Millionaire’s Digest Staff Team, Author, Successful Living and Writing Writer
1. “I have advice for people who want to write. I don’t care whether they’re 5 or 500. There are three things that are important: First, if you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. Where you just put down what you think about life, what you think about things, what you think is fair and what you think is unfair. And second, you need to read. You can’t be a writer if you’re not a reader. It’s the great writers who teach us how to write. The third thing is to write. Just write a little bit every day. Even if it’s for only half an hour — write, write, write.” ― Madeleine L’Engle
2. “Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him.” ― William Faulkner
3. “Read Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande. Then do what it says, including the tasks you think are impossible. You will particularly hate the advice to write first thing in the morning, but if you can manage it, it might well be the best thing you ever do for yourself. This book is about becoming a writer from the inside out. Many later advice manuals derive from it. You don’t really need any others, though if you want to boost your confidence, “how to” books seldom do any harm. You can kick-start a whole book with some little writing exercise.” ― Hilary Mantel
4. “Start telling the stories that only you can tell, because there’ll always be better writers than you and there’ll always be smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that – but you are the only you.” ― Neil Gaiman
5. “Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. When you’re conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader. He or she will recognize his or her life and truth in what you say, in the pictures you have painted, and this decreases the terrible sense of isolation that we have all had too much of.” ― Anne Lamott
6. “I am always chilled and astonished by the would-be writers who ask me for advice and admit, quite blithely, that they “don’t have time to read.” This is like a guy starting up Mount Everest saying that he didn’t have time to buy any rope or pitons.” ― Stephen King
7. “You either have to write or you shouldn’t be writing. That’s all.” ― Joss Whedon
8. “Advice to young writers who want to get ahead without any annoying delays: don’t write about Man, write about a man.” ― E.B. White
9. “Write. Start writing today. Start writing right now. Don’t write it right, just write it –and then make it right later. Give yourself the mental freedom to enjoy the process, because the process of writing is a long one. Be wary of “writing rules” and advice. Do it your way.” ― Tara Moss
10. “Notice how many of the Olympic athletes effusively thanked their mothers for their success? “She drove me to my practice at four in the morning,” etc. Writing is not figure skating or skiing. Your mother will not make you a writer. My advice to any young person who wants to write is: leave home.” ― Paul Theroux
11. “It’s a great lesson about not being too precious about your writing. You have to try your hardest to be at the top of your game and improve every joke you can until the last possible second, and then you have to let it go. You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it…You have to let people see what you wrote.” ― Tina Fey
12. “Be daring, take on anything. Don’t labor over little cameo works in which every word is to be perfect. Technique holds a reader from sentence to sentence, but only content will stay in his mind.” ― Joyce Carol Oates
13. “First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.” ― Kurt Vonnegut
14. “To all the talented young men who wander about feeling that there is nothing in the world for them to do, I should say: ‘Give up trying to write, and, instead, try not to write. Go out into the world; become a pirate, a king in Borneo, a labourer in Soviet Russia; give yourself an existence in which the satisfaction of elementary physical needs will occupy almost all your energies.’ I do not recommend this course of action to everyone, but only to those who suffer from the disease which Mr Krutch diagnoses. I believe that, after some years of such an existence, the ex-intellectual will find that in spite of is efforts he can no longer refrain from writing, and when this time comes his writing will not seem to him futile.” ― Bertrand Russell
15. “Writing a book is a bit like surfing . . . Most of the time you’re waiting. And it’s quite pleasant, sitting in the water waiting. But you are expecting that the result of a storm over the horizon, in another time zone, usually, days old, will radiate out in the form of waves. And eventually, when they show up, you turn around and ride that energy to the shore. It’s a lovely thing, feeling that momentum. If you’re lucky, it’s also about grace. As a writer, you roll up to the desk every day, and then you sit there, waiting, in the hope that something will come over the horizon. And then you turn around and ride it, in the form of a story.” ― Tim Winton
16. “Advice to young writers? Always the same advice: learn to trust our own judgment, learn inner independence, learn to trust that time will sort the good from the bad – including your own bad.” ― Doris Lessing
17. “My advice for aspiring writers is go to New York. And if you can’t go to New York, go to the place that represents New York to you, where the standards for writing are high, there are other people who share your dreams, and where you can talk, talk, talk about your interests. Writing books begins in talking about it, like most human projects, and in being close to those who have already done what you propose to do.” ― Walter Kirn
18. “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.” ― Maya Angelou
19. “If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories — science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.” ― Ray Bradbury
20. “Whenever I’m asked what advice I have for young writers, I always say that the first thing is to read, and to read a lot. The second thing is to write. And the third thing, which I think is absolutely vital, is to tell stories and listen closely to the stories you’re being told.” ― John Green
21. “Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die.” ― Anne Enright
22. “On writing, my advice is the same to all. If you want to be a writer, write. Write and write and write. If you stop, start again. Save everything that you write. If you feel blocked, write through it until you feel your creative juices flowing again. Write. Writing is what makes a writer, nothing more and nothing less. — Ignore critics. Critics are a dime a dozen. Anybody can be a critic. Writers are priceless. —- Go where the pleasure is in your writing. Go where the pain is. Write the book you would like to read. Write the book you have been trying to find but have not found. But write. And remember, there are no rules for our profession. Ignore rules. Ignore what I say here if it doesn’t help you. Do it your own way. — Every writer knows fear and discouragement. Just write. — The world is crying for new writing. It is crying for fresh and original voices and new characters and new stories. If you won’t write the classics of tomorrow, well, we will not have any. Good luck.” ― Anne Rice
23. “If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.” ― Dorothy Parker
Article Credits: Amber M.
Millionaire’s Digest Staff Team, Author
(For Writing, Book, Journal Bloggers & More)
HO Patnengii Services | Teacher | #TheSDGClub Convener | Activist | Writer | #TeachSDGs #LeaveNoOneBehind Global Citizen | Program Officer isped.org.ng
Tuesday 23 August 2016
23 Tips from Famous Writers for New and Emerging Authors
Millionaire’s Digest Staff Team, Author, Successful Living and Writing Writer
1. “I have advice for people who want to write. I don’t care whether they’re 5 or 500. There are three things that are important: First, if you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. Where you just put down what you think about life, what you think about things, what you think is fair and what you think is unfair. And second, you need to read. You can’t be a writer if you’re not a reader. It’s the great writers who teach us how to write. The third thing is to write. Just write a little bit every day. Even if it’s for only half an hour — write, write, write.” ― Madeleine L’Engle
2. “Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him.” ― William Faulkner
3. “Read Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande. Then do what it says, including the tasks you think are impossible. You will particularly hate the advice to write first thing in the morning, but if you can manage it, it might well be the best thing you ever do for yourself. This book is about becoming a writer from the inside out. Many later advice manuals derive from it. You don’t really need any others, though if you want to boost your confidence, “how to” books seldom do any harm. You can kick-start a whole book with some little writing exercise.” ― Hilary Mantel
4. “Start telling the stories that only you can tell, because there’ll always be better writers than you and there’ll always be smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that – but you are the only you.” ― Neil Gaiman
5. “Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. When you’re conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader. He or she will recognize his or her life and truth in what you say, in the pictures you have painted, and this decreases the terrible sense of isolation that we have all had too much of.” ― Anne Lamott
6. “I am always chilled and astonished by the would-be writers who ask me for advice and admit, quite blithely, that they “don’t have time to read.” This is like a guy starting up Mount Everest saying that he didn’t have time to buy any rope or pitons.” ― Stephen King
7. “You either have to write or you shouldn’t be writing. That’s all.” ― Joss Whedon
8. “Advice to young writers who want to get ahead without any annoying delays: don’t write about Man, write about a man.” ― E.B. White
9. “Write. Start writing today. Start writing right now. Don’t write it right, just write it –and then make it right later. Give yourself the mental freedom to enjoy the process, because the process of writing is a long one. Be wary of “writing rules” and advice. Do it your way.” ― Tara Moss
10. “Notice how many of the Olympic athletes effusively thanked their mothers for their success? “She drove me to my practice at four in the morning,” etc. Writing is not figure skating or skiing. Your mother will not make you a writer. My advice to any young person who wants to write is: leave home.” ― Paul Theroux
11. “It’s a great lesson about not being too precious about your writing. You have to try your hardest to be at the top of your game and improve every joke you can until the last possible second, and then you have to let it go. You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it…You have to let people see what you wrote.” ― Tina Fey
12. “Be daring, take on anything. Don’t labor over little cameo works in which every word is to be perfect. Technique holds a reader from sentence to sentence, but only content will stay in his mind.” ― Joyce Carol Oates
13. “First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.” ― Kurt Vonnegut
14. “To all the talented young men who wander about feeling that there is nothing in the world for them to do, I should say: ‘Give up trying to write, and, instead, try not to write. Go out into the world; become a pirate, a king in Borneo, a labourer in Soviet Russia; give yourself an existence in which the satisfaction of elementary physical needs will occupy almost all your energies.’ I do not recommend this course of action to everyone, but only to those who suffer from the disease which Mr Krutch diagnoses. I believe that, after some years of such an existence, the ex-intellectual will find that in spite of is efforts he can no longer refrain from writing, and when this time comes his writing will not seem to him futile.” ― Bertrand Russell
15. “Writing a book is a bit like surfing . . . Most of the time you’re waiting. And it’s quite pleasant, sitting in the water waiting. But you are expecting that the result of a storm over the horizon, in another time zone, usually, days old, will radiate out in the form of waves. And eventually, when they show up, you turn around and ride that energy to the shore. It’s a lovely thing, feeling that momentum. If you’re lucky, it’s also about grace. As a writer, you roll up to the desk every day, and then you sit there, waiting, in the hope that something will come over the horizon. And then you turn around and ride it, in the form of a story.” ― Tim Winton
16. “Advice to young writers? Always the same advice: learn to trust our own judgment, learn inner independence, learn to trust that time will sort the good from the bad – including your own bad.” ― Doris Lessing
17. “My advice for aspiring writers is go to New York. And if you can’t go to New York, go to the place that represents New York to you, where the standards for writing are high, there are other people who share your dreams, and where you can talk, talk, talk about your interests. Writing books begins in talking about it, like most human projects, and in being close to those who have already done what you propose to do.” ― Walter Kirn
18. “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.” ― Maya Angelou
19. “If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories — science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.” ― Ray Bradbury
20. “Whenever I’m asked what advice I have for young writers, I always say that the first thing is to read, and to read a lot. The second thing is to write. And the third thing, which I think is absolutely vital, is to tell stories and listen closely to the stories you’re being told.” ― John Green
21. “Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die.” ― Anne Enright
22. “On writing, my advice is the same to all. If you want to be a writer, write. Write and write and write. If you stop, start again. Save everything that you write. If you feel blocked, write through it until you feel your creative juices flowing again. Write. Writing is what makes a writer, nothing more and nothing less. — Ignore critics. Critics are a dime a dozen. Anybody can be a critic. Writers are priceless. —- Go where the pleasure is in your writing. Go where the pain is. Write the book you would like to read. Write the book you have been trying to find but have not found. But write. And remember, there are no rules for our profession. Ignore rules. Ignore what I say here if it doesn’t help you. Do it your own way. — Every writer knows fear and discouragement. Just write. — The world is crying for new writing. It is crying for fresh and original voices and new characters and new stories. If you won’t write the classics of tomorrow, well, we will not have any. Good luck.” ― Anne Rice
23. “If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.” ― Dorothy Parker
Article Credits: Amber M.
Millionaire’s Digest Staff Team, Author
(For Writing, Book, Journal Bloggers & More)
Why So Many People Dream of Writing a Book By Laura Caroll
Bismarck Orji: Atiku, APC and the RESTRUCTURING Debate
and some Ohaneze Youth leaders at his Asokoro residence, the question on everyone’s lips was whether he meant R-E-S-T-R-U-C-T-U-R-I-N-G. He had recently at a book launch declared his support for restructuring Nigeria.
According to him, that was the only way forward for the country in the light of the Biafran agitation and renewed militancy in the Niger Delta. It was borne out of the belief by many Nigerians that the Turakin Adamawa was either merely playing to the gallery so as to be in the news or voicing out his discontentment with Buhari’s Government. This was owing to the “Atiku Myth”. Since the return to civil rule in 1999, perhaps, no other Nigerian has exhibited so much understanding and control over the levers that power the Nigerian polity like Atiku. As such, whatever he says or does is bound to be scrutinized with political prisms. According to the myth, at the height of his political trajectory, in the build up to the 2003 presidential election, his boss President Obasanjo had to go on his knees to plead with him to make the PDP Governors who had overwhelmingly declared support for him (Atiku) to switch their support to Obasanjo thereby paving the way for his re-election.
Yet, on that fateful evening at Asokoro, he pleasantly surprised the Igbo leaders present by stating that he, Atiku meant Restructuring. In fact, he stated that he had always believed in the necessity of restructuring Nigeria. Also, he stated that as far back as 1999, before he was sworn in as Nigeria’s Number 2 Citizen, at an International oil and gas conference in the US, he had stated his support for the privatization of the NNPC. He said President Obasanjo took exception to that statement then but confessed just months ago that one of his regrets was not privatizing NNPC while in office as president.
Most importantly, Atiku boldly stated that the present structure has not favoured the North, a truth which no other Northern leader has had the courage to speak. Certainly, the North as a region under Ahmadu Bello was more productive than the present 19 Northern states. Today, the poverty index in the North is quite higher than in the South. Quotacracy which is an inherent aspect of the present structure has been a curse in disguise for the North. While providing them with short term local advantages, it has limited their international competitiveness. For instance, from the cut off for the 2016 entrance exam into Unity Colleges recently released, Amobi- a male pupil from Anambra has to score 137 whereas Adamu his brother from Yobe passes the same exam with a score of 2! Today, the world is a global village and Atiku has realized that the Adamu from Yobe will be grossly disadvantaged to compete for jobs at the international stage where merit is the watch word. Besides, Quotacracy in education opportunities creates a wrong impression that Northerners are less endowed intellectually. After all, Jamiu Aliyu- the Kebbi State born US based automobile designer did not get to become one of America’s foremost brains through quota but by merit. Aliko Dangote as well did not become Africa’s richest man by quota but by merit and hardwork.
Atiku’s support for restructuring Nigeria at this critical juncture in Nigeria’s political history marks him out as a statesman and a patriot. If an ambitious politician like Atiku can support the clamour for restructuring despite his presidential ambition, why should others not follow suit? By that statement which he made and which he has been defending eloquently, he has joined the ranks of Northern progressives like Bishop Hassan Kukah, Alh. Balarabe Musa, Senator Shehu Sanni, Alh. Yerima Shettima, etc who have steadily been preaching restructuring without recourse to primordial sentiments. Therefore, it is ridiculous for the ruling party- APC to try to vilify him or chide him for taking such a courageous stand. Rather, the APC as a party should borrow a leaf from her national leader- Senator Bola Tinubu who recently reiterated his support for restructuring Nigeria now. Indeed, Senator Bola Tinubu has again shown why he is regarded as one of the political fathers of modern day Nigeria. For avoidance of doubt, Senator Bola Tinubu is a man whose views on Nigeria can only be ignored by fools. He, it was that made the Buhari Presidency possible by providing not only the vehicle for the mission but also fuelling it, both ideologically and materially. Before coming into power, the APC was seen as a party of progressives owing to her support for restructuring and other progressive ideas as espoused in the party’s ideology. It will amount to dubious hypocrisy for the party to now condemn restructuring simply because it is now in power. Nigerians expect the APC National Chairman- Chief John Oyegun to break his criminal silence over the issue by speaking out. He either supports Atiku, Tinubu, Shehu Sani and other progressive elements in the party who have been bold enough to support restructuring Nigeria now or joins the opportunists who seem to have hijacked the soul of the “party of change”.
After one year in office, Buhari’s Presidency has proved one point. President Jonathan (PDP) was not the trouble with Nigeria neither is Buhari (APC) the solution to Nigeria’s trouble. The trouble with Nigeria is neither the PDP, the APC nor even APGA. Indeed, the trouble with Nigeria is Nigeria itself. An Igbo adage states that “ishi na-eshi nkakwu si ya n’okpukpu” meaning that the shrew’s stink stems from its marrow. A Yoruba Presidency did not provide the solution, an Ijaw Presidency did not, a Fulani Presidency has not and even an Igbo Presidency will not provide the solution. Religion is not also the trouble because even Bishop Hassan Kukah himself despite his established piety cannot save Nigeria as presently structured. President Buhari himself confessed that the present Nigerian political structure has failed when during his media chat on December 30, 2015 he stated that 26 out of the 36 states of the federation could not pay salaries when he assumed office. Today, after several Federal Government bailouts the situation has become worse with some State Governments now asking workers to accept half salary.
That we are talking about Nigeria as a country today is because of the uncommon patriotism exhibited by President Jonathan by conceding defeat despite glaring irregularities in last year’s presidential election. However, the Buhari Presidency has been more divisive than any other Government in Nigeria since independence. For instance, this is the first time since return to civil rule in 1999 that Ndigbo have been shut out of the 11 man National Security Council comprising service chiefs and heads of other security agencies. Today, no Igbo is a service chief or heads any security agency! Even IBB and Abacha never treated Ndigbo so badly. That in itself is a time bomb. How can Buhari ask Ndigbo not to wish for and even die for Biafra when he has officially shown that their security is not guaranteed by his government? That is why Atiku has the blessings of Ndigbo for stating that the only thing that can assuage the ongoing agitation for Biafra is to restructure Nigeria. Whosoever wants to be a friend of Ndigbo must condemn the ongoing deliberate attempt to push Ndigbo into war. For avoidance of doubt, the Igbo is a global brand. Just like the Yorubas, they constitute a big percentage of blacks in the Diaspora and are indigenous to such countries as Haiti, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Trinidad& Tobago, etc. From DNA evidence, at least 45% of Afro Americans are of Igbo ancestry and the Igbo is the African tribe that contributed most to the making of the Unites States of America. That was why the US Government set up the Igbo Farm Village Museum in Staunton, Virginia in 2009. As such, America cannot for long look aside while Ndigbo are being grinded into the ground.
Based on the foregoing and as well considering Buhari’s body language, it bespeaks irresponsibility for any politician regardless of his/her party or tribe to be talking about political permutations for 2019 when Nigeria is about to implode! A statesman is one who sacrifices his personal interest in order to safeguard the state. Therefore, it is time for Nigerian political leaders to rise and join Atiku, Tinubu and other concerned Nigerians in salvaging Nigeria. The leadership of the National Assembly, the State Governors and members of the Federal Executive Council must all speak out now! As such, the Ondo State Government is being commended for having officially supported restructuring.
Also, Senator Ike Ekweremadu’s letter to the international community is commendable as such letters will help to bring international pressure on President Buhari to do the needful. The needful is to restructure Nigeria with the present 6 zonal structure as federating units. That way, the 3 major tribes will have 3 zones and the minorities will equally have 3 zones. That way, the separatists such as IPOB, MASSOB and Niger Delta Avengers may have a rethink. Indeed, the 6 Zonal structure remains Abacha’s best legacy since it was enshrined in the Abacha Constitution.
Finally, Alh. Atiku Abubakar deserves commendation for opening a new chapter in the ongoing national discourse on Nigeria’s structure. According to another Igbo adage, “nwoke luchaa ogu, nwanyi enwere akuko” meaning when men finish the battle, women will start telling the story. Therefore, it is time for Nigerian elder statesmen such as Shehu Shagari, IBB, Obasanjo, Ekwueme, Tanko Yakassai, Ndubuisi Kanu, Emeka Anyaoku, Edward Clark, Soyinka, etc to shout in unison as elders so as to jolt our dear president to reality and draw Nigeria back from this looming precipice.
Mazi Ikechukwu Bismarck Oji (B.Eng.)
Engineer, Poet, Political Activist
Former National Chairman, Ohaneze Youth Wing
brandbismarck@gmail.com
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