The art of Writing

Pardon me to be your teacher for a day, this is something I have always wanted to do. I have talked to so many people about writing skills, how great writers were not born but made and how anyone can be a great writer if only they can listen to, stimulate, explore and develop that part of them that always try to find a way of expressing itself. But first, we need to understand what writing means.
Writing can be said to be an art or a way of combining words to form meaningful sentences. Writing can also be said to be 'the act or art of forming letters and characters on paper, wood, stone, or other material, for the purpose of recording the ideas which characters and words express, or of communicating them to others by visible signs'. Writing has also been defined to include 'the work of a writer; anything expressed in letters of the alphabet (especially when considered from the point of view of style and effect)'.
Therefore, writing can be said to be an act, art or a skill that is already embedded in you but until you enable and develop it, it will never be functional.

What I simply mean by this is that, Writing is not a special talent given only to selected few at birth, neither is it a gene that can be passed from one generation to another. Writing is simply an art that involves the combination of words to form not just a meaningful sentence but an interesting one. Now, the great question is 'How do you form an interesting sentence?'
The basic and most powerful trick of creating an interesting sentence is being able to connect with every single line of the event, situation or topic you are writing on. You don't have to be an eyewitness to be able to write an interesting article neither does being an eyewitness automatically guarantee you of writing an interesting article. All you need to do is focus on the event or topic you are writing on like its happening right there before your eyes, cos until you can visualise and connect with it, you can never relate, translate and pen it down in such a way that will make your readers connect with it.
Another basic trick is found in the saying that 'he who stands on the shoulder of those that went before him will see further than others'. With this saying, its clearly spelt out that you need to develop your writing skills by familiarising yourself with the writings of others, connect with the way and manner by which they construct their sentences, how they start and how they end, the kind of details they dish out in the first paragraph that makes readers want to read the whole story and also how they construct their article headlines.
Lastly, you must be articulate. This is the most tricky of them all and also the most important. You must be able to express your thoughts clearly enough for your readers to understand and connect with. Try avoiding unnecessary use of ambiguous words, avoid, unnecessary repetition and most of all, write in the language that your readers are comfortable with and finds very easy to read.
Let me take you back to the story of a famous writer who, as a little boy always sneak out in the middle of the night to send his story to a newspaper company. His stories were rejected not once nor twice but so many times yet, he never relented. He later turned out to be one of the greatest writers of all times.
One thing his story has taught me is that 'writing' is simply 'writing', confusing hun? this means 'writing an article' can be likened to 'learning how to write', that is, writing an article is simply writing the letters of the alphabet with 3 main goals in mind, these goals include;
1) To inform
2) To appeal and or
3) To make an argument
No writing is complete without having at lest one of the above goals and most writers write towards achieving at least two of the above goals.
Remember: A GREAT WRITER IS NOT BORN BUT MADE.

PS: Always take into consideration your style and motive, do not try to imitate or impersonate anyone.


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