I am Passionate about Writing

I LOVE WRITING!

Whether it is a hobby, career, family, or people, being passionate about something is an element of living consciously and deliberately and attaining a happier life.

We define ‘passion’ as a strong emotional drive, love, affection, or enthusiasm. However, I am sometimes afraid to use ‘passion’ because it carries some negative connotations. It, like an addiction, possesses an inexplicably intense and all-consuming force. However, it is not the negativity that interests me.

I am interested in passion as the energy for the spirit, and the life force of a meaningful life lived fully and freely. This energy, flows through my body and soul when I write. The compulsion to write is always present, usually strong, but sometimes weak. I always feel pressure to put words on paper regarding what I think, feel, learn, or consider.

Writing is something I do consistently, no matter my situation. It brings purpose and excitement into my life. It enables me to express a range of emotions, whether I write a children’s story, a novel, journal entries, or blog posts. When I sit down to write, feelings, thoughts and sometimes parodies flow from my mind through the pen to the paper or through the keyboard to the screen and take shape. When I finish, I exhale, and an overwhelming sense of mental fulfilment washes over me. That is what writing stirs in me.

What is your passion?

WHY I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT WRITING

Writing has evolved into my most audible voice since I am better at articulating and curating my thoughts and emotions in writing than I am in speech.

Typically, my spoken word is measured, but when I hold a pen or a keyboard in my hand, my mind and hands seem to run unfettered. I am a shy public speaker. I tend to curl up when faced with a big audience, my voice becomes shaky, and I lose my composure because I am acutely aware that a word is irretrievable once spoken.

I enjoy writing because it does not have a narrow form of articulation compared to other communication methods! Writing is not rigid. It comprises various elements, including genre, purpose, occasion, style, and setting. It is malleable, and its themes are open to interpretation in infinitely many ways.

Writing expresses and enunciates my emotions better than any other way. When I am broke and feel financially insecure, I write. When I am bored and feel as though my life is stagnant, I write. I write when I feel insignificant and unrecognised. I write when I am lonely, sad, misunderstood, or disconnected. When I want to make a difference in the world by assisting others, I write. I write volumes when I am happy, excited and feeling invincible.

Writing is an unparalleled and fascinating experience that I want to share with everyone. It is more exciting for me to see my feelings and thoughts before me in a constructed form than it is to hear them. Because of writing, I see myself as a valuable member of the world and someone with a mission and a unique gift to share. It validates my existence.

Writing is an incredibly patient partner. It allows me to make errors and correct them as I go. Writing is my way of self-correcting. It motivates me to pursue my life’s purpose and serves as a reminder of my ideals. It keeps me on track toward my life goal of happiness.

My writing began as a hobby because I enjoy experimenting with words and expanding my lexicon. However, it has developed into a means of self-expression, therapy, self-awareness, freedom, escape and distraction, creativity, learning, and a source of income to a lesser extent. How?

Therapy

Writing is therapeutic. I write when I am overwhelmed. Writing soothes me because it allows me to vent my frustration and anger in a less aggressive form. When I was ill and had no idea what to do, I started journaling. Journaling helped me sift through and process my emotions. I figured out my priorities and planned my next moves. As I wrote, my anxiety and stress decreased, and I felt better physically and mentally. Writing grants me solitude, compassion, and calm. I can exhale, use all my senses, be conscious, and be more reflective and accepting of my experiences. I am a reserved person who needs solitude to recharge, so the mental isolation I get when I write helps my overwhelmed brain relax, analyse events, and learn from them.

Escapism and Distraction

Writing is my mental escape from reality when life becomes too paradoxical to handle. I write to distract myself from the unpleasant events in the real world, useless small talk, political discussions, obliging text messages, and social media rants. I create agreeable fictitious universes. I am more intrigued by fiction than reality.

Freedom & Self-Expression

My mind can travel wherever and whenever I want when I write and still control how much air I inhale and exhale. This feeling is liberty. Writing helps me to share my views on life and people openly. It also willfully expresses my emotions, insights, and life interpretations. I can convey my thoughts, feelings, and values uninhibitedly on paper. Writing permits me to express feelings I would never state in public. It allows me to ask unpleasant questions.

When I write, I am more free and honest with myself. I find the latitude to be completely candid with myself. The honesty and openness reconnect me to previously censored parts of me. It has given me the freedom and improved my ability to articulate myself. Even if I struggle to explain myself vocally, a piece of paper and my imagination can convert anything into something eloquent.

Today, the world is very hectic, and it is easy to lose sight of your core values and the motivations behind your activities. No other platform has given me so much freedom to fully assess and comprehend my entire range of principles and emotions like writing.

Self-awareness

Self-awareness is about understanding one’s traits, behaviour, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and motives. It is the key to long-term good mental health. Writing every day helps me to achieve this. As I write, I ask myself probing questions about my experiences and encounters. The questions and answers help me comprehend my feelings, actions, values, and beliefs better. Through writing, I have learnt and understood more about myself.

Creativity

Writing, especially creative writing, allows me to exercise my brain and connect with my artistic side. I use my imagination and memory to express literary meaning through imagery and metaphor. It excites me to fill a blank screen or page with my thoughts and watch them form meaningful shapes. I feel accomplished when I have made something from nothing. Creative writing allows me to explore a broad scope of new ideas and opinions, and realms far beyond the everyday horizon. Dreams and imagination materialise when I write.

Learning

Every day, I learn something new from writing, through research for my blogs or books and from the dictionary for new vocabulary. Writing research not only allows me to analyse data and information, but it also allows me to learn about topics I have never heard about before. Regular writing improves my logical reasoning abilities. I used to worry and react emotionally to challenges, but writing them down and examining each component has taught me to think more clearly of the most effective solutions. It requires practice to communicate clearly and effectively, and daily writing helps me improve my writing skills.

‘Writing is the painting of the voice’ -Voltaire

WHY DO OTHER PEOPLE WRITE?

I know why I write. So, what motivates others to write?

Individuals write for a variety of reasons. Writing fiction or another genre is a form of self-expression for some. Others write to increase public awareness of a problem and effect change. As with Life Coaches and Counsellors, some people write to assist others in coping with difficult emotions or situations. On the other hand, others view writing as a means of propagating their lifestyles, traditions, and convictions, such as religion.

Many writers write to leave a lasting legacy by creating something that people will remember long after they have passed away. In a similar vein, many books, articles, and blogs are motivated by fame, recognition, prominence, authority, and respect, particularly as a published writer in a particular field. Certain writers, such as commercial writers, are motivated by the prospect of financial gain and lucrative writing contracts, while the liberty to work whenever and wherever is ideal for introverts and those seeking self-employment.

I commonly hear that writing is a way for someone to express his or her alter ego. Certain fictional writers create characters upon whom they can exact vengeance to reflect what the writer would wish to do to a comparable character in reality. Additionally, if one’s writing has meaning for them and others while profitable, it bolsters the adage that a well-lived life is the best form of retribution.

Others write in the hope of securing exciting new opportunities. Travel writers, for example, are frequently tasked with visiting new and exciting locations, while technical writers are occasionally charged with testing software or playing unreleased games. Brilliant books find their way to reviewers’ desks, and experts in their fields get invitations to speak at conferences and conventions in the world’s most exciting places.

MY WRITING JOURNEY

Creative writing, journaling, and blogging are my three primary modes of expression. Though each one has had a separate route, they are all inspired by various things in my life such as human nature, what I have heard, seen, or felt (emotions), the ironies and idiosyncrasies in everyday life and history, yes history! I like to examine the different possible historical outcomes had the parameters, environments, and circumstances been other.

I love to write random short notes to myself, letters to family and friends, logs for my thoughts, diaries to organise my time, social media postings, essays, stories for my books and pieces for my blog! The stationary shop is a joy. I collect notebooks and notepads in all shapes and sizes. Looking at pens and pencils in different forms and colours is my idea of a kaleidoscope reflecting beauty. I love reading other peoples’ work, so the bookshop and the library are my havens.

I have always suspected that I would be a writer since childhood because I have always enjoyed reading and listening to stories. I have always loved words and writing them on paper, a trait I inherited from my father. He wrote down new and complex terms in a small black book he kept in his bedside drawer. I would sneak into my parents’ bedroom to peek at the words and the perfect cursive writing created by ink and a fountain pen. I first saw the word ‘paradox’, which I would use in almost every sentence for the week that followed, in my father’s notebook! Learning new vocabulary seemed to give me knowledgeable dominion over my siblings. I used the new words to mesmerise them, even out of context. I revelled in their surprise and admiration. My father’s cursive writing must have piqued my interest in calligraphy.

I enjoyed listening to stories about distant places as a child. My grandmother, who was an exceptional storyteller, was the first narrator I met. She would conjure up an imaginary world for us through her folklore of Uganda’s ancient Kigezi and some of her escapades, like her flight from a deep lakesurrounded by the Twa people when she was just a preadolescent.

Her narrations, even though intuitive, contained all the significant aspects of compelling storytelling, such as character, setting, plot, conflict, theme, point-of-view, tone, and style. Above all, her stories were instructional. She encapsulated each story with moral consciousness by repeatedly asking us, “What have you learnt from this story?” She ignited my lifetime passion for storytelling and the use of my imagination to create informative narratives.

After my grandmother’s stories, I travelled the world with the works of Charles Dickens, the Bronte sisters, Mark Twain, Shakespeare, George Orwell, DH Lawrence, Jane Austen, Arthur Miller, and Josef & Karel Capek. I returned to Africa with writers like Chinua Achebe, Okot p’BiTek, James Ngugi (Ngugi wa Thiong’o), Wole Soyinka, Elechi Amadi, Ousmane Sembène, Peter Abrahams, Ferdinand Oyono, and Ayi Kwei Armah. Within the lines, chapters and books of these gifted writers and my patient and tenacious English Literature teacher, Miss Rwanyonga, I was exposed to a world of themes, opinions, discussion and expression that I had not experienced before.

Miss Rwanyonga praised my book reviews, termed them university-level standards, and gave me top marks in my English literature assignments. Her validation bolstered my dream to become a writer for the African Writer Series. The next logical step was to study English Literature at a higher level. However, life is not always logical! I was dissuaded by the most significant influences in my life at the time, saying that a future in writing would be worthless and I would end up penniless.

I put my thoughts of writing at the back of my mind and went to university to study Economics, which I least enjoyed. After university, I got too busy with friends, family, earning a reliable living, and an HR career. I got married, moved country and started a family. Writing remained a notion, a pastime, and wonder somewhere in the background.

In 1994, my life changed when we moved away from Nairobi to live in Mombasa as a young family, a place far from everything I knew. I became a stay-at-home Mum, for my daughters. Bored, I started writing my grandmother’s stories for my daughters in a notebook. This shift started my journey into creative writing.

Creative Writing

My grandmother’s storytelling influenced my decision to start in children’s literature. However, the desire to educate my daughters about Africa motivated me to publish my first two children’s books, ‘A Children’s A-Z of Africa‘ and ‘Over 100 Titbits about Africa‘. I wanted my daughters to learn an array of facts about Africa that were missing from their school syllabus.

While both children’s books were factual, my favourite part of writing is creating a world that exists inside or is entirely distinct from reality. I wanted to describe the world in ways we often do not see. I desired to infuse my writing with depth and much more from my recollections. I wanted to write about the complexity of life’s idiosyncrasies. As a result, I began writing essays. In the 1990s, two Kenyan magazines published my musings. I was overjoyed when an African-American magazine, Essence, accepted to post one of my articles.

When my girls departed for university, we relocated to Malawi, a country where I had no family or friends. I found I had far less to do and considerably more time on my hands. My prospects for a continued career in Human Resource Management had dwindled, and with it, my interest. My mind, which never ceases questioning life, generating concepts about the world, and everything else, was in overdrive. It is amazing how life changes can lead one down a forgotten road. I doubled my reading of African literature and resumed my frenetic writing. Only this time, I was writing my first novel, ‘Under the Jacaranda‘.

While it may sound simple, creative writing can be daunting. Fear of failure and lack of self-confidence riddled my novel-writing journey. To put the first sentences on paper, I had to overcome significant internal resistance. My initial chapters were mediocre and insincere since I was continually concerned about my audience’s rejection. It took an amount of self-coaching, some writing guides, and encouragement from my family to convince me to write from the heart to give my work substance.

The journey to publication was long and arduous. It required enduring numerous rejections from the publishing houses to whom I sent my work. The dismissals were incredibly painful and demoralising, and for several months, I wrote nothing and refused to read my work. However, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s book ‘The Purple Hibiscus’ reignited my embers. Her exceptional writing reminded me that everyone’s journey is unique. This time around, after editing my work, I chose to self-publish. It was the best course of action for me. Self-publishing allowed me to retain control of the message I wanted to communicate in my writing.

My creative writing path has been slow, but it continues.

Journaling

My journaling journey began with a diary! I have always kept one to help me in keeping track of appointments and deadlines. However, an autoimmune diagnosis directed me to my journaling. I found a safe space for me to vent my anxieties and disappointments, as well as a tool for me to re-evaluate my life and restart. Within a short time, I was writing about a variety of other things as well.

When I lost my younger brother about three years ago, grief dragged me into a dark, unfamiliar place. I wanted to talk about him often and spread the word about his intellect and humour. I wished the world understood his flaws as much as I did, but I was afraid of going too far, so I wrote about him in my notebook and expressed my grief over him on paper. I eventually found solace and moved on. I wrote a brief text before going to bed at night, secure in the knowledge that it would remain private and be viewed only by me. The more I wrote, the more I was able to express myself and the more I wrote.

The diary quickly became insufficient for the writing I needed. I bought my first purpose-made journal six months later and have not looked back since.

Because I write just for me, journaling has been therapeutic and has increased my self-awareness. Reading through my journals enables me to gain a better understanding of myself. I have better insight into my values, thoughts, dreams, worries, and joys and how different events trigger different emotions. I gauge my interpretations of past events and experiences and take responsibility for misinterpretations or rejections. Reading my old journals enables me to focus on what is truly important by assessing the value of my life experiences in the context of what was happening at the time.

In addition, re-reading my journals enables me to undertake more frequent life audits, ensuring that I remain conscious and deliberate in my actions. Daily writing helps me reflect on my aspirations and build a more precise, realistic vision and strategy for accomplishing them. It assists me in eliminating toxic thoughts daily. Moreover, it helps me in organising my cluttered notions into actionable plans. When situations become too complicated to handle, I rely on journaling to push me forward. Despite saying that, maintaining a journal can be difficult. Sometimes it is not always easy to get everything down on paper or write coherent sentences, but that is fine because no one else needs to understand what I am saying.

‘Journal writing is a voyage to the interior.’ ― Christina Baldwin

Blogging

Due to the difficulties caused by COVID-19, the years 2020 and 2021 have been challenging for many individuals globally in various ways. Many of us have become emotionally drained and even depressed or anxious because of the lockdowns. However, the period of solitude resulted in distinct epiphanies. The most obvious has been the realisation that material possessions are transient and so irrelevant to us. Focusing on the insignificant is a natural human tendency. Still, we have realised that the critical elements of our lives include wellness, strong relationships, the environment, and the mundane things we take for granted.

I started a blog, ‘Things I Love’, to help others reclaim happiness in this period of hopelessness on their emotional journey. I want to show people the linkages between emotions, past experiences, and present-day self-awareness.

Through ‘Things I Love’, I share my journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance. By reading my experiences, I want to inspire others to find time for wanderings into self-awareness and foster peace and contentment for a more balanced outlook on life, regardless of their circumstances.

In this ‘Things I Love’, I share the ordinary things and situations that have helped me reflect, learn life lessons, break self-imposed boundaries and revive my positive energy. I want people to understand that a symbiotic relationship between the positive and negative aspects of life is necessary for a healthy, happy life.

MY WRITING PROCESS

My writing process is uncomplicated. I jot down ideas as they occur to me in my notebook. It might be a single word or a lengthy phrase. I may leave it alone to simmer while I determine the path my idea will follow. I am constantly changing my opinion when I write, so allowing a view to marinate for a while is essential.

When I am having trouble writing due to writer’s block, I brainstorm my thoughts and generate various mind maps around them. The brainstorming process instils in me greater confidence in the path my writing should follow. Mind mapping is a tool that Swati, an Indian classmate, taught me in university. We took notes by hand before Dictaphones were permissible in lecture halls. As I sat behind Swati, I noticed that she drew charts and arrows, and she seemed to capture every point made, despite the lecture hall’s multiple English accents. Swati graduated with honours at the top of our class.

I begin by creating sentences, paragraphs, and chapters using the mind maps as a guide. The process becomes simpler once I start writing because the words flow easily, especially when writing about personal experiences. Writing about themes I have not experienced directly presents a more significant challenge, but I overcome this by researching and becoming acquainted with the subject. While Google and Wikipedia may have substantially simplified and possibly enhanced the research process, they have also increased the distraction factor. I frequently find myself veering off course, as one link takes me to something exciting and another link to something even more fascinating. To avoid becoming distracted, I must actively maintain focus on the subject.

When I have difficulty visualising a scene or character in creating stories, I look to the real world for inspiration. As a result, my stories frequently juxtapose the real and the surreal. My alter ego also finds its way into my writing through the imaginary characters that I develop.

I am eternally looking for ways to better my work as I write. I will review words, sentences, paragraphs, and chapters, deleting or adding things until I am confident that my writing communicates whatever I want to say precisely and that anyone who reads it can understand it. Additionally, I proofread my work multiple times for grammatical mistakes and use online resources to hasten the process.

This process of writing instils confidence in me as a writer.

MY WRITING SPACE

I am a morning person. I am most productive between 7 a.m. and noon.

I have a lovely large study with walls painted in sandstone and shelves filled with our books painted in midnight blue. The two bay windows on either end of the room and the stained glass window on the east wall provide plenty of natural lighting. The floor rugs, my midnight blue leather-writing chair, and the large comfortable sofa contribute to creating a cosy yet conducive environment for thinking and writing. There, I work so well.

I am mobile and can write anywhere. I frequently write in Coffee shops. Spinners Web, in a quiet residential area of Nairobi, is one of my favourite spots. Its gentle diversity, the surrounding curio shops, and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee are especially encouraging to writing. Apart from that, when I drink a cup of coffee, writing ideas flow freely.