after I got my medium account the previous year. Medium is very user-friendly. You can use it on your mobile or desktop. There’s no rocket science about it. You just get an account and start publishing to the world! They have the road to some of us that have been there for some time and asked us together at least a hundred followers, it’s something that is not difficult. There’s a free plan that limits you to a certain number of stories per month. There’s also a premium plan that gives more options. Lately, though, they stopped the option of writing with the mobile app and gave their reasons here. You can also monetise your work by giving permission to publish your work on different partner programs. But to earn something significant you need to be prolific. There are other similar alternatives like Substack, Fiverr, Linkedln and Quora. I love Quora the most because it’s my “go-to” place for knowledge acquisition. It is filled with intellectuals and I never get bored there. Grammarly: Poor grammar they say is painful to the eye and injurious to the ear. You cant talk about writing if you don’t have a good command of the language. This is where this powerful tool comes in. It is described as a cloud-based typing assistant that reviews spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, engagement, and delivery mistakes. It uses artificial intelligence to identify and search for an appropriate replacement for the error it locates. The other good thing about Grammarly is that beyond the grammatical corrections the fact that it teaches you better punctuation improves your syntax in writing. Like most apps, you can get the free version but if you need some other services like checking plagiarism then you will need the premium version. There are similar alternatives which can be looked up here. Noisli: This is one app that I love a lot. The theme alone calms my nerves. It is your little helper and companion when you need to improve focus, tune out other noises or relax. With Noisli you can mix and match different sounds in order to create your perfect sound environment. I love mixing the forest birds with the railway. Try it! Like I said earlier, writing is therapeutic and this app has made it more so for me. Alternatives are listed here and if you don’t want to bother why not search for my favourite Spotify playlist and check out the aplomb while you write? Zotero: I call it the magic tool because it performs the incredible. Zotero is a free and open-source reference management tool for all your bibliographic data and related research materials. It is a very important tool for research writers. If you are an academic, you really need Zotero. It is like a library where you store your resources/materials be it a link, document or a whole book. Now the magic is that while writing if you want to cite a source in your Zotero library it’s just one click away. Then at the end of your writing, when you want to do your bibliography that is where you will love the software. You just select “add bibliography” and voila! it will do the reference verbatim in sequence and in your chosen format. You can watch this video on how to use this wonderful personal research assistant. Google Docs: I have forgotten all about Ms Word since I became conversant with Docs. We love free stuff and since Ms Word is not entirely free I dumped it for this free online word processor included as part of the web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google. It also includes Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Drawings, Google Forms, Google Sites and Google Keep. And our talk I learned that the editor can offer speech to text. It explains the transcription I always get after hosting talks via google meet. It is indeed a rich and flexible tool with limitless affordances. Google Scholar: A student’s best friend. Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. I can’t recollect any academic assignment that I have completed without Google scholar. In addition to Google Books which is a digital library of over 40 million titles, it can be tedious to navigate at times but the trick is to get the right search terms or keywords and you will get what you need. Smallseotools: This is actually a great site and I’m glad to have learned about it. It provides a complete set of text tools to check

Blog, Resources

A Book In A Year III: Getting Published.

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With its weight and solidity, a book signals to the world that there are ideas worth preserving in a form that carries heft, and takes up space; by its touchability, a book signals the importance of our engagement in an arena external to and larger than ourselves.~ Steven L. Carter   Our last session was a cruise. We enjoyed over an hour with Bolaji Olatunde who touched on just about every chapter of his experience in the publishing world. Fortunately, Scribbl transcribed the meeting, and regardless of the errors you will still get the gist here. But let me summarise my takeaways below. 1. It won’t be easy: Bolaji recalled 120 rejections between 2008 and 2011. That’s about 30 rejections annually. But don’t be deterred because if it was easy then every other person will have a title. It is tough because you have chosen to belong to that fraction of less than 1% of the world’s population. It’s an elite group and this is not boasting. Fortunately, the internet is making it easier as we witness ground-breaking tech innovations on a daily. 2. Your choice: You can choose any route from traditional, self-publishing, or hybrid publishing. It should go without saying that the traditional option backed by resources and decades of history has an edge. Nevertheless, smaller self-publishing units continue gaining ground and more Nigerian authors opt for this route because of the frustrating attitude of our traditional publishing sector. 3. Spread your wings: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Explore beyond our local publishers and you may be surprised. But be ready for multiple rejections. Stephen King pinned every rejection letter he received to his wall with a nail. In his book On Writing, he wrote “By the time I was fourteen, the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and went on WRITING!” So accept the rejections as they come, they will form part of your testimony. 4. The Query Letter: We were introduced to the concept of Querying. It is a term that is vaguely familiar and may have been reduced in importance by the rise of self-publishing. Jane Freidman wrote; “the query letter has one purpose, and one purpose only: to seduce the agent or editor into reading or requesting your work”. Your query should include a synopsis of your manuscript, your bio, and an extract from your work. Bolaji recalled that previously, a writer had to send this by courier and wait for months to get a reply that may never come. Fortunately, electronic media has reduced this burden. So we are lucky! 5. Copyright Protection: Piracy is a common problem in Nigeria. You can see hard copies of your intellectual property being sold for a fraction of its worth by the roadside or the PDF version being distributed freely on the internet. You can do your bit to combat piracy by getting your ISBN (International Standard Book Number) which can ONLY be issued by the National Library of Nigeria. It is IMPORTANT to follow the procedure of depositing the required copies with them as this is the only acceptable legal proof in the event of a copyright breach. 6. Marketing: The job isn’t done after you get published. You need to work harder at marketing and distribution. Resources abound online on how to go about this, but it is important to start building an audience before you have your book ready. I previously wrote about the ease of having an author’s platform in this internet era and this story offers some tips too. On Writing, Bolaji advised us to read, read and read especially those who have done it before you and the authors you admire. Make the dictionary your best friend. It is for a reason we all know. He closed by commending our effort and exhorted us to keep on doing what we are doing because writing is a rewarding process that can take you to places you could have only dreamt of. Now if you have been following our writing community you will recall that our aim is to improve a waning literary culture through regular writing, reading, and thinking. Our current project A Book In A Year is in line with this and a webinar on getting published may appear like jumping the gun but it is not. As a group, we would love to take pride in rejoicing with unpublished writers who eventually excel in their literary careers and I can tell you that our host for the session Oluwaseun Osanyinro @Dee_Jemima recently published her book. So Getting Published is actually a fitting conclusion to our brainstorming session. Our speaker Bolaji Olatunde is a writer and publisher with 5 titles in his kitty. His latest work, A Person Of Heft was shortlisted for the 2021 Association Of Nigerian Authors Prose Prize. You can always reach him via Twitter @BOLMOJOLA You can find more tips in our resources category. You should also read about our session I and session II before we reconvene on 04/06/2023 to consider the reward pathway for this exciting project.

Blog, Resources

More Resources To Help You Write A Book In A Year.

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A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit. ~ Richard Bach Following the introductory session last Sunday, our 2nd session on this project was encouraging as Aaron Livingstone, one of the pioneer writers of our community rejoined after being away for other priorities. We also welcomed a new member Faith Oyadaran. Faith was introduced by Oluwaseun Osanyiro and he wants to follow in her footsteps to write his first book. It was an engaging one-hour of interesting contributions from most attendees and this is what we want to see. We broached areas like Outline per Emmanuel and I promised to share Daniel’s post from our writing retreat to illuminate the difference between plot and outline. You can read it here. Aaron mentioned the importance of Grammarly while Oluwaseun recommended texts like Crushing Procrastination by Deborah Funbunwhe and Miracle Morning for Writers by Hal Elrod et al. Finally, Aaron mooted AI and we delved into what it means for writers. I referenced Elon Musk’s recent interview where he said Google CEO Larry Page was seeking to build a digital super intelligence, a digital god. Well, that’s it. Now we have a job to do, and that is to write a book in a year. It could be bad, it could be good, hell it might even be great, who knows? But if it’s your first book then it is natural to expect that it will not be excellent. William S. Burroughs said, “You do an awful lot of bad writing in order to do any good writing. Incredibly bad. I think it would be very interesting to make a collection of some of the worst writing by good writers”.  I believe a writer’s first job is to write. The rest is a function of variable components like audience, platform, publishers, etc. But first, you have to fill those blank pages. In the past week, I scurried around the internet in search of resources that will aid us in the project and I can gladly proclaim that it was fruitful. What’s more, it is increasingly likely that I will be taking on more than one project before the end of 12 months. But I’ll whittle my optimism. One after the other is the overarching echo in my subconscious and I don’t want to overlook that principle. So in addition to a previous post on writing resources, I will share two findings and hope you find them useful as we make progress. 1. The First 10 Steps To Write Your Book: I found this article to be the most concise guide for anyone who seriously wants to write a book because it captured all the basics. Of particular importance to me is item 3, PREMISE: This is where you describe the fundamental elements of your story like “Who is your character? What is their goal? Who (or what!) is stopping them from accomplishing it, and what will happen when they reach it?” For example; Kobis wants to have Chinwe as his girl but Kunle, a police officer is dating her and Kobis thinks she’s being forced to remain in the relationship. He is determined to get her regardless of the consequences”. This is neither an outline nor a structure but just the simplest encapsulation of your story. In other words, your story is summarised in one sentence or paragraph. You can go ahead and read the entire piece and you will agree with me that it’s a solid prep to hit the ground running. 2. The 365-Day First Book Writing Challenge: This is a method that will blow your mind. It’s a system that defeats every writer’s biggest challenge which is filling those blank pages. I mean whoever came up with this ingenious idea deserves an award. Here you are required to write daily but you are not expected to write up to 500 words on any given day. The technique “leverages the fact there are 365 days in a year” by having a chart with each box containing the number of words to the corresponding day of the 365-day period. All you have to do each day is write between 1 and 365 words. Now check this out; “You want to shoot for writing the highest number of words you can to cross the highest number off the chart, but as long as you write any number of words which corresponds with a number that’s still available on the chart, you’re golden”. However, if you stick to the chart, the maximum word count you will do on the day you write the highest number of words in the entire year of writing is 365. But the ridiculous part is that you can have days when you write as little as 1 or 2 words. Can you beat that? Surely writing that first book can’t be simpler. There are many resources out there to help us achieve our target but the two links I shared above will surely get you started if you are determined to have your draft in 365 days. Remember the most important factors are your DESIRE and DETERMINATION. As I always say, we don’t need thousands or hundreds of people to achieve this goal. It may seem like 99% of people out there don’t know or care about what you are doing but the fact that you belong to the other 1% means you are leading the way. So roll up your sleeves and let’s get going!

Blog, Resources

A Book In A Year: Session I

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We had our first session of brainstorming toward the realization of “A Book In A Year” project and I was again surprised at the number of writers who have either completed a draft or have an ongoing project. As I wrote In Support Of Writing Groups, the benefits of joining one greatly outweigh the cons. In this session, we learned some tips that can help you put pen to paper. I was particularly impressed by Oluwaseun‘s hack that helped her reach the finish line with her latest book. It reminded me of quest journaling as tweeted by Justin C Scott. You can check it out and see if you can try it. You can read the transcript of session I here. The errors by Scribbl are hilarious but you can still get the important points. Next Sunday we will continue discussing the pathways to achieve our objective. Please go online and search for tips/resources on how to write a book in a year so that you can make further contributions. For instance, this article talks about a 365-day book writing challenge that is simple enough that any writer, no matter what their level, should be able to follow it to reach their goal. You can also read it up and see if it’s something you can attempt. The link to join for next Sunday remains the same. A Book In A Year Sunday, 14 May 2023, 6:00–7:00 pm Time zone: Europe/Dublin Google Meet joining info Video call link: https://meet.google.com/ott-cvqp-pcq Thanks for your time and see you soon.

Blog, Resources

In Support Of Writing Groups.

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The isolated imagination is easily corrupted by theory, but the writer inside his community seldom has such a problem. ~ Flannery O’Connor In his book On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft, best-selling author Stephen King trashed the idea of writing groups and book clubs while asserting that success is usually the result of a writer’s grind. ie the ability to stay true to the cause, write consistently and rummage regularly to develop ideas, and style until you find your voice. Well, it will be audacious to disagree with a genius who has repeatedly proven to be a master of the game time and time again. This is especially so when I am a great fan that is still learning the ropes. Thus I can only interrogate his take carefully and add mine where necessary. I will say that King belongs to the old-school generation of writers like Isaac Asimov that portray the craft as a lonely one. Indeed he wrote the following statement in the same title: “Writing is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference. They don’t have to make speeches. Just believing is usually enough.”  It is also evident in King’s social life. He is an avid reader who takes a book to basketball games. Who does that? In the first place, I rarely watch a game of sports alone on TV let alone going to the stadium without a companion. How can I watch a game while reading? And even if King reads during intervals how long do these breaks last for one to flow with the story he’s reading? When I started the cmonionline essay competition, the initial idea was to encourage young people who are interested in writing to consistently put pen to paper for a token reward that will be determined by judges. While this was going on I enrolled in a postgraduate course where the bulk of our study was group discussions. The collaborative efforts of classmates provided a significant portion of the knowledge I acquired. That was when I decided to switch to peer review and consequently created a group. Since then we have held webinars and retreats and even trained some people in Graphic Design. Today I’m glad that one of our most consistent writers Oluwaseun Osanyinro has published a book — The Christian Business Mind — while another writer will also be published soon. Of course, every writer gets credit for her work but most will tell you that they may not have achieved it without the support of others. The iconic Ursula K. Le Guin succinctly captured the importance of writing groups thus; Collaborative workshops and writers’ peer groups hadn’t been invented when I was young. They’re a wonderful invention. They put the writer into a community of people all working at the same art, the kind of group musicians and painters, and dancers have always had. The benefits of joining a book club or writing group are too many. It’s even more so now with the proliferation of the internet which makes it easier to meet. Besides the exposure and knowledge you gain, you also get resources and other free stuff like editing, and beta readers. In addition, there is a sense of camaraderie that engender encouragement and feedback to help you refine your craft. The icing for me, however, is the fun and wits that spice the conversation. Writers are usually witty folks and when they interact the abundance of talent is evident. So if your net worth is your network as they say, then, by all means, build it by joining a writing group like cmonionline because we are on the move again. This time we want to write a book in a year and we are having a series of meetings to conceptualize this. Below is the link to join via Google Meet every Sunday this month. A Book In A Year Sunday, 7 May 2023, 6:00–7:00 pm Time zone: Europe/Dublin Google Meet joining info Video call link: https://meet.google.com/ott-cvqp-pcq

Blog, News, Resources

Want To Write A Book In A Year?

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I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning. ~ Peter De Vries Starting with De Vries’s quote is apt because I had been planning this for a while till I was inspired to act by Bolaji Olatunde. I’ve been following him for some time but only realized that he has 5 books to his name. I mean not 1 or 2 but 5! Do you know that writing 1500 words weekly can give you a 200-page book in a year? Do the math: That is 78000 words in a year. A 200-page book is approximately 50–60k words. Writing is an essential activity for almost everyone. We write for one reason or the other. A writer is a person who has written something or who writes in a particular way and an author is a writer of a book, article, or document. I use publisher or the phrase “aspiring writer” to describe myself on many platforms. This is despite the fact that I fit the definition since I write regularly. I just prefer to be modest till I publish a book. I know there are millions like me who want to publish a book before assuming the title. Well, let me tell you what I just did. I took preemptive action and elevated my status. I am now a writer because I will have a book published at the end of the year. I was determined to do so last year. I published the first of the Success Journey Series here and hoped to produce enough self-development stories to have a book by the end of the year. Here we are and I’m still trying. Simply because I didn’t do enough. I won’t bother you with the details but I’m not in a bad situation. As Gena Showalter said; “Giving up is the only sure way to fail.” I only failed to have a book in 2022 but I’ve not given up! So what do you want to write about? You may already have a story in the works or a story idea. It could be fiction or non-fiction. 1500 works out to just over 200 words daily. Surely that’s achievable. We proved that by writing consistently for over one year in the #EssayCompetition. If we compile those words some of us would have books by now. But of course, we needed the priming. We had to develop consistency. You can aim for more but don’t be too ambitious if there are other tasks in your schedule that will impede progress. Leo Tolstoy published Anna Karenina in serial installments from 1875 to 1877. The book is arguably the greatest work of literature. I aim to have my success journey series published at the end of the year. Who knows, I may just eclipse Tolstoy. There will be hiccups and unintended interruptions but if we keep on grinding the off days will cumulatively amount to nothing consequential. We will also be tempted to imagine the end product. Many of us are guilty of this. You haven’t started a journey and you are already thinking of the end. Well, it’s never a bad idea to dream about your future but it is desire and action that will get you there. It won’t be rocket science. We will use proven methods that have worked and continue to work for many successful writers. As we progress we will discover new things, forge new relationships, and improve our craft. We will have periodic meetings to reflect, review, and reward our efforts. We don’t need a plurality. In fact, it is often the case that trying to lead everyone results in leading no one in particular. Two determined people driven by a common goal will achieve greater than a million loungers. The process will be simple and open to reasonable adjustments from YOU. We have the whole of May to brainstorm and draw up the e-tivities. Our first meeting will be at 18:00 GMT+1 via Google Meet on 07/05/2023. The link to join will be shared via email and social media channels. If you want to join our WhatsApp group kindly email a request with your details to admin@cmonionline.com Now get to work. Search online and offline for resources, ideas, and tips that will help us achieve this target. Then attend the meeting with your jotter let’s get going. CAVEAT: Please join us ONLY if you are willing to COMMIT and CONTRIBUTE. I will not be leading this, WE will lead it and WE will all benefit from the experience.

Blog, Resources

JUST DO IT!

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I always waited for the right time to write especially after having my second child. My walls were often decorated with sticky notes to remember my to-do list and my year planner is rarely filled with anything despite its yearly replacement until I joined the Cmonionline writing contest. Well, it wasn’t a sudden transformation. Thank goodness I loved to read so, I was reading more than I was writing on the platform. We had a writing retreat and I found myself writing more than I used to. Before then, my last poem was dated April 28, 2017. I thought I had permanent writer’s block. First, I blamed marriage, then childbearing, and then the life of a working, full-time mum but one piece of advice from the 2022 Cmoni Summer Writing Retreat kept ringing in my head — ‘You don’t have to write it all. You can start with a line per day. Just write frequently. Write something every day! ‘ But even that seemed too much of a task. The pile of laundry glared at me from the corner in which I squeezed them. Unknown to me, my first son Jojo had smeared the freshly scrubbed tiles with palm oil and his faithful accomplice in rascality, and my second son Nif has started to distribute the stains evenly in the parlour. That was the exact time I started putting my pen to paper to scribble a new idea for writing my story. Oh my gosh! Will I ever get to write something a day? Every day I get new ideas but because I don’t pen them down I tend to forget. So many possible write-ups became impossible. Many of my great articles were never born. Numerous mind-blowing poems became a mirage and I plunged into a state of melancholy reading so much from other people without having much to show myself. Often, writers experience a block — a period when inspirations fail to become words but I discovered my challenge was never a block but procrastination. So I decided to always carry my diary in a tote bag. My tote contained all my essentials even when I found myself in unplanned places. After all desperate times, they say call for desperate measures. The reason for this is simple. Anytime a new idea pops in, I bring out my diary and pen it down. Ideas, I have discovered, come from our daily routine; washing plates, cooking, in the marketplace, and even in the toilet. Funny, isn’t it? Today while the Reverend Father dictated his sermon, an idea popped in and this article was born. I wrote just a few lines, read from others later in the day and completed this beautiful piece at midnight. Of course, I had my earphones pouring music from my inspirational playlist into my subconscious mind. This works for me when I need to ease stress. This reminds me of an article on the Medium app that opines that we often want a perfect essay that we overuse big words and expressions which makes our writing too stiff and boring. The writer prided himself on his ability to write 480 000 words a month without running out of ideas. You don’t have to make it complex. Keep it simple like Twitter tweets but engaging like its comments. Lol. My frequent reading from these pages paid off after all. In one night, I have taken a giant step and I don’t plan to retrace my steps, instead, I’m leaping forward into writing one essay or a poem of about 500 words a day and if you are like my previous self, drop the excuses and join my train. You too can do it!   Becky Peleowo can be reached @Beccangels2000

Blog, News

Winners: Easter Contest

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We published 12 entries for this Easter Contest which you can read here and the winners of the N100,000 cash prize emerged following our peer review on 16/04/2023. 1. The Igbo — Yoruba Mistrust by Chukwuemeka Oluka was the clear favourite as it received 3 nominations and was the most discussed story. The writer traced the political history of suspicion between the Igbos and Yorubas leading up to the recent events of the 2023 elections. He made an objective and balanced analysis before offering suggestions on the way forward; “Starting with Lagos, Igbo residents in Lagos and their host communities should realize that Lagos is better when the two tribes work together.” It takes courage to broach let alone do justice to this sensitive topic but Chukwuemeka has never dreaded uncharted paths. For that and the earlier stated reasons, his opinion piece wins the competition’s star price of N30,000. Congratulations Chukwuemeka. 2. Messindinho The Unfeeling Beast by Emmanuel Enaku got 2 nominations and was the second most discussed story. The writer who is growing into the darling of our community now owns this Messidinho character whom he has used in previous stories. It is impressive how he manages to show dexterity in each story. This time Messidinho plots to avenge a wrong by his friend while still finding time to indulge in his characteristic eroticism. The ruthless execution of his plan leaves the reader wondering what manner of character is this. Congratulations Emmanuel. This story wins N20,000. 3. Rotten Tooth by Kenneth Nwabuisi received 3 nominations. In this story about sibling rivalry Kenneth once again proved to be a wonderful storyteller. Narrated in a timeline, with great dialogue and expressions like; “No. I mean I understand how you feel, but I wouldn’t advise you to let this feeling grow. I may be unavailable for it at the moment because I’m currently seeing someone.” the fractious relationship and vengeful acts of two sisters will have you reading to the explosive climax. What a wonderful story! Well done Kenneth. This story wins N10,000. 4. TAMING tHE Thug! by Becky Peleowo had a nomination and I love the creative caption. Writing about the experience of a young man who reluctantly decides to be a political thug for the first time, the writer in some parts reminded me of Virginia Woolf’s stream of consciousness as her ink flowed through past events. She effortlessly brought one of the often overlooked causative factors of thuggery to the fore and wove an emotional tale that showed her creative talent. Congratulations Becky. I enjoyed this story and the last line was poignant. This story wins N10,000 5. Celebrating New Life: A Poem By Solomon Ekoja got a deserved nomination as the writer continues to prove his versatility. It wins N10,000 Thug by Victor Oladejo and Miracle: A Poem by Stephen Ayilegbe earns N10,000 each for consistency and courage respectively. The other entries were equally good and I loved the poems JUST WHY? by Becky and If I Were Jesus by Chukwuemeka. I haven’t written one in ages and I’m inspired to do so by reading these works. I vowed to be stricter in enforcing our rules and more capitalist in rewarding excellence, thus in line with the first part some entries were rejected for ignoring the instructions and not meeting our editorial standards but all writers were rewarded including those that had only one published entry. However, every day will not be Easter going forward. Writers are advised to join our Whatsapp group to keep abreast of our activities by sending an email request to admin@cmonionline.com as only those who participate in our peer reviews will be eligible for the prize. Also, endeavour to get a domain of your own to start building your platform. Feedback has been sent to some writers and you can always refer to our free resources and this post in particular for tips that will help you to improve your writing. We thank everyone who participated in this competition and those who have been on the journey with us. Our special appreciation goes to Newross & Co who sponsored this contest. Congratulations to all!

Blog, FEATURES, Lifestyle

Success Journey XIX

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On Writing And Attention Span. How vain it is to sit down and write when you have not stood up to live. The above quote by Thoreau in his vote of confidence for writers like me who decided to take on the craft a little late in life always inspires me. I can tap into my wealth of experience and produce stories for the rest of my life if only I can find the time and put pen to paper. A friend once asked, “Cmoni where do you get all these posts you write?” “From my head” was my sarcastic reply. “Of course, I know it’s from your head but how do you come up with the ideas?”. Oh, that? “Bros I read a lot”. “You, Cmoni, read a lot? How do you have time to read when you are on social media arguing with us every day?”. “Hahahaha bros I de read o, I don’t only read but I also study. Have you forgotten I just completed a diploma recently? It was one full academic year of blended learning. But I get where you are coming from so I will tell you, but not now. I will put it down in writing so as to answer your question practically”. So here goes. I read a lot. And I read everything and everywhere. I read the news, social media commentary, books and mags. I often read the dailies first when I walk into the library. I listen to audiobooks and podcasts even more. When I jog I play music but when I walk I listen to texts. I read in the loo, bus, train and plane. Still, in addition to regular reading, a good writer should be a good observer. I’ve always known this but following two writers (Julia Cameron & Natalie Goldberg) who markedly influenced my creative journey reinforced this belief. So oftentimes when I walk along the River Lee banks, I deliberately observe. I can stop for minutes to watch a dog play fetch with its owner or take time to feed the ducks and admire their silky white plumes. On one occasion I noticed an otter which was displaying its swimming skills didn’t have whiskers or perhaps I wasn’t close enough to see it clearly. A lady that had been watching with me was equally unsure and said; “It could as well be a beaver”. “Well, it is possible but I believe beavers are usually larger than this” I replied. That brief incident prompted a simple google search to distinguish between the two furry creatures. Among other things I was amazed to learn that otters are mainly carnivores while beavers are herbivores. If I develop this experience and add the discoveries made I could have a full story of over 1000 words. If I want to write about a trending or particular topic, all I need to do is follow the argument and in a matter of hours I will come up with an article. I learned this doing my master’s degree in media studies. Australian writer Caitlin Johnstone did not only become prolific by deploying this tactic but has effectively carved a reputation and built a buxom audience. Despite knowing all these, I neither read nor write as much as I should or I’m capable of doing. I rarely concentrate and do deep reading except on weekends and for academic work. I also don’t write regularly as I keep pledging to do. But wait! Of course, I write daily and most of us write daily too. Yes, we chat, reply to emails and churn out thousands of words arguing over frivolous sociopolitical issues. If you add up the number of words we type daily you could have a book each month. Unfortunately, this form of writing is usually not effective. It is the by-product of the internet era where almost everything can be done through screen devices. This dependence on these tools of our age impacts our attention span and it would seem there’s no escape from this as technology proliferates even more. By way of definition, attention span is simply the amount of time spent concentrating on a task before becoming distracted. While distractibility occurs when attention is uncontrollably diverted to another activity or sensation. Thus focus becomes a problem. And I’m neither alone in this struggle nor am I the only one who is searching for a solution. So a few nights ago when I plugged on my earphones to savour my daily free blink from Blinkist I was treated to Attention Span, a book by @GloriaMark_PhD. It was so interesting that I listened twice. It is not as if I haven’t read books around this subject matter. I have studied minimalism, decluttering, mindset and all that but none has been this specific. That is why I am practically bouncing off the walls on this one. So I have just renewed my audible subscription to read the entire book and I promise to dissect and digest the contents as we progress in our Success Journey series. But let’s start with this YouTube interview.  Thanks for reading and see you next week.

Blog, News

Easter Writing Contest.

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Holidays make good writing prompts and with the general elections behind us, we now have the time to do what we love doing. So for another 100k let’s go! Please read the instructions below before choosing from the following topics; INSTRUCTIONS: The word count is (500-1000) ±10%  for poetry and (2000 )± 10% for the rest. Send in at least 2 but not more than 3 entries from at least 2 genres. The deadline for submission is 11:59 pm 12/04/2023 Important!!! Entries with multiple errors will not be published. Topics. 1. Easter or Christmas? (Poetry) 2. Write about the experience of a young man who decides to be a political thug for the first time. (Fiction) 3. Revenge is best served chilled. (Fiction) 4. How can we celebrate new life on Easter? (Poetry) 5. Nigeria’s indivisibility; a case of sacrosanctity or sycophancy? A study of the Lagos-Igbo crises. (Opinion) 6. The menace of political thuggery in Nigeria; Implications and solutions. (Research Essay) Submit via email to admin@cmonionline.com  Note: Endeavour to read our general rules before submitting your work. Pay particular attention to items 2 & 9 because many entries have been trashed for not following instructions. WARNING!!! PLAGIARISM will get you banned from this platform. We will publish the essays as they come. Please try to submit early to make our job easier. Share your essays widely for others to read. Note that we have switched to peer review, so follow us on Twitter to participate in the spaces we host to determine the winners. The date will be announced in due course. Good luck!

Blog

Valentine Competition.

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Tilova For Africa, a US-based NGO supported us with 50k and another friend who prefers anonymity donated 50k too. So for 100k let us write in the season of love!

Please choose from the topics and follow the instructions below;

Blog, Lifestyle

Success Journey XV: On Writing!

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It is during this period of composting according to Natalie or creative emergence as Julia would say that you connect better with yourself. And the more you are in sync with your mind the more comfortable you are with writing.

Join our essay competition.

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