Writing a book

[Paragon]

www.lulu.com

[ElPunto]

^Warya - how many name changes have you had now in the past couple of months?

[Paragon]

^^A couple of times? Under some terrible blues sxb. Hoping the name changes would brighten things up .

[ElPunto]

^What - no mefrish outings lately?

[Paragon]

^No miracles there. The occupants seem more sad than I. My prob...no sun lately- my planned 2nd escape to the real world is taking abit more time, and with that tis all blues.

 

PS; How are you? Missing the marfishka?

[ElPunto]

^Hehe. I can honestly say I've never been in one of those places - dark, cave like and full of wierd creatures.

 

See you gotta look at those worse off than you. We have 5 feet of snow on the ground here - and the headaches that causes for anyone doing anything or going anywhere. Your car stuck in the middle of a 'road', freezing your *** off because you disdain cellphones and refuse to get one and having to hoof it to the nearest gas station to get a tow which will take 2 hrs etc.

 

Africans belong in the sun - I wish you a speedy return.

[5]

Originally posted by -Lily-:

 

I would advice you to read what is currently a bestseller and to really think about why the ordinary John would read your book on his commute or the avarage Jane read it on the beach. A Somali book would limit you unles your characters' struggles are universal.

That'd be writing for audience.

 

Originally posted by -Lily-:

Mind you, a lot of trash has been published.

True. All you need to do is wander around a library. It is shocking how little people care about the environment. Stop trashing our environment, crappy mediocre writers.

[5]

Originally posted by Fahiye:

Writing for monetary reasons is the wrong route to take—you could make money in less intricate endeavours. Writing requires a passion together with tenacity and the ability to differentiate a good story from a brilliant one; skill most people lack not to mention some mediocre writers.

 

what has being a best-seller got to do with having the ability to differentiate a good (or even bad for that matter) story from a brilliant one?? art thou mad??!

 

how to write a best-seller? this is the most important thing: be as mediocre as possible, don't take any risks. be mainstream and calculative.

 

i would love to write a rubbish book. like a love novel. boy meets girl, girl's parent's won't have it, boy loses girl, boy finds girl, boy makes silly promise he'll never let the girl forget their story, they age together and die... wait. that's notebook.

[Cara.]

Originally posted by G G:

quote:

---

Originally posted by -Lily-:

 

 

I would advice you to read what is currently a bestseller and to really think about why the ordinary John would read your book on his commute or the avarage Jane read it on the beach. A Somali book would limit you unles your characters' struggles are universal.

That'd be writing for audience.

That's the point. Writing without having an audience in mind is called keeping a diary. The first step of writing anything else is choosing your audience. If you want a bestseller, than Lily is spot-on: Think of the "ediot in a hurry" as the target audience. Make it Oprah's Book Club-friendly. Write about epic personal struggles, poignant life-lessons, an appreciation for diversity and community. If it's a real hit, your book is going to be adapted in a made-for-tv film, so prepare accordingly.

[BonaFied_CriTic]

Writing a real book takes effort and time, I would rather stick to my poems and short stories.

[5]

Originally posted by Cara:

That's the point. Writing without having an audience in mind is called

keeping a diary

. The first step of writing anything else is choosing your audience.

i must be more self-centred than i always think i am. i write for myself, i am my audience, and perhaps those who are a little like me.

 

Originally posted by Cara:

If you want a bestseller, than Lily is spot-on: Think of the "ediot in a hurry" as the target audience. Make it Oprah's Book Club-friendly. Write about epic personal struggles, poignant life-lessons, an appreciation for diversity and community. If it's a real hit, your book is going to be adapted in a made-for-tv film, so prepare accordingly.

oh c'mon. i do agree with you that most best-sellers are no-brainers but there are a few really good ones. my personal favourite is memoirs of a child soldier by ishamael beah, i very much doubt it was written in the same calculative way you two suggest.

[Cara.]

Oh yes it was, for the Starbucks crowd.

 

epic personal struggles, poignant life-lessons, an appreciation for diversity and community.

Is it missing any of the above key ingredients? And do you really think the ex-child soldier wrote it without at least one ghostwriter to make it more yuppie-licious?

[King Koya]

A book with stories like this will sell a lot,

------------------------------------------------

 

On 23rd of April 2006, Mr. Farah Mohamed Nur was killed in Mogadishu, Somalia. Farah was a Somali Christian, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. He converted and was baptized in the year 2002, in Nairobi, Kenya and later in early 2005 went back to Somalia.

 

Farah was on his way back from an interdenominational prayer fellowship with two others when someone

with an automatic machinegun fired and killed them. We have not received yet the names of the two other believers who were members of a Pentecostal denomination.

 

Farah and the two other believers’ killing is part of Al Qaid’s, and it’s allies, systematic campaign to eliminate all Christians from Somalia .

 

Since the beginning of the civil war in 1991, Muslim organizations particularly Al Qaida and it’s partners in Somalia killed hundreds of Somali Christians and dozens of missionaries working in Somalia .

 

Sheikh Suley, powerful sheikh’s in Mogadishu , declared in 1995 that to eliminate Christianity from Somalia is part of their plan to create a 100% Muslim populated Islamic state in Somalia .

 

Please keep praying for the few hundreds of Somali Christians still remaining inside Somalia .

-------------------------------------------------

[Cara.]

Yes, but ideally it should end on a redemptive note. Perhaps Mr. Nur's son could be the exact bone marrow match for the killer's only child (dying of leukemia), and the killer could then learn all about the true value of humanity, and send the victim's son to college.

 

Don't laugh, it's a work in progress.

[Shumey]

Khalaf, great aspirations!

I myself have wriiten 2 books. I am busy with my third one!! I was inspired by Maya Angelou, Chinua Achebe, Nuriddin Farah and other African writers/Philosophers too.

 

Some tips:

*Stay goal(story)focused; ENVISION your end-product, personalise and own it knowing you will take it to full completion.

 

*Dont give up hope when your mind goes blanco.. and u stare at the computer... and computer is staring at you.

 

*Dont always type, write it down sometimes with a pen, its alot easier and by so doing you get to structurally and creatively DRAW your story which can be very helpful. Also, always have a pen and paper with you; you may get a good story-idea while on the bus!

 

*Create an enabling environment for yourself, surround yourself with books/tools that inspire you and ignite the fire and desire to write. I have some tools that may help you. It may also be helpful to write your story at significant places that cultivate ingenuity and you relate/associate with your story.

 

*When you start to write, dont mind correcting/adjusting/rearranging sentences/spellings even chapters, work on the CONTENTS in chapter form. What helped me most was getting the main ACTIVITIES of each chapter in a sequence/flow.

 

*its good to have high ambitions: wanting to produce a bestseller, but dont get too excited as this may frustrate you or distort the (long)PROCESS of writing. You have to enjoy writing your story every bit. Eliminate all potential for discouragement/negativity.

 

*Get writing!

*Keep us informed!

*Good luck!

 

Shumey