full course on creative writing-continuing

planning
starting

Continuing

 Once you have started your story, it is usually better to follow your outline. It helps you to get focused and avoid unnecessary digressions. Once you have chosen the genre, and adopted your style, your task is to continue your story. You may decide to present your story chronologically from the beginning to the end or make use of flashbacks to knit your story together to achieve the desired cohesion. As you write, you may develop new ideas or have reasons to modify the existing ones, do not hesitate to do that. Alternatively, you can prune everything at the point of revision. You may be aware of some gaps, if you can correct immediately, do so but if not, go ahead with your writing. You may or may not have a time table. I observe that it is difficult in creative writing to adhere to any time table though some writers do. The length of time the work will take depends on the time you can spare for it and, most importantly, on how readily the ideas come. Sometimes the characters engage in a dialogue in the writer’s mind yet he/she may not have time to record it immediately. In some case after that moment, he/she may not be able to recall the ideas or how they flowed in his/her mind. Some literary works take many years to complete while some are written in a month or two. As you continue with your writing, you may become barren of ideas. This means that you have time to write but you cannot do so because nothing comes to your mind. But you should not give up at such times. You may need to revisit your outline, joggle some ideas and plan more thoroughly. You may skip a particular 38 troubled area and move on to the next chapter, scene or stanza. You may even change the direction of your story or take a long rest. As you write, the story is bound to be revolving in your mind even at odd times and odd places. The inspiration bug could bite you at any time. If you can, as soon as it comes, record it and revise latter. In a short story titled “Inspiration Bug” by Akachi Ezeigbo, Chinny was in the church and while the preacher preached with eloquence, powerful ideas struck her. She started comparing the writer and the preacher and ruminated that both preacher and writer , exhort, criticize and even entertain. “Both are interpreters and in a sense also prophets …” (72). As these thoughts impinged upon her consciousness she realized that she has been bitten by “Inspiration bug”. She exclaimed: What a time! What a place! “No…no…not here, please” I whispered “What …? Asked the woman sitting by me. “Nothing…” I replied hastily. (72) As the preacher was talking, his words gradually faded from her consciousness and in their place “was this beautiful story line which I immediately thought could form the framework for my next novel”(73). As she thought about it, an overpowering avalanche of ideas stormed her brain. As she muttered to herself her neighbor tried to find out if she was alright. She left the church, went straight to her house to complete the story before the inspiration bug left her. This could happen to anyone. For instance, when I was writing The Regal Dance, I was smiling to myself as I wrote. It was in the office. A colleague entered and I did not take notice of him because I was engrossed in my writing. I was enjoying the fictive world and oblivious of the real world around me. The man stood for a while and called, O-nye-ka. I was startled. I looked up, wanted to ask him to leave 39 but could not since he was a senior colleague. He swore that I was an ‘Ogbanje’ or a little bit insane. If not, how could I be sitting in an office alone and smiling to myself. I tried in vain to explain, later showed him my earlier manuscripts. He was not only convinced but collected them – Sons For My Son and Into The World and helped me to get them published. Once you have started writing, and momentary flashes come to you, please capture them on paper or record them in a tape as soon as they come before they vanish and may not reappear again. Do that, even if it means packing your car, stepping out of bed in the middle of the night or “stepping out of shower half soaked or interrupting a tête-à-tête with a possessive friend” (Ike, 87). This means that you need a lot of discipline for you to stick to your work, continue it till you get the first draft

planning
starting