Several years ago as an undergraduate, we were to have the rare privilege of hosting the renowned writer Chinua Achebe on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his publication of Things Fall Apart. It was an anticlimax. Chinua Achebe never did showed up. I learned later that he had been in the University of Lagos several days earlier so was unable to honour our invitation. Most students suddenly developed tails making it difficult for them to sit down once it was clear that Prof. Achebe would not be coming. The university auditorium which had been once packed to capacity quickly became almost empty.
As we expressed our frustration once outside the auditorium, I began to challenge my peers. "I wonder why we are celebrating 50 years of China's Things Fall Apart instead of mourning why in 50 years since that book, no one has written Things Fall in place!" It was a statement I almost regretted making. Ignorant indeed I was at the time, I have since read many great authors of contemporary times like Chimamanda Adichie and the likes. But i was yet to discover for myself at the time that the intellectual laziness was both on the side of the writers and more so, on the side of readers.
But why don't more people write and publish master pieces today? This is frustrating if we accept that China Achebe and Wole Soyinka were not just contemporaries but course mates! Both became literary Juggernauts. Today, the story is depressing.
But writing is not as easy as it looks. Even after we feel we have written a masterpiece, there are three sides to the story. 1. There is a book we thought we have written. 2. There is a book others think we have written (come in critics!) 3. And there is the book we truly have written. Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer was predicted to be a disaster at a time when sentimental and religious writings was choking creativity. The critics were wrong. It was a smashing success!
So my feeling is that writing should be natural.Express your thoughts colourfully albeit naturally. Forget about the money. If you have it in you, people will come to value what you do or have done. That way, it is a win-win situation. First, you enjoy what you do and you get paid for it too.
Creative writing is best done when our senses are relaxed. Just like swimming, don't struggle. Rest on the elements (water) and trust it to carry you!
