music composition and creative writting-Ideas/Concepts

music composition and creative writting-Ideas/Concepts

Basically, creative writing is an imaginative art. But before you can imaginatively create a story or a poem, you must have been struck by an idea or concept. However, in some cases, especially in poetry, the poems flow in the poet’s imagination and he/she only records what is in the imagination. This is inspired creativity. Some writers claim to have written while in a trance. So creativity here is spontaneous creativity which is not based on idea but the idea emerges after the work is complete. A writer could also be inspired by an idea or a concept. Let us look at corruption. Almost every day we hear of corruption. In the civil service, in government, in schools, on our roads, in recruitment and even at gates and reception areas of public places the story is the same. If you want to explore the idea of corruption in your work, you will ask yourself the following questions. What do you want to say about corruption? Is your intention that of condemnation, exaltation or to give information? Do you just want to let your a 17 Having taken the decision on your perspective on the idea, the next step is to imaginatively create a story to suit your purpose. Can you think of a perspective, that you would like to adopt in an exposition of an ill in the society? Remember, the creative writer is the conscience of the society so should reflect the society objectively. You should be able to extol when necessary and criticize where criticism is required and condemn despicable acts. Class stratification and its attendant entrenchment of inequality/ oppression in the society is another common area of discourse among Nigerians. Where do you work? Revisit the organization with the eyes, ears and mind of a creative writer. Are there forms of oppression, inequality or corruption there? Do you think you can tell the story of what happens? By the end of this module, hopefully, you may be able to tell the story with fictitious names and some embellishments to make it realistic and interesting. 3.2 Environment A writer is a product of his background. The environment of the writer has a great influence on his/her writing. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart would not have been written by him if he were not from Igboland. A non-Igbo man or woman who has lived in Igboland could depict the Igbo culture in a novel but not with much detailed information on an aspect of the culture of the people and its significance. Let us consider the following excerpt from the novel. The missionaries had come to Umuofia. They had built their church there, won a handful of converts and were already sending evangelists to the surrounding towns and villages. That was a course of great sorrow to the leaders of the clan; but many of them believed that the strange faith and the white man’s god would not last. None of his converts was a man whose word was heeded in the assembly 18 of the people. None of them was a man of title. They were mostly the kind of people that were called efulefu, worthless, empty men. The imagery of an efulefu in the language of the clan was a man who sold his matchet and wore the sheath to battle. Chielo, the priestess of Agbala, called the converts the excrement of the clan, and the new faith was a mad dog that had come to eat it up. (p. 130). In the above passage, Achebe presents the incursion of the Whiteman to Umuofia which is heralded by the advance group, the missionaries. In this short piece, he shows not just the activities of the missionaries and their converts but also the feelings of the elders, and the class of people that embraced the new religion. They are somehow outcasts, people of no consequence in the towns and villages. The elders believe this group of people could not achieve anything. On the other hand, the converts who belong to this class of people who are rejected and looked down on by their kinsmen, found solace in the new religion. Achebe contends that the callousness of the society towards this class of people contributed to the success of the new religion contrary to the expectations of the elders and the priestess of Agbala. As a creative writer, you have to keep your eyes and ears ‘wild, wide open’ like one of my lecturers, Domba Asomba, used to say. This is the only way you could see and hear beyond everyone else in that environment. The filth in your surrounding acquires new meaning for you, new significance and a symbol of something, you could explore. This could be as a result of the people’s way of life or attitude to public utilities which in turn could be a consequent of neglect, bad leadership or lack of patriotism. These alternatives will help you to build the structure of your story which must have some semblance of life. It is very important. 19 3.3. Events Closely related to environment is events and maybe individuals, inter-personal relationships. An event could spark off the creativity/spirit in you. You may not build an entire story on it but it could form part of the story. Your ability to situate that event appropriately in the story is what matters. This helps to make your story coherent. Good novels, plays, short stories and poems thrive on coherence. Think of an event – a birthday party, a wedding, a naming ceremony. Can you relate that event factually? Try to recount specific details and of that event. Think of the significance of some specific 20 The crowd had surrounded and swallowed up the drummers, whose frantic rhythm was no longer a mere disembodied sound but the very heart-beat of the people. The wrestlers were now almost still in each other’s grip. The muscles on their arms and their thighs and on their backs stood out and twitched. It looked like an equal match. The two judges were already moving forward to separate them when Ikezue, now desperate, went down quickly on one knee in an attempt to fling his man backwards over his head. It was a sad miscalculation. Quick as the lightning of Amadiora, Okafo raised his right leg and swung it over his rival’s head. The crowd burst into a thunderous roar. Okafo was swept off his feet by his supporters and carried home shoulder-high. They sang his praise and the young women clapped their hands: ‘Who will wrestle for our village? Okafo will wrestle for our village Has he thrown a hundred men? He has thrown four hundred men, Has he thrown a hundred Cats He has thrown four hundred cats. Then send him word to fight for us.’ In the passage above, Achebe presents an aspect of life of the people in Igboland through a detailed presentation of an event – a wrestling match. The reader can easily feel the excitement and the physical movements of the spectators and the wrestlers. He likens the rhythms of the drums to the heart-beat of the people. In another excerpt below, Festus Iyayi, in Violence through Idemudia’s illness, and the attempts to admit him into the hospital present’s the inability of the government to provide basic social amenities for the people. 21 Even in that early hour, the University Hospital was crowded. It was a pitiable sight. So many people were sick and in need of the doctor. The long benches were full. The porch outside was filled with patients who were able to stand. Some of the patients coughed violently. Mothers who carried sick children moved agitatedly. The faces that waited were grim serious and preoccupied with worry (Violence 61). Festus Iyayi could have simply said “There were many sick people waiting to be attended to in the hospital”. But he did not. Instead, he included minute details that recreate the pitiable sight in the minds of the readers. Initially, Idemudia and Adisa could not pay the required fee for registration and when they eventually managed to do so, they fail to get any reasonable service and attention from the hospital. The doctors are incapacitated by the misplaced priorities of the political or elite class. The doctor put on his glasses again but his mind went back to the dark tunnel of numberless sick, their abject poverty and from that to the helplessness of their position. He couldn’t understand why in the midst of so much disease, the government concentrated on building hotels instead of hospitals (Violence 63). You can see from the above, that a creative writer does not just see events on the surface but gives details, analyzes situations, adduces possible reasons for such situations or events or their consequences. They also seek underlying meanings to the surface events or use words that emphasize or highlight the message that is being conveyed. In the first passage, note words like “long benches” “…filled,” “porches… full”, “coughed violently”, “moved agitatedly”, “faces…grim, serious.., preoccupied with worry”. These help to evoke the deplorable, neardesperate, and hopeless situation the patients find themselves.