Writer's Diary

Susuana; My Journey with the writer's

Wow, a big thank you to everyone that showed up today, your presence was well appreciated. I hope that as we start this journey on series of writing to publish workshop to enhance everyone's writing skills, that it will be a productive well spend evening for everyone.

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It was very important for us as facilitator that every participant have a good story to tell about the workshop at the end. Oh, as the day started, I was really curious about what the day is going to look like, who will turnout, how they will all feel, our expectation of the end result, my expectation as a coordinator and co facilitator. As a group this is our first writing workshop and we have a lot of expectation for everyone participating. I had the day planned, meet up with my friend Dr Livingstone Thompson leading the facilitation of the workshop, went through the plan for the evening and was happy enough. people start arriving, meet some new people, some of which i have spoken to but now was able to put a face to the voice. 

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I was hopeful and full of expectation and hoping that everyone will be happy about participating and going through the process. It was a room full of women and I wonder were the men are. In the group we have people from different background and they all start sharing their story which i believe did inspire us all. I was touch by some of the things shared, even the ones that were unspoken but express. Most people wonder if they can do it but I believe they will do it and excel their expectation each as an individual. Everyone left inspired yet am curious and I am expecting so much to be done within the five weeks we have to share together. 

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It was a fun evening for me seeing everyone's commitment and knowing that am so full of expectation, my colleague actually believe that I have too much expectation within the five weeks, I have a vision and a dream that it will be achievable. I love they story that was share fun yet inspiring.

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Some of the things shared by Dr Livingstone Thompson during the sessions, 

with the participant at the workshop as recorded by me and my knowledge of it. He said to become a successful writer you must read widely, get to know about successful authors, start with yourself by scheduling your time, work with a group that will motivate, use online resources to help in motivating you and get help by having "A writing Coach" and then get writing. Participants in this five-weeks course with us will be given an opportunity to do all the above highlighted by the facilitator! I added to it by saying that we will be each other motivator and also have a follow =on support, we will also look into being their personal coach to help them in achieving their goals along with their own starting works-in-progress, we'll look at examples of successful authors, books that some participant have read and what we think make you to become a successful writer like focusing on areas such as: how and where to start; creating your own voice; character building; handling narrative structure with the example use as illustrative by Livingstone on starting a story and building it up and leaving the readers to want more or say what an ending; and also building the reader's tension. We discuss on the work of others; it's the best way to become your own most important critic and start-up I say!

 

I spoke on the most recent book read by my which was written by Dr Livingstone Thompson  "Speaking from the Heart" this is a very interesting book that I believe everyone should read by either buying the book or download. The Book cost €14.90 and to download cost €3.13.

When you speak from our heart you don't need anything impressive and just reading a glimpse of the book touch my heart in a beautiful way, that gives me a reason for wanting more, build my tension to continue reading.

In the book he also shares extensively from his heart in the Introduction about his early years and a few issues close to his heart! For those of us that knows him that's was a rare moment!!!!! So see below a link to getting a copy of his book! This is to advise that in case you're buying the book, "Speaking from the Heart" published by Balboa Press. While the book is also available on Amazon, it is more advantageous to the author that you get your copy from the publisher. I have attach the link, friends and participant get a copy the book worth it.
http://bookstore.balboapress.com/…/Speaking-from-the-Heart.…

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This series of writing to publish workshop will help with information on "Self Publishing" It will offer a range of cost-effective self publishing services to help you in turn your manuscript into a finished book. It will link you with well establish authors on an individual basis at a "Reduce Cost", so you don’t have to pay for anything you do not require.

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Like I said today being the first session was very comprehensive, we nearly exceed the time, the 3 hours flying, and that's to show you how interesting it was and what we did put into it as facilitator 

Session Two

Again thanks to all that showed up, yes we had a visit from Kieran Maguire from Meath Chronicles in the house for a group picture and hopefully we will be featured in the local news paper with our beautiful faces and smile. Thanks to the people present and am looking forward to receiving your thought of the day for week two and I strongly assume you all had a great time at the workshop. Keep writing and try and write more, be more creative and intrigue in your next write up.

Sharing my dairies with everyone reading our blog and following the success of the writing workshop Wednesday 3rd was another great evening with our facilitators which include myself and participant. We started the evening with a clip from one of the best author here in Ireland by name Maeve Binchy. A lot to learn and I’m learning so much from the workshop. Some of the things I noted from the clip and shared by Dr Livingstone as part of the skills to note as am becoming a better writer are; Purpose of life or Philosophy of life, the application of this into my writing. We exploit the question of why should I border writing since there is a lot of people out there. He made it clear that we all have a purpose and something to share and give, which is a reason to write. Our story in life with thought share. In writing it must be structure, have an audience and a heading to capture your readers.

We exploit some of the books written by Jack Canfield, Jack also share with us some tips to guild us along the way like boosting of self esteem, lots of reading to prepare our mind and open us up, talen time away from family, friends and erasing all self doubt of if I can do it or not.

We also discuss and engage each other about what role our passion will have in writing and our it will be reflected in what we choose to write or our we write and taken the advice of Jack “A page at a time” Livingstone made it clear that writing a book could take a month, six month or a year or more but the length of passion you put into your writing will help in determine what happen, writing is life changing, it impact your life and others, and it allow you to tell a story. He also said we all have something unique about us so all we have to do is “Just start writing” The holy trinity in writing was shared; writers, character and audience, we were told of how writers needed to commit adultery, having a relationship with your audience and that our stories as a chance to define us. He also mentioned about the formula in writing “Pity; Fear; Catharsis”  I have to say I enjoy every single moment and learn a lot in the space of three hours, also the various stories and write-up shared by the participant during the session makes the day better.

We were advice by our lead facilitator Livingstone to exploit in our writing, figure out more topics and keep writing and knowing that writing is also a way of getting back to people that try to put you down.

Session Three

So far so good I believe that myself and the participant are all in a learning process and each week becomes more interesting but this session was spice up with an invitation of our Guest Speaker by name Mr.Olakunle Animashaun a friend here on the night to contribute and engage the writer's.

Kunle Animashaun is currently an assistant lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, where he is completing his PhD. He is a first class Master’s Degree graduate of the University College Dublin, UCD. His theatre company, ‘Camino Productions’ is based in Dublin. Throughout 2014, Kunle was the Artistic Director in Residence at Tallaght Community Arts. The residency was facilitated by Arts Council of Ireland, the South Dublin City Council and Rua Red. During his time at Tallaght Community Arts, he worked with many groups of people from the average age 10 years old to 70 years old. In 2013, Kunle was awarded the prestigious Samuel Beckett studentship award by Jimmy Deenihan, TD the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. He is the author of ‘Stand-up comedy in a multicultural setting: Between a raw nerve and a funny bone’ in 'For the Sake of Sanity: Doing things with humour in Irish performance' edited by: Eric Weitz, published by Carysfort Press

Kunle started the evening by encouraging the writers with his writing journey Kunle his a Play writer and has a Facebook page called love to write, Kunle talk about what writing is for him. He talk about his inspiration to write, what he writes about, his guiding principles of writing our he started his "Love to Write" Facebook Page. He also talk about being a playwright in the concept of a play director, the process of writing a play. What must be included and excluded from the onset. he share some examples of some things that he Kunle has written in the past ranging from poems, plays, newspaper articles, and online essays. He encourage the write to write and hopefully he will turn it into a play,he then share some exercises on writing a play writing and creating a character. Kunle employ all the writer's to take home one advice from his presentation , which is "Confident in their capability to present their various work to a potential publisher or coach mentor. 

The evening was engaging with the caliber of facilitators and expertise from our lead facilitator Dr Livingstone Thompson an contribution from I. The writer's in the house made the evening a fabulous night with  their readings. A very special thanks to Livingstone for capturing the fabulous evening with his technology to share the beautiful faces present, Far Left Kunle, Victor Board Member, Lanre, Klaudia Adcenter Ambassador, Susuana CEO, Rebacca, Angela A2Fashion Director, Jill and the beautiful Rose

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Our facilitator Livingstone wants us to focus this week on our audience, how to relate with them through our writing and given them reason not to drop the book as they read.

Our guest speaker was their to charm us all Kunle Animashaun share with us what writing means to him and his approach to writing. For me "Kunle":

  1. Writing is power – A powerful means to change the world.
  2. Writing inspires – Inspires me to get more from life
  3. Writing is therapeutic for me – Helps me to cope with the intricacies of life

Examples of some past works he wrote as a writer:(Click on the link and it will bring you to the story) I check myself to know what was it that gave me away”

Kunle guiding principles of writing shared with the participant (Short story)

  1. The idea – Hold on to it, Develop it
  2. Structure – Know what is good at the beginning and what will work at the end.
  3. Grammar – Be careful of using the same words, grammar over and over

As a playwright what he believe will be useful to the writer in their work which are the elements of playwriting

       A) From inspiration B) From Personal Experience - Tell Your Own Story - Writing your first play C) Exposition – Complication – Resolution

he shared with us that play must have beginning, a middle and an end. he made reference to (Early twentieth century psychologist Carl Jung talks about our dreams being like a three act play "In our dreams, there is always something we need, In a drama there is always something that the protagonist need. The protagonist will always be trying to overcome these needs and either he/she is able to achieve them (fulfilment) or not able to achieve them. If he/she is not able to achieve them, it will be due to some factors. These are the (obstacles). So the play in essence is how he/she overcomes these obstacles".

 Things to considered in writing a play

  1. What is the ‘action’ in your drama – Dramatic Action – Conflict etc.? Your play should have an action (Aristotle said, drama itself is “imitation of an action”.
  2. Beats - In the play - Like a rhythm – a continuous tap tap tap rhythm pervading the action in the play. This is what the character wants. (Beats) like a heartbeat of a human being. (John wakes up, goes to the toilet to brush his teeth…etc. (When the heart beat stops, the human is dead. So your play must have a heartbeat, something to keep the human mind enthralled, something interesting happening within the world of the play.
  3. Dialogue – Monologue - Practice how to write dialogue
  4. Character: What is this character's purpose in the story? Why is this character needed in the story?

Exercise A:

  1. Create a character and give this character a strong action. Create a visual that will embody this character's action. Then create an obstacle that will keep this character from getting what he wants. Decide how much is at stake for this character.
  2. Learning to think visually; seeing the stage as a visual area. Pick up three objects that are around you in the room and try to endow them with a major action so they will become vivid on stage visuals. Then write a brief scene that uses all three of these visuals.
  3. Take a situation that happened to you recently, or something that you remember, and turn it into a play- : - Imagine that you are a character in a play. What are your given circumstances? Who are you? What do you what? Where are you? Why are you where you are? Where is your life taking place? What is your physical life like? Be autobiographical; use the circumstances of your life.
  4. Write a short play. A man wants to drink water. Somebody told him that he must not the water. The man is thirsty. A waiter was passing by bringing water. The waiter has been instructed not to give the man water. The man wanted water at all cost. He tries very hard to get water, there is conflict. What happens next? (Maybe through the conflict, other issues become exposed – issues in the community)What are the conflict/conflicts in this play?

Exercise B:

  1. We will do some exercises like converting a short story to a dramatic script: Pick a short story and develop it into a play. Make any necessary adjustments to the story necessary to perform it on the stage such as adding information to complete the play.
  2. Take a historical event into a play. Identify a historical event, study the characters and their motivations, learn what you can about the time period, then write a play which explores this event. In the past some students have researched and written Biblical or moral plays for Your Story Hour.
  3. In the course of completing the play, you might want to go back to the scene in the first exercise and try changing the obstacles so there will be stronger things for the character to overcome. Try shifting the stakes of the character's action so they will be much greater. Write this in another scene.

Think about these scenarios:

  1. A scene with a character that faces a strong external obstacle, and show how this obstacle frustrates any major action he may try to initiate. How is the scene complicated when the character has a tragic flaw?
  2. A scene in which someone is about to jump off a cliff, and choose the stakes so this action will be seen first as tragic, then as comic.
  3. A scene about someone wants to get married, and then choose the stakes so this action will be seen first as comic, then as tragic.

What would not work?

  1. What is the main action?
  2. Undifferentiated character voices
  3. Wobbly narrative
  4. Unoriginal idea
  5. Clunky dialogue
  6. Privileging the “Big Idea” over the stories of the characters
  7. Lack of continuity
  8. Content. This one is rare, but it does happen. We reject plays with misogynistic, anti-Semitic, racist, or homophobic content. We rejected the play that was made up of scene after scene of child pornography.

 Examples to explore:

  1. A play that explores the hardships on a family when they discover the mother’s cancer diagnosis.
  2. A play that shows a family trying to make the best of a young boy’s struggles with a disease.
  3. A play about a support group for teenagers with a variety of difficult life issues.
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Session Four

Eyum Ocheola-Oki is a Writer and she was our guest on this evening, a Pastor and an Entrepreneur. She has chosen to write to inspire, inform, impact as well as entertain her audience.  She is a Columnist with the 'African Voice Newspaper', a Contributor to the 'Tallaght News' newspaper and a Blogger (her blog theme known as "MY PAIN, YOUR GAIN"). She says writing comes naturally to her and she is the published author of two books as at the time of visit:

*He Gave Me Comfort, first published in 2011 *Through the Storm published in 2014

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Session Four

This is one of my best wee, I don't understand why but I was more alive within me, the stories and write up shared was all full of passion, one of the reader's shared with us about her experience on first arriving in Ireland on how the only English she knows was "Bye" and she say's buy to everything. We also have a guest to motivate the writers with her story and reason to write with us all.

These books are available on Amazon.com through this link: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Eyum+Ocheola-Oki%27s+books or on her website: www.eyumocheolaoki.com 

  •  She is the CEO of Cute Collections Ltd, a pastor at Kingdom Gospel Centre, Tallaght-Dublin, a Conference speaker and holds an annual conference for women known as the 'Women of Dignity Conference'. Eyum holds a B.SC (HONS) Computer Science from University of Benin, Nigeria; B.SC (HONS) in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom; PG Dip. in Management from University College, Dublin and a PG Certificate in Digital Marketing from National College of Ireland; amongst others. She is married to Pastor Enoch Ocheola-Oki and their marriage is blessed with four gorgeous girls, Ochanya, Olijeh, Eyum (Jnr) and Grace.

Our facilitator Livingstone share more with us on our we should allow our stories to focus on who is our "Audience"

Susuana, Eyum and Livingstone having a moment with our humble guest

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Session Five

The last day in Kells, the last day of the first series of writing to publish workshop, it was class, an opportunity to say a big thank you , Shaunna the METB for Community Development was around, what a delight to have her in the house, a chance to say a big thank you to my co and lead facilitator Dr Livingstone Thompson  and a chance  also to all the participant. I will definitely miss everyone and everyone had a lots to say and we all say our goodbye and the three hours was not even enough to go through all the outline of the evening.

We started back again with the latest book publish by Livingstone Thompson "Speaking from the Heart" he share with the class and I have to say it took a lot of effort to get him revisit the book. This is a great book and kindly contact me if you need a copy to buy and read.The Book cost €14.90 and to download cost €3.13. click and it will take you down to the website.

We say start writing

Question: Are you thinking about writing a book, your story, share your thought, be a blogger, or just communicate through writing and you don’t know how to start?

Answer: Start today by registering to participate in this “Roadshow Series of Writing to Publish Workshop, next stop is Drogheda and starting on the 1st July – 29th July 2015. Get your write-up on to your “Memory Stick” as you join us

Write onto your memory stick You are ready to start writing your book but just need that little push to get started and some support, some direction to make it happen, a network of people join “Adcenter Writer’s Corner” Writing gives you style, sense of belonging, a voice you never had, takes you to places you never been, credibility at all places, attracts private credibly clients, enhance portfolio, change perception, adds an asset to your business proposal, add beauty, gives you a beautiful face and allow you to make history

Need Extra source of wealth

You won’t become rich immediately after writing a book but believe me you are a millionaire in the making. Writing bring income from different source through blogging, contributing to magazine, newspaper, helping to write proposal or to become an establish author is your goal or dream. Start today with us join us at the workshop to make a difference in your life.

Meet Our Writer Coach Mentor or Book Coach

Meet Susuana Olatunji Komolafe and Livingstone Thompson PHD at the Roadshow Series of Writing to Publish Workshop, contact us on adcenter25@yahoo.ie

We will work with you and progress with you with a team of network, register personally with us to become “Your Personal Coach Today” make it happen in days, weeks, months and years, it’s all by choice but we will guild you in making the best choice ever. We do hourly, short period of sessions, network and a long-time support that will nourish your wellbeing.

"How To Write A Great Book "From though to Book Shelf”  Enrol on this Roadshow Series of Writing to Publish Workshop and here we will share with you how to progress and start writing, what are the philosophy of writing, stop thinking about writing do something about it today.

  • Getting your ideas from just though to reality.
  • Answer your questions on how to publish or become a writer
  • Guide you through the writing stages, and the first step of presenting your work to a publisher.

The workshop session provides all the tools, support, network and strategies need to make writing a book possible and becoming really. The last class of our first series to writing workshop covered details of writing your own book with a video link, Livingstone talk about publishing plans and how to write an article for magazine or newspaper.

In this workshop you will be taken through step by step of making your dream as a writer comes through with a “Follow on Support” at a minimum cost:

Start with using a Memory Stick: store all your draft, write up, process in a secure storage so you don’t have to do it twice, let technology help you as you write

  • Planning
  • Researching your book
  • How to set up your manuscript
  • Drafting your book
  • Writing your book
  • The book production process and preparing materials for publishing
  • Publishing v’s Self-Publishing

Visit www.createspace.com this will help you in becoming a self-publisher but believe me you need your “Personal Coach” to guild you and make each step achievable. This pieces of information and link is priceless and I have to tell you generous from us to you.

Livingstone also educate us on proof reading and editing and how if you are within a network it will help. He talk about how you have to be read to accept critics and dealing with the reality of your work table by others, using his own personal experience. Editing and proof reading is what you do next after completing your manuscript.

It is less than €1 per day investment for you to participate in the workshop and become part of a network that could bring you unlimited opportunities which you have never dreamed of and be in a circle of educated writers to inspire you.

The workshop provide a platform and we explains everything an author needs to know to produce a book and establish his own publishing venture. Some of the video provide by our facilitator talk on step by step of setting a specific goals to accomplish your purpose and writing something new from your own passion. Writing to publish with five weeks and becoming a self publisher. Like all that was taught all know that the time you set aside will determine if this can be achievable

Week 1 – Week 5:

  • Do you want to self-publish?
  • What is your immediate goal and future goal
  • What subject area or view or story do you want to share
  • Who are your audience or area of focus
  • Decide your title, topic, theme and subtitle per page
  • Your description of cover page, image and wordings
  • Book pages, chapters and that will help in deciding price of book
  • Decide your date of publication to motivate your vision and purpose for the book
  • What is your Resource and Social media presence
  • Business system and process of marketing
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Series of Writing to Publish Workshop Drogheda 1st July 2015

1st July we started the second series of writing to publish workshop in Drogheda at about 7pm with 8 participant  and a young 5 years old aspiring writer in our midst sitting in the room space, of the beginning of a 5 weeks journey. We engage the participant to introduce self  and write about what they are passionate about or their journey of the day.

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From their various write -up, we create a discussion that focus on how it's possible to become a writer, starting with introduction of the story, background to the character, body of the story, developing new character and concluding the story.

Secondly we focus on who is their readers, how do they connect with the readers and how to keep their interest alive.

Also we ask each participant to identify what they love to write about and gave an assignment for them to develop the story the began or if at the end of the session choose to change direction.

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Writers Corner @ Boyle promoting Diaspora experience through creative writing to publish.

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Profiling Projecting Positve Image of African Caribbean in Diaspora adcenter25@yahoo.ie