Tips to becoming (a Good) Writer

I want to dedicate today's time to answering one of the questions colleagues on both social media and in my community frequently pose to me: how can one become a good writer?
Most times I would dodge the question and switch the discuss to other things. That's because I wouldn't want to assume authoritative or expatriate knowledge of the art of writing. I tell myself I am still struggling to know the art.
But guess what, I would be a  fool to think that a true writer is someone who must have mastered a subject or a topic of discussion. After reading a passage from Furey Robert J.'s "So I'm Not Perfect"(1986) where he did mention about a time in life when he encountered psychologist Dr. Rollo May in a public lecture in St.  Louis, just like Dr. Furey, my writer's block crumbled. After his lecture, Dr. Rollo took his time to entertain  questions from the audience. One question from a young man about anxiety would however have Dr. Rollo pause for a short while before he could deliberate on it. He finished the deliberation with an unexpected declaration (well perhaps unexpected declaration to many begining writers like myself) that there were certain aspects of the issue that still puzzled him. The young man protested, "But you wrote a book about this!"....Dr. Rollo would relax for longer while this time before he could finally argue that: "A man does not write a book when he knows something. He writes a book when he is struggling with something" (Furey, 1986 p. xi).

It's so I would take to introduce us to today's topic of discussion proper. For this, I would like to contextualize everything I say here with my experience as an amateur writer.

1. The Voracious Reader

It was after my narrow escape to pass promotional examinations to class eleven that I realized I was lagging behind. I would ask myself where did it go wrong. One day I sought a counseling from my high school English Literature teacher who advised me to start reading any book I could lay hand(s) on, but especially Literature books. He said literature books will help heal not just my ineptness in the art of reading and understanding, but also help introduce me to characters I can relate to in whatever circumstance(s) I find myself. Thereon I started buying books from street vendors. I could buy and read books that did not pertain my school curriculum (not abandoning the school syllabus). I would end up falling in love with Poetry.
For several reasons, I would advise any would-want-to-be writer to start with Poetry. Apart from its aesthetic and puzzling nature, poetry will teach you write short but meaningful sentences-- that's a good way to start writing.
Reading voraciously will make you start questioning the many things you used to know; provoke you to search for knowledge; and surely humble you to become teachable. You will start realizing you dobnot know everythings; you were/are not right all the time; and most importantly, it will provoke you to start writing down important points. Notice the order of things: realization, humility, and a sense of purpose.
I guess Dr. Rollo was telling us similar things: we don't write because we know. We write because we are struggling to know things. The struggle is marked by search of knowledge: read, travel, and focus on the small things that happen around you.

2. If you can read a passage, you surely could write a sentence

Another important step in starting a hobby (or say a career) in writing is the practicality of the art.
It was around 2010 when I started using Facebook. It was new to me, and I guess to many Sierra Leoneans considering the cost of mobile phones and (especially) internet service then in my country. But it was not until 2012 that I started decorating my Facebook wall with opinion pieces. O those were some silly and incoherent write-ups. Anytime Facebook reminds me of them, I would just smilingly choose to press the "hide, don't show" button. Not that I seem them useless, contrary to that, I regard those reminders as  motivation to do better. They expose my mistakes year(s) ago. They show me how far I have come in this. And I take note of the progress and work harder to give my better.
You should start with a sentence a day. Provoke discussions on burning issues by making a short statement (a sentence or two) of your opinion on trending issues. Note: people will attempt to cry you down. They will tell you to go back to school and learn to write. They will basically give you the best advice you need for self motivation. Take note of what they tell you, but don't stop your naive posts. Keep writing and editing your pieces for a better outcome. Gradually you will notice changes. You will see how far you have come. Do not let those criticisms to get at you (negatively). Accept you are never perfect, but you have something to say and a career to build. Also, sometimes no one will read your lines or like your post. Don't let that stop you from writing a sentence or two a day. Someday, somehow your post will make sense to few persons who will start critiquing.

3. Search and Follow up with mentors

Everyone needs mentoring. A mentor is someone you consider examplary, admirable, and exceptionally gifted in any field or career you are interested in; and they could be anyone (other than yourself) with the experience and expertise.
The internet, and to a very larger extent, social Media have made things a lot easier to interact with people you never could have got the chance to see or interact with in your life. Before now, most people could only see or hear and interact with writers through radio discussion or TV programmes, or when the writers are in their region or area to sell their new publications. Today (however) you can be anywhere around the world and connect with any writer or activist from across the world and learn about their moves and skills by simply following them on Facebook or other social media platforms. Some will even gift you their books.
For me, I will not hesitate to say my use of Facebook helped greatly in shaping my writing skills. I follow-up with almost every major news broadcasting institutions/organizations. I search for authors and activists and follow them to learn their skills and moves. I am able to take from them many writing and analytical skills. Facebook is full of good writers and thinkers. You can improve your skills by simply making judicious use of your time on Facebook. Click follow them.
Many of us today do not use our social media platforms to promote our career (dream) nor to learn or transfer knowledge, rather we use it to spur disorder and violence, which is wrong. Use it to build or promote your career and/ or business.

4. Good, better, best, never let it rest until the good is better, and the better is the best.

One bad mistake anyone would make is to assume that they have perfected their skill(s). But worst still are those who would underestimate themselves.
It was some weeks ago I read a piece on intellectual humility shared by a friend. The central lesson is that we should learn to accept that we could not always be correct. You cannot be an all sufficient fountain of knowledge. Nor can you be completely correct on all matters. You should allow for criticism and dissenting views for they will inspire your next piece of writing. Even if your piece is informed by research, it will not capture everything. Hence, let their be room for dissent views on any piece you write. Make your defence when you find them incoherent, but don't drive away your critical followers.
Another thing to also note is, your best is yet to come. Keep exploring. A curious mind is one unique attribute of writers. There is an anonymous (to me) saying that: to fill your cup, you must first empty it. How do you empty your cup? Speak less and listen more. Be curious and learnable. And most importantly, don't rest your pen just yet. Keep writing naively. Someday in the future you shall open to read these words and pieces and smile to yourself for the simple fact that: you have come a long way to this point. A point you always doubted you would ever reach.

And now for a closing statement I say to you that is reading this piece, do not underestimate yourself; and don't allow others low appraisals of you bring you down. Knowledge and intelligence is something we all aquire at different points in life. Some would prove to be intelligent right from their elementary level earning their teachers respect. Others would catch up at a later stage in their educational pursuit. But many of us would have to catch-up later after high school or (even) after university. Meanwhile, no matter the case, just know  that with perseverance we can all develop and become smart.
#Be_A_Curious_Mind

©Amadu Wurie Jalloh
® Students Analysts and Writers Network
®The Emmanuel Ivorgba Foundation

The three fundamental principles of solid waste management otherwise called the three Rs: 1. Reduce the use of it; 2. Reuse it in any case you've got to use it; and 3. Recycle it once you are over with it...
They all complement each other. Reduce the use of plastics by reusing the once you already may have, and recycle (transform it into something usable again-- it could be for another purpose other than its original intended design) the few you have to help make the environment more sustainable.

What About Our Youths and The Future?

In my city: Makeni (to be precise), in almost every corner you pass you will notice youths in small kiosks fashioning wearable shoes, amulets, shirts, household utensils, and tags from animal skin or some plastic (runner) or metal and aluminum scraps/waste society dumps in their gutters or street. Our wastes are generating wealth for both Economic, social and Environmental sustainability.
We have a lot to learn from some of these petty businesses if we are serious about economic diversification. The business of recycling waste and mitigating environmental damage is a futuristic (prospective) gain we should embark upon as African states.
If we want to promote Local Content Policy we may perhaps need to start with localizing our education design to a larg(er) extent to inculcate some of these skills into our curriculum design for high school pupils. We need to equip them with these ideas earlier in their lives, I believe as they move on/forward with their educational pursuit they can transform or compund the knowledge and skills gained (in)to creat(ing) business opportunities that will stimulate growth (entrepreneurship).

Another step to help promote these businesses could be the award of prices to some of the skilled (Craftsmen) in these businesses to help expand their businesses to make them more competitive and popular.  Budget allocation to waste management should consider these types of businesses. They should encourage them to thrive so to boost reuse and recycling of waste in our communities. Grants and scholarships opportunities or fellowship opportunities to exchange ideas or impact more knowledge for these types of businesses should be made popular in order to maintain and strengthen their competitiveness in the market. Create the opportunity for them to travel and learn from the experience of similar businesses. They can adapt those skills and technologies into theirs to compete...

And most importantly, encourage local businesses to buy and sell their products. This is particularly the case for those in plastic-waste-brick manufacturing. Government should encourage bidders to use bricks or tiles made from these people in facilities they construct for them. We should encourage big businesses and influencial persons to use these recycled-plastic-bricks in their homes to make them fashionable in order to promote these businesses. Once the demand for them is high, more people will invest in the sector.

Meanwhile, we should also not forget to advance the knowledge and skills on/to reuse. For instance, I have observe that those melting plastics for reuse or brick manufacturing also mostly rely on fossil fuel or coals to melt them. This can also create adverse effect on the environment; it can cause pollution and carbon monoxide emission....
We should advance studies on local technologies to make them more sustainable or climate friendly. But that again 's the more reason we should teach the skills to the younger generation. As they move on in life, they will device techniques or technologies to reduce their environmental effect and of course rebrand them to more advance methods or results.
#Think_Sustainability
©Amadu Wurie Jalloh
®SAWN & The Emmanuel Ivorgba Foundation

LOVE

Like the sun:
Would rise piercing softly through the walls of darkness that had hung over our heads
Through out those chilly nights
Radiating forth its splendid twilight;
Love would rekindle our lost hope
After someone thought our hearts to broke
And while on our knees in the dark we grope
To reinstate our shattered selves:
Love from the depth of hopelessness
Will spring forth galloping In might
Commanding a battalion of knights
To repel the lies they told;
To shield us from the enflamed spears of hate thrown at us;
And guide us through the emboldened gate of bravery
Under the protection of a mightier ruler we could trust:
Oneself

©Amadu Wurie Jalloh
®SAWN

Photo credit: Iyanone

To Julia
I have come to discover thee, Julia,
At a time when the air was frigid
And the music in hearts: soft and timid;
A sad beginning and a happy ending in stria.

I have come to discover thy hair
Like an enchanted cohort
On guard along the Congo with robes sewn with the secrets creeping from whispers of the night.
Thy face upon which every tale ensnare.

Thy breast, the mysterious pyramid
Where every Pharaoh yearns to rest enblamed.
Thy navel a circular-moon with its silver looks to glow the night.
Thy waist

Aye, to me the book of wisdom lost to fools;
Thy feet upon thy ankles the batons of kings
In the rising kingdoms in time not aloof.
Aye, I have come to discover thy glowing blackness in Africa rising.

As Written by: Amadu Wurie Jalloh
(SAWN archives)

Time

From the dark chambers of uncertainty
We were given a sudden pull to consciousness
By an inpatient and irreversible lone traveller
To be driven across a boulevard of hope;
Just so we can conceive fear and its ever more harsh and coercive growl.

Time, that one thing that lures us into the uncertain future
Pulling us by the string of curiosity tied around our ego.
To reinstate us into obliviousness.

Time has no purpose but to instill hope and fear.
And Life is but just a spark of hope that travels in the speed of fear
Soon to shatter and dissapear into pieces of nothingness.
©Amadu Wurie Jalloh
Photo credit: Santiago Caruso

The Plight of the Girl-Pupil: Could Menstrual Period Be a Possible Explanation to High Dropout Rate among Girl-pupils?

By Amadu (Wurie) Jalloh

Excerpt:
"Hundreds of parents have mounted furious protests against a school after a girl killed herself for being shamed over having her period, it has been reported.
The 14-year-old Kenyan schoolgirl hanged herself at home after alleged being humiliated in front of her class.
Her mother said a teacher had called her 'dirty' for soiling her uniform and ordered her to leave the class in Kabiangek, west of the capital Nairobi.
'She had nothing to use as a pad. When the blood stained her clothes, she was told to leave the classroom and stand outside,' the mother was quoted as saying in Kenyan media."
Source: William Cole for Mailonline, 12 September, 2019 (sourced 12 September, 2019 at 13:38)

Meanwhile, did you know that the Common Wealth Secretariat (2012) reported that 1.8 million lives would be saved annually if all girls in Africa attained secondary school education with an increase in earning capacity of 10-20percent for girls and women in every extra year of education?
According to the School Census Report 2010/2011, Girl-pupils account for 48% of all school going children in Sierra Leone (cited by GoSL, 2013-2018 Agenda for Prosperity, p. 138). The number is, nonetheless, feared to decline drastically at every level further up as girls' net attendance across secondary schools averaged 33% compared to their counterparts (boy-pupils) with 40% in 2010; and more worrisome is the report that statistical evidence in 2004/05 academic year revealed that only 17% of Girl-pupils could complete senior secondary education compared to 35% for boy-pupils.

Now to my concern:

Sad and unfortunate incident. My heartfelt condolence to the family of the teen girl that couldn't stand the bully of a teacher, and decided to hang herself to death. If true, i would recommend his immediate expulsion, and of course policy actions that would give support to the girl-child in school.

In 2017, whilst assisting a student in her final year thesis project as an enumerator collecting primary data from respondents, chiefly Girl-pupils, I had a one-on-one interview with a Girl-pupil asking her to list frequent (possible) excuses for absenting from school. Whilst I was eagerly waiting to hear something related to Household chores or abuse when she surprisingly mentioned PERIOD.

*How Could Period Be A Possible Explanation?*

For a half-second, I wanted to dodge that subject (as the research variables did not extend to that), but I had a hunch that I should ask her about how that could be the case. By now I was curious, I had never thought of that as a barrier to their education.
She deliberated that she wouldn't attend school sometimes when on her period, especially if she has no menstrual pad or perfume to wear because she was attending dual-sex school; and most importantly so because she shares chair with a boy-pupil whom she feared would either bully her or be discomforted when not with a high quality-pad or not wearing perfume.
She further elaborated that sometimes the menstrual pain itself will stop her from attending, hence unintentionally missing class.

It's unfortunate that I could not convince the researcher to feature that finding into her final thesis report, her proposal had been approved with a defined scope and variables.
Albeit that being the case, I would ever since that day discus the issue with friends who are always seemingly thrilled by the finding, too.

Few weeks ago I discussed this with a colleague who is also passionate about promoting education. He suggested we take action. Days later, he called me requesting me to join a guild of youths proposing to start an NGO addressing issues related to the girl-child, which I am presently part of now

In the meantime, I emphasise that the subject needs attention. Social Science Researchers should investigate this phenomenon and proffer possible solutions to them.
On several occasions I tell friends that most of us that have attained University education in Sierra Leone and other patriarchal communities across the world have our sisters and girl-siblings to thank for concentrating on our study and eventually excelling to higher level.
I can still remember days when waking up from sleep early in the morning I would find my sister alongside my mom doing the house chores (washing the plates, mopping the floor, and dusting the furniture) while I prepare with ease to hurry up to school. She would sometimes magically complete her chores and hurriedly join me on my way to school.

How May that Have Helped Me?
Well, come to think of it that they would have little time to rest or look at their books in the morning in bid to fulfil society's placement of them. We  sometimes have the chance to open our books and revise few lines before going to school, which opportunity they would hardly have as a result of their engagement with work. From there, they would enter the classroom tired/weak and consequently losing focus. The teachers, who mostly careless, would either jeer them up yelling at their names (that's if they are lenient with them) or whip them on their head to wake them up.
And  when those girls fail their exams, we (I mean some of us boys/men) would consider them weak and not serious. We would forget that they are mostly the ones sacrificing their time to prepare us to school and keep our homes clean and hunger free.
The battle with house chores for them sometimes even continue at school where some teachers would ask them to take charge of cleaning the classes. And when they return home, they would cook and do other works till almost one third of the night. If we could care to ask what that smoke does to their eyesight. They would wake up again first thing in the morning under the same pressure. Their eyesight could get blurry or painful sometimes as a result of the smoke from kitchen, but we would ignorantly call them lazy and dull when they complain.

The above are just a few other possible causes to their massive failure, eventually leading to the high dropout rate among them, which we have understudied as social scientists.
We cannot continue to blame *teenage pregnancy* all the time. To me, *teenage pregnancy is a dependent variable that could be related to poor parental care and neglect, poverty, lack of sexual and reproductive heath education, etc.*

Governments and their development partners should work together to address this seemingly covert issues.

Meanwhile, parents have a greater role to play. I have always insisted that our girl-child need more financial support than our boy-pupils, especially when they reach puberty age. They need more money to keep themselves in social circles as a result of society's expectations of them-- they are expected to be neat, adorable, calm and brilliant, and of course glowing, which expectations are financially and emotionally expensive (would have to search for the author of that piece).

I wouldn't also hesitate to recommend that, as part of the Free Quality Education, Government introduce first-aid care for pupils across secondary schools in Sierra Leone to address issues related to light injury and menstrual pain/period for pupils. Girl-pupils should also be given menstrual pad and deodorants after every two or three months to help keep them in school. Many girls are victims to abuse and teenage pregnancy as a result of parents neglegence to supply them with sanitary provisions periodically. Menstrual pads and deodorants are as important to a girl/woman as a book and pen are important to every pupil/student. In their bid to secure such things, many girls have fallen victims of sexual abuse and harrassment from men older than them by far.
*My Opinion*
®SAWN

I FOUND A FLOWER

I found a flower in a murky distance
At a time the sun had barely uncovered its face
From the fine silk of nocturnal semblance
Spilling its radiance across the horizon
As birds tweet to prick silence from its slumbering mute

I approached closer to demystify
This enticing figure so to ensnare the butterfly
And cause a distraction to other wandering insects and all it could amuse --
For in its fragrance they could either lie aside to squander
Or resist and yet fear to look back lest they submerge in blunder

There were more open flowers spreading their corollas
In layers -- wide and vast as though to entrap the soft dew
And fluid of a morning anew
A holy spell they should amass
To moisturize their elegant petals

Now I wouldn't dare approach this close
And stand aloof and get lost in its flare
And enthralling glare
While I a man who've observed many a doofus
Stare in trance its elegance and sheer

Beauty are distracted from its intrigue
So I stretched a hand to give a gentle
And glorifying touch to its unique
And yet delicate and flamboyant foil:
Its body as smooth as a cocoon

And moistly as the silky gown worn
By the fon in a cold night in a Cameroonian
Hamlet deep in the dewy forest
Across the mountainous plateau
Where the sparrow's song will give silence a comforting rest

I found some flowers --
Some red, some yellow, some in their budding grace
And many more in a demising and yet humble phase
I found them right on top of a spiralling string
That runs down low unto a supporting base

I found a flower and I found me too
I saw those twists from their string and they must have been strenuous and persevering too
I saw their roots running deep inside the mud and smelly filth
And I saw some butterfly and humming birds sucking their nectar fluids
Despite their stinky roots and filthy stoop -- such is what life alludes

©Amadu Wurie Jalloh
®SAWN
26/09/2019