The Art of Writing

The great English writer Beryl Margaret once remarked, "I am of the opinion that anyone can write books and I never understand why they don't. After all, everybody speaks. Once the grammar has been learnt it is simply talking on paper and in time learning what not to say."

I agree with Beryl Margaret that writing is much like speaking. But I have to mention that from my own experiences, I have discovered that it takes a great deal of confidence and hard work to be a gifted writer.

When I first started penning stories and sharing them on the internet, I didn't have confidence as a writer. I would imagine some people criticizing me for the stories I was sharing. But thanks to my resilience, I have now developed the confidence I initially lacked.

Although I have grown more confident and found my voice, I have to admit that I still find writing to be challenging. Sometimes I am just not in the mood for writing. At other times, I struggle to get my ideas flowing, what is commonly referred to as writer's block.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton once boasted that he has never suffered from a writer's block. I think he owes his success as a writer to his love for reading. During his undergraduate years at Georgetown University, he read six newspapers in a day. And when he proceeded to Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship, he devoured hundreds of books.

With such heavy reading, is it any wonder that Bill Clinton has never suffered from a writer's block? And Bill Clinton is really a gifted writer. His memoir, My Life, is insightful and well written. I have kept gravitating back to it to savor its stories.

Yes, success as a writer depends on reading. As I heard someone say, if you think writing is all about sitting down with a pen and a paper, perish the idea. You have to be a reader for you to be a writer. Which is why God must have given us the ability to see with two eyes and to write with only one hand - so that we would read at least twice as much as we write.

And writing can be deeply fulfilling, emotionally as well as intellectually. I always feel a rush of excitement whenever I pen a story that I think is riveting. What excites me even more is when readers send me feedback, telling me they have enjoyed my story.

It is such positive feedback that has kept me writing stories and sharing them on the internet. And my writing role model has been a little-known Kenyan named Ngishili Njuguna.

I stumbled upon Ngishili's blog one day in 2012 while searching for a story I studied in high school. And boy, wasn't I impressed by the quality of writings on his blog!

Ngishili was an imaginative blogger with rare insights into human nature. He could weave a captivating story from ordinary experiences. Even seeing a slug glide slowly on a wall could furnish him with ideas for a bloggable story.

Later on when I befriended Ngishili via the contacts on his blog, he turned out to be a friendly chap. He freely allowed me to use his stories on my blog before I figured out that plagiarism is wrong, for it is a form of stealing.

Unhappily, Ngishili has long since stopped blogging for reasons I am yet to know. I tried encouraging him to re-open his blog but he wasn't enthusiastic about my suggestion. Because I would give my eye teeth to write like him, I pity him for letting his writing talent go to waste.

Come to think of it, I am now glad that Ngishili closed his blog because if he was still blogging, I would be leaning on him for writing ideas. And that would have deprived me the chance to develop confidence in my own voice like I now have.

Finding my own voice has made me a better thinker, a sharp contrast to the confusion that was characteristic of me in my teenage years. It has also made me more observant and discerning. Given another life, I wouldn't trade my writing hobby for another career. Ciao!

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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on the art of writing, you might also enjoy another one on "Benefits of Writing" which I wrote several years ago. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.