During this month I have been designing an online class for Skillshare, an online platform that gives you access to classes on various topics such as writing better poetry, entrepreneurship, how to use a camera, etc. I participated in their Teachchallenge to create and publish my first class by April 30th. They provided participants with deadlines for a small component like creating an outline or sharing your intro video. It helped me stay on track. My class is titled How to do Research for your Novel and I give you a method to use to effectively find information. This process was nerve-racking for me. Sitting in front a camera filming videos for people to watch, finding great lighting, the process was stressful. It's a bit scary to put yourself out there especially for something you care about. Trying new things isn't easy, but the outcome is always worth it. As we acquire new skills from the many activities we partake, we should showcase and utilize them. I work at the front desk in a freshmen residence hall at my university. Through this experience I have gained interpersonal skills from interacting with people on a daily basis. Those skills are useful during networking events, grocery shopping, even parties! I can use them now. This is why I decided to create a class on doing research because I have a method -taken from my own experience during writing stories- that writers will benefit from. Once the class is published, I will share it on my social media pages so be sure to follow me @abbyakyiaw on Instagram and Abby Akyiaw on Facebook if you want to watch it. *Photo by The Climate Reality Project on Unsplash
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 Creative idea: A story about a woman with Alopecia who finds out she is adopted from Madagascar. She tries to find her biological parents, but ends up becoming a Queen and dealing with Alopecia and self-consciousness about losing her hair.
Story title: The Other Side of the Mirror -Word Count: aiming for 50,000 -Realistic Fiction -Malagasy culture and traditions Story introduction: Everything seems to go well for Volana when receives her first job offer months after completing university. Unfortunately her Alopecia resurfaces, causing a larger chunk of her hair to fall out. This prompts her parents to tell her she is adopted and her biological parents live in Madagascar. Volana then embarks on a journey to Madagascar in hopes of locating her parents and possibly finding a cure or solution to the Alopecia. During this search, she meets and falls in love with a King, becoming Queen of Fleur Fanjakana. This new position creates new problems and brushes away old issues as she deals with keeping up appearances and hiding her falling hair, while feeling frustrated at not finding her biological parents. Story description: Volana has dealt with Alopecia her whole life. It comes and goes as it pleases, taking away chunks of her hair. Alopecia Areata is an autoimmune disease which means the body sees itself, more specifically, hair follicles as foreign and attacks it/ This causes a person's hair to come out. After finishing university and landing her dream job in a transportation company, Volana's alopecia comes back. This prompts her parents to reveal that she is adopted. Volana decides to save up for a year, take off from work, and travel to Madagascar. She thinks this will be a simple journey doesn't plan on the detours in her path, including marring a King and becoming Queen of the five kingdoms in Madagascar. During her reign, she deals with tensions with her husband due to the unsuccessful methods of curing her alopecia. She becomes more self-conscious about it, hiding her hair from the kingdom. Volana will soon come to realize loving yourself starts within, not with what you see in the mirror. Story overview: A first person POV of Volana and Thulani (her husband), and a third person POV (kingdom). A woman has alopecia areata and finds out she is adopted. She attempts to find her biological parents but ends up marrying a king and becoming Queen of a kingdom. She has troubling acclimating to this new position while dealing with old problems. 
This Skillshare class I watched was taught by best selling author, Preeti Shenoy, and she gave tips on the fundamentals of creative writing. Here are the prompts and my project:
1. Use a timer. Set it for three minutes. Now write down all the ideas that you get. Submit it!
2. Create three characters using all that you have learnt. Remember to add the details! Idea #1: 13 year old sculptor. Black hair. Lives in a village. Makes beautiful sculptures to sell. A local drug lord (King Caesar) employs Mitchie (Or he asks the drug lord) to puts bags of cocaine inside his sculptures ans ship them across the world. He makes enough money to help his village and his family. He moves into a house with his family. Of course they don't know what he really does, they just think his sculptures are in high demand. Mitchie loves to sculpt. He started with pottery, making jugs, cups, plates, and other things for locals in his village. He's 5'4 and is in secondary school. Mitchie had mud brown eyes as he likes to describe them. He loves playing freeze tag with his friends. Mitchie also like to be alone. To gain inspiration, Mitchie takes walks at night when everyone is asleep. He stares at the stars and the moon. Mitchie wants to travel and help people in his village.
Idea #2: Old Lady Martha is lonely. Both of her children died in a train crash four years ago on their way to Greenwich. Old lady Martha as the neighborhood calls her, has a cursed diary with various entries in it. Those entries are made from the lives of people that become trapped in the diary. Then, she reads them at home and can them come to life.
OL Martha is a short lady that wears different capes depending on the day. She has burgundy, blue, black, red, purple, and glitter. Little kids love and abhor her. She makes breakfast at six thirty in the morning everyday except Sunday. She makes breakfast at eight. OL Martha lives by a strict routine of breakfast, a walk through the park, staying at the library for two hours, eating lunch at a nearby sandwich shop. *Photo by Nong Vang on Unsplash.com  I watched another class on Skillshare by Morgan Lindsay Nelson and she explained the difference between suspense and surprise. Here is my project: In the forest i sawSurprise
Rays of sunshine poked through the small gaps, illuminating my path just enough. The trees swayed in sync as if dancing together. I took a deep breath, chilly fresh, piney air, filling my lungs. Branches crunched and snapped under my feet as I continued down the path. What is that? A tremor overtook me as my heart beat hard against my ribs. A hand stuck out from behind a thick, gnarled tree. Tears welled up in my eyes, as I crept closer. The fingers were bloody with dirt stuck underneath the fingernails. The palms upward and bloody. A hand turned into an arm, and the arm became a body of a young woman. She had on yoga pants and a T-shirt, an I-phone wrapped in white earphones lying by her side. I dropped to my knees, my stomach about to hurl up the breakfast from this morning. Her eyes were closed, head turned towards the sun. Suspense Rays of sunshine poke through the small gaps, illuminating my path just enough. The trees sway in sync as if dancing together. I take a deep breath, chilly fresh, piney air, filling my lungs. Branches crunch and snap under my feet as I continue down the path. This is a lovely day for- I stop in my tracks, a foot hovering in the air. My eyes widen, pulse racing faster than a racehorse on Sunday. My stomach warms and gurgles, this morning's breakfast of oatmeal and granola corralling its way up. I-is that- Drops of blood sporadically splattered over grass and branches lead down the path. My foot lowers. The trees sway forward, directing me on where to go. I should call the police! I should- wait, what if someone is hurt? The thought is enough to send me sprinting forward, hopping side to side avoiding stepping on the evidence. Evidence? Oh no, this is a crime scene. A possible murder! "No, no, I shouldn't jump to conclusions. Maybe someone fell or got hurt." But the blood splatter... I've watched enough crime dramas and Dateline to know what that means. "H-hello?" I call out. Silence. Oh no, oh no, oh no! Maybe the person went home? The blood trail ends at a thick gnarled tree to my right. A tremor overtakes me, my heart beating hard against my ribs. A hand sticks out from behind it. Tears well up in my eyes, as I creep closer. The fingers are bloody with dirt stuck underneath the fingernails. The palms are upward and bloody. A hand turns into an arm, and the arm becomes a body of a young woman. She has on yoga pants and a T-shirt, an I-phone wrapped in white earphones lying by her side. I drop to my knees, my stomach about to hurl up the breakfast from this morning. Her eyes are closed, head turned towards the sun, its rays kissing her pale, blue lipped face.  Skillshare is a platform where you can watch classes on anything you're interested in and learn a new set of skills. They have four categories: Creative, Business, Technology, and Lifestyle. Within these categories, they have specialized fields for you to choose from. I use the Creative category and click Writing, which gives me countless videos- made by real people from those fields- on how to write characters, pitch stories, plan a plot, etc. This is a great tool for someone who cannot go to a physical classroom. For each class, there is a "project" you do to try out the tips given in the class AND the teacher will give you actual feedback on it. You can explore it for free for two months by clicking this link: http://skl.sh/2pjW1B7
Now, as an example, I will share a project I did for a class called "Brainstorming Your Story" taught by Steve Alcorn. The objective was to write a summary of a new plot you could create a story from. The story I did wasn't new, but I wanted to write a revised summary and incorporate my new ideas. Here it is: Mai Jenkins moves to New York to pursue her modeling career and faces hardships in this journey that test her character. She grew up with a single father in small town Venolia, Texas. She dreamed of walking down runways since she was five years old. Fifteen years later, she makes those dreams a reality. Mai expects the model life to be luxurious, filled with free fashionable clothes, champagne all day, and jobs coming in hot. Unfortunately, she soon realizes the modeling industry isn't all glitz and glam. Through hardships, lost friends, and expensive rent, Mai tries to stay afloat above the ever churning waters. In this journey Mai learns not to trust everyone who says they want to help her, and she begins to trust in her confidence. Not only does Mai's new life in New York bring hardships of the modelling life, but it causes her to grow as a young woman and find her place in this world.Not all that glitters is gold. This isn't a finished product, I have always struggled with writing summaries, especially in school. Either I add too much or too little information. The teacher of this class message me and told me to add more of her challenges and how she overcame them. I didn't expect a quick response, but I'm glad he had a chance to look over what I wrote. Skillshare is a really helpful website and my writing is going to grow for sure. *Photo by Kari Shea  This past week was Writer's week at UC Riverside. Writers of all kinds -poetry, non-fiction, fiction, essays, and others, came out to speak and share with the rest of us. Due to my busy schedule, I was not able to attend until the very last day. I'm glad I went. It wasn't about what I learned, but how I felt leaving the theater.
Sometimes when I leave workshops or events I don't remember much. Instead, a feeling is embedded within me. A surge of encouragement and inspiration to write better, study harder, laugh longer, or dream bigger. I could take notes all I want, but they'll just end up in the bottom of my bag or in the trash weeks later. The reason I go to these things is to gain something to apply to my life. They help me to stay motivated and remind me why I do what I do. For any career people think there is a secret, a shortcut, or a quick fix to get them ahead. We rely on others as a guide to our own lives, but they can't tell us how to live our lives. These professionals don't know us and everyone's path is different. It's the same with asking people for help. They will recommend the "best" plan without understanding your background. Options that work for someone else may not work for you. Person A may need to take a quarter/semester off school, or get a second job, or move to another state for better opportunities. Person B might take a gap year, delete their social media accounts, or start a new business. I take what they with a grain of salt while acknowledging what I am capable of. Don't limit your aspirations and possibilities based off another person's life. Their limit is not your limit. Their footsteps are not your footsteps. *Photo by Ali Yahya on Unsplash.com  Have you ever wondered what personality type your character has? I took a personality test for two of my characters in “Our Father”. These men are brothers and have very different lifestyles. I thought it would be interesting to take the test and see how they would answer them. The link is at the end if anyone wants to try it out.
They described Nathaniel as practical and more logical than emotional. People like him have dedication in their work. They believe honesty and loyalty are most important. This sounds like Nathaniel. He’s a bit of a loner, and has a tough time trusting those around him. It also said they go the extra mile for the people they care about, even if they do not understand their feelings. They also love to acquire new skills and knowledge. The second character I did was his brother, Jason. Reading through the results, I kept saying, “This sounds just like him!”. The results were spot on. It described him as being a kind person that cares for others and their happiness. People with his personality type are sensitive, analytical, and can be social. They are very altruistic and sometimes their accomplishments go unnoticed. Some of their traits did align with each other and I was kind of surprised. It makes sense though, they are very alike, but use those traits differently. They are both very caring of others and emotional. Nathaniel doesn’t have handle his emotions, while Jason sometimes suppresses them. This is a great tool to use if a writer wants to understand their character personally. I do wish I’d done this last year when I restarted “Our Father”. Recognizing your characters as humans and not just characters in a book makes them well-rounded. Their personalities drive the story. It is about them. Someone who suppresses their emotions is bound to explode at some point and that should show in the story. A reader can relate to them and comprehend their actions, or why they said certain things. Like I said, it's a great tool to use, even to understand yourself more. *Photo by Photo by Marco Bianchetti on Unsplash **Test used: https://www.16personalities.com/  You made it to the end of the How-to series! Today’s topic is how to write a great story. I’m going to cover specific points that are important to flesh out.
Plot: The plot of a story is ultimately the most important… well plot and characters. They ride on the backs of each other. Characters can drive a plot and a plot can create well rounded characters. Now, the plot is your idea, the story line, the GPS, It informs readers about what the story is and what direction it’s going into. Some writers will encourage others to work their way backwards and think of the ending first. Others will say start from the middle. It depends on your thought process, but the way my stories formulate is usually from the characters’ background story. I create a story based on a character’s relationship to another character. In my book “Our Father”, the idea was about a girl who is being stalked by her childhood best and somehow mixed in the mess is her estranged father. I didn’t have a solid plot, just a cool idea. My other story, “Being a Model”, began with an idea about a girl looking for her mother. The plot with her becoming a model was not in my mind initially. Your plot is a road. It needs a beginning, middle, and end. Everything that happens in the story should follow each other to the end. In other words, scenes – as I like to call them- or chapters are stepping stones further into the main plot. It’s not a promising idea to start writing a story without formulating a solid plot and I say this from experience. I get excited and start writing then I end up with plot holes, and things going in the wrong direction. I recently started outlining and it has helped. With an outline, you can write snippets of what need to happen in each chapter. This way, you can have a visual account of your plot, read through it, and see if the story progresses to the end. Characters: My favorite part about writing! Character development is what keeps readers going. I have read books with a fascinating plot, but not so fascinating characters. It’s a challenging task. You, as the writer, are creating people. Human beings! And they need to be realistic. Writers give them names, birthdays, families, backstories, trials, and triumphs. We create an entire population. A beneficial tool to use is a character interview sheet. There are various versions online. They ask the character’s name, family life, favorite color, food, if they have birthmarks, or what their fear is. These things to help build a well-rounded person. It’s also important to get in tune with your characters, at least the main character. You must delve deep within their mind, feel them as an extension of you. Writing “Being a Model” is difficult sometimes because I am not in tune with my main character, Mai. It goes in and out. I don’t know who she is sometimes. This can peek through a story. You don’t need to become the characters, you need to understand them . They need to become three-dimensional wait, no- four dimensional. Give them real fears and challenges. Every character included in the story needs to have purpose, an objective. Try not to include random characters. Some characters’ main purpose is to support the main characters and make them more realistic or offer a different view into that person’s life. They could also be that person’s voice of reason. Allow characters to tell the story. Switching from person to person, their voice and experiences should flow out. Ask yourself, “What would this person say in response to that?” “How would they handle grief?” “Does she trust this new person into her life?” This is why writer’s need to be in tune with their characters, so they can answer these questions. Setting: Okay this may be tricky, but also fun. The setting includes time and place. Is it set in the future, Wisconsin, France, the Medieval period, or the present? I like choosing places I’ve never been to like New York or Madagascar. I use google maps as a tool because they show real streets. You can go down roads and such. Describing the scene sets the tone and provides imagery for the reader. Find locations you want to use in your story and make sure to describe them enough to create a picture. Be careful not to have a sensory overload. If it’s the first time describing a location in the story, you can go into detail. If it’s the second or third time, only focus on changes. For example, describing a character’s home. In the first mention, you may go into detail about the structure, color, window shape, how they organize furniture, or what colors the walls are. But because this will be a frequently used location, there is no need to describe everything again. The vase that was there before is gone. Note that. Maybe the home looks different at night. Note that. Go on google images and find pictures of places that look like what you’re envisioning. Readers will envision their own version, but having some detail helps. If it’s set in another time period, do a lot of research for accurate information. What type of technology did they use? What did the clothing look like? For fantasy stories, setting is important because the writer is formulating an entire world. Drawing a map of your world is beneficial as well. Major points in plot: I added this part because writing down or highlighting key parts in your plot keeps you focused. These points are things in the story that NEED to happen. I see them as bookmarks. For “Our Father”, I had those major points and all the other scenes were supporting roles to get there. For example, I have a kidnapping scene in “Our Father” which was a major point. For the kidnapping to happen, I had to write other scenes that led up to it and allowed it to happen. A certain character needed to not be at the house, another character had to forgive the main character, things of that nature. Dialogue: Conversations between characters also drive the plot. It can reveal certain information withheld from readers. This a way for characters to be themselves, you can really hear their voice. Having too much or too little dialogue can divert the reader. Conversations that don’t support the plot are unnecessary. There is an objective in every piece of dialogue. It needs to lead to something, expose someone, uncover information. Two characters having a long discussion about racecars when it has nothing to do with the story is a waste of space. I’ve had to cut pieces of dialogue out because they didn’t offer anything. Here’s an exercise. Try removing a piece of dialogue and see if the story goes well without it. If the story flows, then you know it wasn’t helpful. Sometimes dialogue is there to understand a character more, that’s fine. Making a character more well-rounded still benefits the plot. Motivation and Inspiration: This may be last, it’s very crucial. You can’t write a great story without the passion to do so. I watched runway videos, photo shoot videos and looked at many fashion photos for “Being a Model”. It inspired me to write Mai’s story and convey the true life of a model. I made a Pinterest board for “16 years ago” for each of my main characters. Prayer and meditation clears your mind and enriches you. Explaining your stories to others gets you excited to keep writing. Find a nice cozy place in your home, at a park, or maybe a coffee shop that will motivate your senses to write. Make a playlist and listen to songs related to your story or unrelated. It does get tough especially when you get writer’s block or feel discouraged about the story. Don’t let discouragement end the journey. Even if you don’t believe in yourself, believe in the story. Believe in the characters and trust the process. *Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash  Dividing an essay into manageable chunks makes it a straightforward task. I don’t write papers in one day. In fact, it takes me three days to a week to complete one paper. Why? I write a couple hundred words a day. For the example I am using today, that paper was 3,487 words and some days I wrote 500 words, other days I wrote a thousand. Some people can crank out thousands of words and finish a whole paper in two hours. Unfortunately, my brain doesn’t operate that way. I l enjoy creative writing, but I have a strong dislike for essays. Whether you can crank out those words or not, my method can be a viable alternative to use. As an example, I will refer to a paper I wrote for my Popular Music of the world class. We had to analyze at least two non-western songs and connect it to the topics we covered in class. I copied the Paper prompt and pasted it into Microsoft Word to create an outline. Here are four key things to successfully plan out your essay for easy writing. 1. Answer specific questions/directions in the prompt. By doing this, you won’t miss adding something important for your topic. I recommend copying and pasting the prompt in Word or Google docs. 2. Find sources to include and organize it under questions/directions from the prompt that correspond with it. a. The bold parts are what were necessary to include in the paper. I used bullet points underneath each piece of direction for the research aka websites and scholarly journals.  3. Organize everything you have into an outline  4. Proofread! As you finish each section, proofread it before you move on.
Extra tips: Once you have a strong outline, assign each paragraph topic a day. Example Saturday: Intro; Sunday: Country background for Ghana; Monday: Country background for Nigeria; Tuesday: Genre background for Highlife; Wednesday: Genre background for Afrobeats; Thursday: Highlife song analysis; Friday: Afrobeat song analysis and conclusion Once you've finished, send a draft to a friend or if your school offers tutoring, use that option. Another pair of eyes may detect an issue with the topic or a grammatical error. Using this method has improved my grades when it comes to essays and I hope it does the same for you! *Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash.com  Poetry is not about words sounding pretty. It’s not about depression. It’s not about love. Your creativity, experiences, emotions, and your words define poetry. A poem does not only consist of stanzas with four lines each in ABAB format. Poetry exists as a method to express. Poetry speaks the words you cannot say. Illustrates a feeling you cannot draw. Poetry releases those things and creates a story that embodies everything you want it to. I’ll give you some tips on how to do that. Let’s begin with imagery. Imagine a setting. Smell the air. See the scene. Close your eyes and immerse yourself in it. Allow your senses to deliver words of description. The thing about poetry it’s all about experiencing your words and a lot of patience. For me, I can’t interrupt myself or the flow will stop. Once you feel that, don’t take a break yet. Start by describing what you hear or what’s outside your window. Next, is using a thesaurus. Have a page open either on a phone or computer. Sometimes our vocabulary is not expansive enough to give us proper words to use. “Walk” may work, but “stroll” is better. I constantly look up synonyms to everyday words. It’s not about it sounding fancy. You as the writer want to convey a message. Specific words relay that message better than others. Next, is structure. I tend to leave this until the very end. After reading through the whole poem I create line breaks. The way it's broken up can change a poem. If there are many situations going on, breaking it up in the right parts is important. If the top part speaks about mistakes and the bottom is about redemption, finding the right place to separate those two helps a reader. Organization in poetry helps the flow. Poetry has guidelines, but don’t feel confined to them. It can have stanzas, or it could be a paragraph. It can be half a page or several pages. Now for the poem itself. I like to start with feelings. Am I cold, upset, stuck (metaphorically), etc. With writing about another person, you can begin with their physical description, their personality, how they make you feel, or an action. If your poem is referring to a memory, describe the scene and why that memory has stuck with you for so long. If you have absolutely no idea what to write about, look around the room. Pick a color and a couple random things or do I what I do and write random sentences. Something will spark an interest and your mind will get creative. It’s like bait. A sentence will stand out and an entire poem can come out of it. Here’s an example of mine: I turned around to find a friend I turned around to the end As solid ground flew away I called out to the sky Because she never said bye Cancel the dreams Undo the seams She has gone and left me here Unraveled and unclothed without my friend Is this truly the end? I wrote several lines after the first two, but didn’t like the way it sounded. I kept the first two and took off from there. I created a pattern of two lines of rhyme, a break, and two more lines of rhyme. I almost deleted the first draft, but those two lines stuck out to me. It’s not the greatest, but gives you an idea. Poetry comes from within and as with any art, it is difficult to “teach”. Keep sharpening the tool. Never let the mind dull. Everyday brings new inspiration. You need to stay alert and grab at it when the opportunity arises. Keep a notebook with you at all times or download a notebook app. Challenge yourself to writing a poem at the end of the week for a month. Practice, progress, and perfect. *Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash.com |
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