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Saturday, October 9, 2021

Be An Author Challenge (Part 7) –The Non-Conventional Way of Writing A Great Story

 


How do you tell your friend a story? Or how do you gist with your partner? Naturally, yeah? And sometimes unprepared or impromptu. No faking it or pretense, Yeah? That’s the point. With all the excitements and fun. And you will agree with me that that’s the kind of story you enjoy. It’s the kind of story you easily relate with and understand. No formality or rules. It just flows. That’s the way it is. That’s the way we are. And that’s how we are designed. Our system doesn’t always operate by rules and regulations, but by the nature of who we are.

I don’t like going by conventional rules or follow the crowd. Because I know it’s already common. Everybody is doing it. And it doesn’t allow me to do my own thing. I want to bring my own uniqueness to everything I do. And actually I don’t mean I break every law or become weird because I want to standout. But just to put something different to what I do. To bring out my own style and concept. Maybe you feel like that too. 

Now, when it comes to writing a story, I’ve found a trick - Just write the way you’ll tell your friend, Period! Have you ever read some interesting stories before? What did you notice about those stories? They are super relatable. You can feel the emotions and the words come alive. The writing is so captivating that you hardly believe you are reading. It’s like someone is seated before you talking to you. You catch all the fun and excitements. That’s because the writer also had you in mind while he/she was writing. He/she was also writing as though you were seated before him/her. That’s why you could feel the energy and enthusiasm.

Writing a story shouldn’t be as difficult as many of us have thought. It should be natural and flow. I know at first, it may be hard. But the secret of writing a good story is to write. If you are not sure of how to start, think of how you will tell your friend a story. Do you rack your head on where you’re going to start? Or you wait for 10 minutes before you start? You know the story just jump into your mouth as soon as you want to tell your friend. You don’t need to spend minutes or hours organizing the story in your head, but you just start anyhow. That’s the point. That's the same way you want to do with writing. Because as a matter of fact, writing is not different from speaking and shouldn’t be (in terms of content). People will only enjoy your writing if it sounds like you are speaking. Nobody wants a boring moment. And trust me, nobody wants to read a boring or too formal story. There should be some element of fun and emotional captivation to it.

Now, in this, you know what I’m saying. I’m not saying you shouldn’t make sense with your story or organize it. Just as the way your story will make sense anyway to your friend when you are saying it, that’s the way you should write it. That’s the secret of the best story telling that I mentioned in the previous article that – show, don’t tell. (Read it up here : https://sopiensofgod.blogspot.com/2021/10/be-author-challenge-part-6-how-to-write.html). When you show, you let your readers imagine what you write and absorb the emotions associated with it. 

For instance, if you want to describe that someone is afraid, show it and don’t tell. Showing it would mean that you describe everything associated with fear without mentioning it, so that anybody will understand what you’re talking about. This is just an example. It may not be about fear. It could be anything. And it’s actually not every time you’ll be describing every emotion. But the rule of thumb is – any emotion or expression that is key to what you are discussing should be shown and not told.

Therefore, it’s important and interesting to make writing your story as natural as possible, without too much formality or strict following of rules. People who follow the rules best are those who know how to break it. This makes them to establish new rules and upgrade the old ones. Nothing should make you afraid about writing your story. With the picture of your friend seated before you in mind, start writing your story as though you are telling him/her. 

Also, you can go by audio recording if you are not so good with writing. You can tell the story, record it, and later transcribe it. Anyway is good. The most important thing is that you are able to write and share your story. And if you want you can later publish it or turn it into a book. I see you becoming the great author that you had always wanted to be.

If you'll need help with writing a book, write to us at bookminds247@gmail.com. We’ll be glad to help you.

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Saturday, October 2, 2021

Be An Author Challenge (Part 6) –How to Write A Good Story


After you’ve selected a theme for writing your memoir, (Check the previous article here: https://sopiensofgod.blogspot.com/2021/09/be-author-challenge-part-5-writing-your.html) the next thing you want to do is how to organize your story that buttresses the theme. Your story doesn’t have to follow a particular order. But it should be organized and make sense to your reader. It should be able to communicate the message you’re trying to pass across.

When you want to write a story for your memoir, you should focus on five things, viz; the character, the setting, the plot, the conflict and the resolution.

The character involves you and any other person you are discussing in your story. The setting is the location or scene of the action. The plot is the arrangement or organization of the story – the description, the sequence of events and the interplay between the characters and the settings. The plot also describes how a character handles the conflict and resolves it. The conflict is the issue or problem that the character is trying to deal with. And the resolution is how the conflict is settled. When the conflict reached the peak before it is resolved, it is called climax. The more you can make your story reach climax before it is resolved, the more interesting it will be to your reader.

To take cognizance of these components of a story makes your story comes out organized and appealing to your reader. So, examine your story and see how each component fits into it. It’s not enough to have a good story, you should make it well thought out and planned.

Meanwhile, your memoir can be short written like an article or long written like a book. (I just finished writing a book by the way. It’s for one of our clients – it's such a powerful and interesting book). Anyway, let’s continue our discussion. So, as we’ve earlier established that when you are writing a memoir, you are focusing on the lessons that your story portrays, so that people can benefit well from your story.

While writing your story, this is how to engage your reader. First, start by introducing your character as soon as possible, and describe his/her personality or identity (in memoir, it is you). Second, plunge him/her into a problem or situation, also as soon as possible. Third, make him/her enter more problem, and as he/she tries to get out of the problem, he/she gets more plunge into more problems – till it reaches climax. Fourth, let him/her finally get his problem resolved and show how what he/she has gone through has helped him/her to get solution to the problems.

In all of these, make sure you show and don’t tell. That is the rule of the game. And write as if you are talking to someone or people. This allows your thoughts to flow easily. Create a tension in your story through the conflict that your character has and let it be prolonged (not too prolonged in order not to discourage your readers). But prolonged enough to put them on suspense and anticipation to see the end result. Then, finally bring a resolution. Let the solution be revealed by what the character has learned and gone through.

There’s no particular order that your story must follow. What is important is that it must be organized and should communicate the lessons that you want it to. And let your readers know that you have a big cheese at the end of the story to build the anticipation and desire in them to read through.

If you are thinking of writing a story, don’t be discouraged by what I’ve shared if you are not familiar with those terms or this is your first time. Writing a story can be as fun as writing a letter to your friend or even gisting with your partner. So, don’t worry about writing a perfect story. Just start. Start anyhow. Start anywhere. You get better at writing by writing. So, keep writing and you’ll find it more fun to do.

If you need help in any of these, write to us at bookminds247@gmail.com. We’ll be glad to help you.


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Saturday, September 25, 2021

Be An Author Challenge (Part 5) – Writing Your Memoir


I didn’t know I was writing a memoir until I checked the definition in the dictionary. I know I had loved to share my story and just put some nice themes across. I love to motivate and challenge people. And I tag most of my writings with challenging or motivating words. So, when I discuss these themes, I use examples from my own life and experience. I use short stories and anecdotes. I extracted the lessons and turn them into topics that I can discuss with people. 

Writing a memoir is pretty simple if you love to share your story and things about life in general. It also allows you to pay attention to things that you go through and the lessons that you learn from them. By the way, if you love to know more about the power of your story and why you should share it, check the previous article here - (https://sopiensofgod.blogspot.com/2021/09/be-author-challenge-part-4-power-of.html) 

Just before we go further, let’s differentiate between a memoir and an autobiography. A memoir is a word from memory, meaning any nonfiction narrative of one’s personal memories. It is simply explaining a topic or theme, using your personal experience or story. Whereas, an autobiography is a chronological account of your life written by yourself (while your biography is written by someone else). A memoir is different from autobiography in the sense that a memoir doesn’t have to give a chronological account of your story or experience. It can be different phases or stages of your life. But an autobiography must follow a chronological order – say from the time you were born up to this present moment. So, while memoir focuses on the theme and the lessons you learn from your story, autobiography focuses on the story itself. 

Now, to write your memoir, how do you start? You start by having a theme or topic. In memoir, the lesson you want to share is more important than the story. The essence of sharing your story is to buttress a topic or theme that you are discussing. So, when writing a memoir, the first thing that you focus on is what lesson or topic do you want people to learn from your writing. 

After you’ve selected a topic, then you will look for a story or experience in your life that buttresses that topic or theme. For instance, if I want to discuss how to break free from sexual addiction, I can discuss that topic using my own story. I can discuss how I became sexually addicted, the struggles and the challenges and how I eventually broke out from it. So, using my own story, I’ve discussed how to break free from sexual addiction. So, there could be many topics or themes that you can choose to discuss using your own life experience or story.

People always love to hear your story. They always love to see that someone has gone through what they are going through and he/she is now proffering some advice or solution to their problem.

Now, depending on the story that you are sharing. If you don’t want to share the entire story directly, you can use indirect ways to share your story. Maybe you want to protect some people’s information or you don’t want to disclose some confidential or private matters, you can conceal other characters in your story and still bring out the original content of your story. You can change name, location, description and so on. Because sometimes, some people might not be comfortable with you sharing their private matters publicly or without their consent.

And as a memoirist, you may also feel the fear, anxiety or shame of sharing your story. But you know what, this is normal and you will later feel happy when you found out that your story has helped a lot of people. Many people that shared their story while discussing some sensitive topics were not at first comfortable with it. But when they saw the result, they were encouraged and fear disappeared. 

Again, while you write your memoir, what is important is the lesson that you want your readers to learn. So, focus on the lesson and not too much details of the story. And after you’ve put your ideas together, organize them and start writing your memoir. In the next article, I will show you how to continue and complete writing your memoir. Stay in touch!

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