The Writing Process
The author of The Un-Faithfulness of Seun Lissa, Damilola Ogunremi discusses the writing process.
“What goes into the writing process of a book or any manuscript?”
This is one question I get asked when an individual who is not already in the field wishes to write a story or want me to take them in creative writing class to begin writing.
My answer is always that “this is a question so crucial that every writer should ask before starting on a writing project. What will go into this book or screenplay I want to write? When this question is asked it drills the psychological process that contributes to creativity. For writers who already begin their writing journey it helps them to apply both the right and left hemispheres for finest problem solving in story writing. When the first draft of their story is criticized, they are proactive in the subsequent rewrite, and are able to realize the full potential of their story. Every writer should always ask themselves this question to be able to screen their material for an optimal finished product.”
I wrote the first draft of The Unfaithfulness of Seun Lissa as a short screenplay which I could direct, shoot and then, upload online for people to download on their phones for sample of my filmic skills. But then, I kept this story away once I was done scripting it. Since the rewrite of my novel is taking forever to get finished, I produced The Unfaithfulness of Seun Lissa as a novelette. In one day I finished writing it in the same thoughtless short format I had screen write it then, sent it out for criticism. Thank God I did as I always do for all my write-ups. Every writer should do this after the first draft of their manuscript and in subsequent rewrites.
The revision of The Unfaithfulness of Seun Lissa took four weeks then came back with suggestions that depressed me. First, Seun, has no backstory that gave her the desperation she has for maintaining a good marriage, except that her husband couldn’t sire children. Secondly, in her meeting with Dan Udoh, and with her husband present, the tone, voice, gesture of Dan didn’t promise to reveal something far terrible for a man who wanted a child he made with Seun nineteen years ago. For a man who just discovered his wife’s lover you would expect such man to bring down hell. But, there was no scuffle between Ramon Seun’s husband and Dan. Thirdly, there was nothing indicating why Seun was intimate with Ifeanyi her cousin’s husband.
This story wasn’t’ all that special to me in the beginning. How do I begin thinking up additional plots for it? I kept it away for the second time and then, threw myself back into the rewrite of my novel. As the year 2015 draw near ending, I desperately wanted to publish something. It occurred to me that even though I finish the rewrite of my novel this year, I won’t be able to get it published this year. I remembered The Unfaithfulness of Seun Lissa and I’m going to quickly share with you how I solved the aforementioned problems I encountered rewriting it.
Brainstorming ideas is one of the most powerful ways to kindle creative thought for creating new ideas and solving difficult problems. It taps into the subconscious mind and forms a written record of ideas, words, and images. There are several popular variations of brainstorming, but the type I used is called Mind Mapping. With mind mapping, I was able to approach The Unfaithfulness of Seun Lissa writing down the starting idea in the center of a clean page. Then, I jotted down whatever popped into my mind around the beginning idea. I wasn’t critical, so that I could get the creative process moving along.
To get the best of brainstorming don’t be critical of the ideas you are generating. Editing or judging ideas during brainstorming will cut-off the creative flow! Critical review is a separate stage of the writing process and should be held off until that time. Two weeks of vigorous work I wrote subsequent ideas that spawned the popped up ones, and the problems with The Unfaithfulness of Seun Lissa were solved.
The writing process amongst other thing requires exploring the writing field, doing lots of reading. In short, you must be resourceful. And then, you must have lots of patience. The advice I got from my tutor in college “Keep a job while you progressively build your writing career.” When you are fresh in the market, writing is not something you do for instant money success. Writing, having a hooking story and being published is success in itself. I finished from college in the year 2008/09 and this is my first successful published material. Give to the writing process all it requires and produce the finest material, and who knows what success may come your way.
About the Author
Damilola Ogunremi known as Darmie Orem, is a public speaker, a song composer and singer, trained and certified diction, etiquette and image coach, an author publicist and founder of DRS Etiquette and Image Consulting. She has been working with authors for years promoting their intellectual labor via online. Her educational background in TV, Film, Stage, Radio and Journalism writing has given her a broad base from which she approaches different genres then deliver strong deeper journalism-marketing interviews. Her interviews with authors can be found on Authors Curtilage. She specially enjoys organizing seminars and workshops for companies that want to impart employees with improved confidence, increase ROI, coach individuals at all levels of business in business etiquette, provide character education in Nigeria’s classrooms and after school, working on her write-ups and tending to authors’ needs. You can find Darmie on Facebook Twitter LinkedIn and her Blog
Amazon Customer Reviews
By Paulette Mahurin on November 14, 2015
Verified Purchase
The Un-faithfulness of Seun Lissa by Darmie Orem is an impressive first novelette for this author. The story opens with a chef of the Lissa house, Joshua Gringorie, baking a Nigerian Chicken pie and the descriptions of ingredients make me want to eat it, it’s that well described. The scenes are off to a good start with lush vibrant gardens, a mysterious person dressed in all black watching the house, and then the introduction of the protagonist 45-year-old Seun Lissa. We learn about the character through her thoughts, conflicting and painful, as she remembers the very unhappy marriage her parents where in. Just the memory of her mother tolerating the abuse from her father
ISBN: 9781772610222
Price: $ 2.99
Words: 19,870
Genre: Romance Drama
Language: English
Published by WSIC EBooks Ltd
The various websites the book has been posted on at present are:
Interesting insights.