On Writing

THE THING ABOUT WRITING

I don’t know when I began writing because it was just another way for me to speak my mind, and I like doing that a lot.

I think it was on Facebook.

I have always been one who always had a lot of things to say, and when I start speaking, there will be someone saying, “You should write a book.”

I always laughed them off.

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To me, I was simply emptying my head and mind, it was no big deal. Then I joined Facebook and got over that phase where we felt it was cool to write lyk dis, bcos we flt we savd tym n evry1 ws doin it.

That was tough!

So after getting over that phase, I started sharing my thoughts in clear manner.

Thoughts from my devotion, thoughts from my observation (there are many of those), thoughts from a book I read, and
then some thoughts which I have no idea where they came from (these get me scared sometimes).

The last two set of thoughts played a huge role in my decision to write fiction.

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Prior to 2014, I had not written fiction, at least nothing serious. But things changed that year.
I was having issues with school, and I realized I had to stay back for about a year and rewrite exams.

This meant many things; I failed, I will waste more time, and I will experience the true meaning of lack. Going through school was not easy, as money was hard to come by, but with an extra year I was sure there was little my elder brother, who paid my fees, could do.

He had just started his own family, and I even had to seek for the rest of my fees myself the previous year.
I was in deep trouble.

So I looked around and I asked a blog if I could write for them. That was one of my bravest moment in life, not because it was dangerous – the worst they could have said was ‘no’ – but because I was not even sure I could even write fiction, but
I knew that I could do what I read on their platform.

So they agreed and slowly I called myself a writer.

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INTERLUDE

I will like to share. If I get enough ‘yes’, up to five, I’d share my first fiction. It’s over twenty episodes, and I hold it dear to my heart. It is called Healing Mercy. Maybe you could tell me how far I have come.

If I share, it will come after the current series I am running, Broken Bodies.

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The thing about discovering writing or writing discovering you, as opposed to studying it in school, is that you sometimes feel a lack of confidence. To those who know, confidence is everything, and so I seek ways to improve and get validation. You can imagine my glee when I saw this…

Look What I found

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So, @warpedpoetic once insinuated that music was his muse. I told him I had no muse, and he asked me what makes me write.

I told him words and ideas, and so he gave me two words, Broken Bodies. That is the genesis of the Horror story.

The other day, he told me he hadn’t written for the day. I told him I hadn’t written for days. He asked me why, I said no power and no drive.

Then he asked me, “Why do you write?”

I told him I write because I don’t know what else to do, and then he said I should write about why I write.

SO WHY DO I WRITE

I write because I don’t know what else to do.

I found the gift, and I can’t get away from it. It’s like a love that won’t let me go.

I write because I have something that has to be said, or else it chokes me.

I write because I feel lost when I am not writing.

I write because I am a writer.

I don’t write to dispel anger, even though I do some of my best works when angry.

I don’t write to share sadness, even though some great works are done from depths of sadness.

Sometimes I write because it is a challenge.

Sometimes I write to make money.

Sometimes I just write because I just don’t know what else to do!

Writing is a part of my life which doesn’t need a reason to be. It just is.

The real question should have been why I write what I write, because I write different things, I simply love words and their part in communication.

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I write fiction, I write nonfiction, I write about the Bible, I write from the Bible, I write motivational posts, and I recently began trying my hands in poetry… I simply write.

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So here it is @warpedpoetic.
I write because I have to.

Djoi Writes