year

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Writing Contest.

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My good friend Stanley Ugbo Okeke recently blessed me with N100k and I decided to reward those participating in our book-in-a-year challenge. So for N100k let’s write! Please choose from the topics and follow the instructions below; Who is to blame for Nigeria’s turbulent journey? Bad weather, the passengers or the captains? (Feature) Fuel subsidy removal, analysing the effects and possible suggestions for a better economy. (Opinion) Meeting the mysterious – A tale on fear. (Fiction) Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea – The dilemma of resolving a serious issue or committing suicide. (Fiction)  Don’t give up. (Poetry) Write an ode to a person who has played a huge role in your life. (Poetry)   INSTRUCTIONS: The word count for poetry is (500 -750) and (1000-1500) for fiction/feature/opinion ±10% You MUST submit 2 entries one of which MUST be poetry. The submission deadline is 11:59 pm 15/09/2023. IMPORTANT!!! Edit & proofread thoroughly before submitting your entry. Your entry will not be published if it is full of errors. Submit via email to admin@cmonionline.com  Note: 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 published stories widely for others to read. Good luck!

Blog, News, Resources

Write A Book In A Year With Cmonionline.

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The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better. ~ Stephen King We are finally here. It is official and it may seem to have come too fast but it’s always good to get started. If there is one thing I’ve learned in my 7 years abroad it is that the Western world thrives on productivity and lengthy deliberations can sometimes turn to prevarication. So it’s always better to start acting on your ideas and improve along the way. It gets better when you are accompanied because you have a challenge and support. ACT==>FAIL/PASS==>LEARN==>CONTINUE It is that simple guys. I know some have already started writing like myself. Some will still start and some may not write a word in the entire period. It’s different strokes for different folks but push on…we must! Now why do we want to write a book? The answer is simple. Because we can write a book! In our last session, we deliberated on spicing up the next 365 days of writing a book. It is important to reward our efforts for good reasons. The obvious is encouragement, and then it is necessary to take breaks — it could be monthly or quarterly — with some rote activities that may help to replenish our cognitive resources. Ideas like spoken word contests, poems, word count, and periodic writing competitions in the manner we usually have were mentioned. Well since variety is the spice of life and writing it will be nice to try these suggestions as we progress. We will simply put them to vote in the group and go with the majority choice. Book reviews: We will recommend 3 or 4 books for writers to choose from and then do a review. Writers will then determine the winning entries to be rewarded. I think this is a brilliant idea especially if we include authors/genres that may resonate with our writing ideas. It is actually killing 3 birds with a stone. You get a break, draw from reading and receive a bank alert. Well, the 3rd bird depends on the house. And finally, we agreed to START on 11th June 2023. So all things being equal, by 11th June 2024 through our effort each person should have published a book or at the very least have a draft. A Tip We Skipped. Find a reader, preferably someone you trust to always tell you the brutal truth. No flattery or undeserved adulation but honest feedback that will encourage you to keep pushing. I have my uncle and because my work will be published here I may request feedback from you at intervals. Next up…  On Sunday, June 25, 2023, we will host two content creators Ada @lightwoxng and Ifunanya @iphie_explores who will share their thoughts on digital creativity and social media. Further details on this will be shared on our social media platforms soon but it’s IMPORTANT to know the Talkshop is part of the criteria for choosing 10 beneficiaries of the FREE graphic design training. If you just started following you can still catch up with previous sessions and read some posts on writing in our resources category. That’s all, start writing and all the best!

Blog, Resources

A Book In A Year Session IV

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  Following the exciting Session III, we will have the final session for this project on Sunday 4th June 2023 @6pm and here are the reasons you shouldn’t miss it. We will recap the previous sessions to bring everyone up to speed. We will determine a reward pathway for the project. Juicy pledges from our sponsors will be revealed. There will be free training on graphic design for 10 writers. The Book In A Year project will officially commence. You can read the previous sessions here and the link to join on Sunday is below. A Book In A Year IV Sunday, 04/06/2023, 6:00–7:00 pm Time zone: Europe/Dublin Google Meet joining info Video call link: https://meet.google.com/ott-cvqp-pcq See you soon.

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, 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, Lifestyle, Resources

Happy New Year: Let’s Create Value Together.

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It is a new year but what changed?
What will change?
The answer is very little.
The difference between last year and this year is just one second.
And that can’t be adequate for any serious change.
It is not something you achieve overnight.

How then can you make the change significant?

Blog, Writers

Cmonionline Essay Competition: One Year Of Writing. (Updated)

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Let me start by congratulating the cmonionline writing community on one-year of being part of our essay competition. As you know this essay competition started about one year ago when we announced the topics for week 1 on the 23rd of August 2020. Since then we have consistently written for 36 weeks and paid out over N700,000, exceeding our initial target of half a million. All thanks to the support from friends and judges some of whom I haven’t even met offline.

Essays, Writers

What Happened To Our Usual New Year Resolutions and Prophecies? by Emmanuel Oluka.

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  Reading through status updates on Whatsapp as well as friends’ posts and comments on social media especially on New Year’s Eve and on New Year day, no doubt, inspired this essay. Indeed, over the years, I usually keep myself busy all through Christmas and New Year festive periods with my phone by reading a plethora of messages on social media. Sincerely, it is a remarkable experience as I’d get to be thrilled with most messages because they’d contain prayers, funny resolutions and prophecies for the New Year. So, in the end, I’d always find myself looking into the New Year with a lot of relish and anticipation. The Whatsapp status updates and social media interactions of friends within the first few days of the year, 2021 revealed a dearth in New Year prophecies. I also observed that people no longer set New Year resolutions. The only thing I noticed closest to a New Year resolution was the trending Stingy Men Association of Nigeria (SMAN). To be candid, I was dying of laughter whenever I saw different versions to the trend on social media. It was so hilarious that I would “laugh myself to stupor”. While it was all fun and cruise, a few were quick to adopt it as their New Year resolution as they refer to it as a decision and a movement to stop obliging every woman (except a wife, mother, daughter or female relative) with money. To these men, they claim it will help them curb financial wastages especially on “side chicks” and girlfriends. To one member in particular, he said, “it is a resolve to choose wisdom over foolishness”.  As interesting as that may seem, there were still a paucity of New Year resolutions from my experience on social media. On “cross-over” night, I left social media and had my eyes fixated on various channels on television to listen to the king of prophecy, Prophet T. B. Jushua. Guess what? He claimed he went to the mountain where God gave him New Year prophecies which would be released later; because, according to him, he had to study it very well. Pastor E. A. Abeboye in his own New Year message said, “the year will be full of testimonies of God’s goodness and Nigerians will hear sounds from heaven”. In Bishop Oyedekpo’s words, he said, “from 2021, you shall not wander in life again. You shall not know disappointments in 2021”. I curiously waited for Prophet Odumejje’s prophecies to no avail. In all these scenarios, there seem to be a paradigm shift in the “usual” New Year prophecies and resolutions; in fact, there is an obvious dip in the willingness of people to make New Year resolutions. Even pastors, preachers and prophets are becoming very careful in their prophecies concerning what the New Year brings. This sets the tilt for this essay, as an attempt is made to unravel the situations surrounding the dearth in the usual New Year prophecies and resolutions; hence, the essay title, “What happened to our usual New Year resolutions and prophecies?” So, in my quest, I engaged some friends. The following dialogue ensued… ***   “Cheers to a New Year Chizy, this one you’re beaming with smiles on your display picture, you definitely have a lot in stuck already for 2021. I can see it appears you’ve set goals and resolutions for the New Year and can’t wait to hit the ground running, right?” Chizy responded saying, “my dear, who New Year resolutions help? No doubt you’ve forgotten last year, 2020 was a mad year, right? I can’t kill myself abeg… I need to study this year carefully.” I exploded into laughter and said, “Babe, you’re always filled with fireworks anytime. You can never be caught on the wrong side at all. Best wishes my dear”. Then, engaging the next friend, I became a bit intentional… “Jacy, have you made your New Year resolution as requested by the Ketogenic food group members on Whatsapp? Remember you promised you were going to eat more healthily and punish some body fats to keep your modeling dreams alive”. However, Jacy chuckled and replied, “No be small thing o… I had finished two wraps of ‘akpu’ when I remembered I even made a resolution yesterday. The temporary closure of the fruit market due to covid-19 safety guidelines lured me into the temptation and I fell for it”. The next thing I blurted was, “Eiyaa… I really feel your pain”. And the laughter continued… I engaged Kizito, my childhood friend at Federal Government College, Ugwolawo (FGCU). “Paddi, how far… How the New Year go be na? Recall that by this time during our formative years at Ugwolawo, we already had our New Year resolutions figured out to be submitted to our form masters upon resumption. Does such practice ever exist in schools these days?” No sooner had I finished than he responded, “Oh nostalgia… Nna, the question rather should be, ‘how many students nowadays know what a New Year resolution is all about?’ Meanwhile, Covid-19 pandemic have so disrupted FGCU’s resumption calendar already”. Then, I said, “good old days are obviously lost; lost with time; lost with the pandemic.” I also had some time with my cousin. See excerpts… “Tony, I rang you few minutes after 12 o’clock on New Year day, but you did not respond. Wetin happen?” “No vex…” he said… “I was at the crossover night in church”. “How did it go?” I asked… Tony was really a crazy dude. He replied saying, “Prophet Odumejje was busy shouting up and down. I was expecting strong prophetic New Year message from him. But it’s clear I wasted my time and my sleep yesterday. That was how he was not able to predict the dreaded Covid-19 pandemic last year”. He finished his response with a hiss.   *** Well, do not ask me how the rest discussions ended…   To a large extent, something was common from the engagements; year 2020 and the Covid-19

Essays, Writers

Five Reasons For A Dearth In The Usual New Year Prophecies And Resolutions by Bolaji Alade.

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  Writer’s note: This piece employs in its entirety the use of satire and comic to present factual reasons for the dearth in the traditional new year prophecies and resolutions in year 2021. It is by no means an attempt to scoff at your belief or otherwise on this topic. There is no better way to identify a man or a woman of Nigerian descent other than their thirst for new year prophecies. After all, the elders say, a fly that has no counsellor follows the corpse to the grave. Hence, as a Nigerian, if you genuinely desire to maximize a new year, it is a must to consult one of the selected few who have unlimited access to divinity to give you heads up on how your year will be. Know this and know peace. Your bucket list of new year resolutions will be an exercise in futility if you fail to do this. For accurate new year resolutions are only those borne out of  crystal clear new year prophecies. Could you read that again and let it sink deep? However, there seems to be a scarcity of new year prophecies, and its ripple effect, resolutions in 2021. Consequently, there are many flies in the absence of counsel headed for the grave with the corpse. But how did things get this bad? Just relax. Grab what’s left of your new year’s chicken and enjoy the ride. Covic- 1,9 Please, no disrespect to Bubu. (You’re not Nigerian enough if you need anyone to explain this joke to you.) Back to the matter, the public health emergencies ravaging the seven continents brought the world to its knees during the first wave. By its second wave, it’s now apparent the virus intends to keep the world grounded as long as there are covidiots who refuse to take precautionary measures. That said, the covic pandemic is causing more uncertainty than fatalities. In one breadth there is a lockdown, in another, there is the imposition of a curfew. And as you already know, the strength of prophecy lies in its certainty. But that’s what 2020 was all about; bursting bubbles. Case in point was Musa who received a prophecy that he will be in America by April but had his dream knocked down by national lockdown both in his supposed country of departure and arrival. So since Musa carried over last year prophecy do you expect him to request for new projections? Think about it. Sadly, owing to the annual prophecy receiving ritual codenamed crossover night cancelled to curtail the spread of  Covic 1,9 many religious faithful in Nigeria could not gather to receive prophecies for the new year. Anyways, Pandemic 1- 0 Nigerian religious faithful. Vibes and inshallah There is no better way to lead a fulfilled life than to live by the impulses of vibes backed up with inshallah. And although it took Nigerians 60 years post Independence to realize this, it was the most significant discovery of 2020. Isn’t it cute to live without the pressure of fulfilling specific prophecies or bounding yourself all in the name of resolutions when You Only Live Once—YOLO! Nothing’s been cuter, and Nigerians are keeping it a hundred. I have never been more proud of this country. This youth propagated liberating school of thought frowns at overthinking, deliberate planning and a visionary mindset which at a closer look is stressful at best, and frustrating at worse. With the increasing acceptance of this philosophy, the archaic practice of new year prophecies and resolutions has lost its grip on Nigerians. Therefore, we’re free like a bird.   The gods are angry The gods are angry and rightly so. In fact, at this junction, I cannot agree more with my mentee Ola Rotimi when he said, The Gods Are Not to Blame. You see, to receive prophecies, the gods must be at peace with you. Little wonder why they say, If the vulture fails to hover at the end of a sacrifice, then you know that something happened in the land of spirits. In this case, the disregard for the gods has grieved the spirits. As a result of one or two inaccurate prophecies given by the gods last year, many cast aspersion on the gods’ legitimacy only to turn to them this year for prophecies. And shall we continue to cast aspersion on the gods and request for prophecies to abound? Tufiakwa! When dealing with the gods, a man must not speak out of both sides of his mouth. So as it is, the gods have locked up, hence lack of prophecies and proper resolution you’re witnessing in the year 2021. Inflation At exactly midnight on January 1 2020, all Nigeria’s myriad of problem disappeared. It was the national dimension of, New Year; New Me. Old things in Nigeria passed away, but inflation didn’t. I believe it must have crept into 2020 while Nigerians are lost in the euphoria of how all planned for vision 2020 is about to become a reality suddenly. After all, if we did think it, we can achieve it, Lol. Creeping inflation soon gained its ground and skyrocketed. When it did, it dealt with everything on the Nigerian soil, beneath it and above. The government says it was due to the pandemic, but you know this is a common NIGER-AREA epidemic, as old as miss Flora Shaw herself. To hit the nail on its head: the year 2020 inflation proved abortive all resolutions and resolution makers. Typically, a disappointed Amaka could not save up to six figures as she can’t even afford three square meal. What next? The battle of survival began. This battle threw Nigerians into great turmoil late 2020, and all that filled their minds were survival strategies. At this moment, you would agree the least on their mind would be hunger or thirst for new year’s prophecies. And since it takes appetite and desires to receive it, many Nigerians failed the test while preoccupied with survival means. Hence,

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