I haven’t updated this blog for a while now, and for good reasons, like being quite busy with:
- keeping fit as I pound yam, sweep, cook…
- being confused about what to write (‘…should I write about my latest cooking disaster, or about how my sis discovered too late that she had packed a bagful of bambara nuts instead of the groundnuts she had fervently planned for? (That was so funny, by the way. I’m sure I’ll work it into one of my stories). I could even get more mundane by blogging about our new cat- it has four limbs and uses them well…’)
- all those dvds!
But then gradually I got a new idea for this blog; a fictional series titled ‘Personal Saviour’ which is about the three characters I introduced a while back- Sarah, Larai and Yetty. What’s new about them is their sharp focus on eternal issues like their relationship with Jesus Christ, and how He affects every detail of their lives - witnessing/evangelism, dealing with diverse people, staying sane, money matters… all of it.
I picked this idea for two main reasons. One: living with eternity in mind is what I’ve decided on, (special thanks to the Minna Navigators), and I think that experiencing it through my characters is going to help me:
focus- “THIS is what my life is about. It’s now in perspective.”
build confidence- “It’s not the end of my life if I don’t say the right things. What matters is learning from my mistakes and asking for forgiveness and direction. Bounce back like Yetty.”
have a sense of urgency.
I also expect that writing about this will be beneficial to people having similar challenges (two of my friends come to mind). Reason two: It gives my blog a sense of direction at last, and I can only get better. (Thank you again, Paul. I think it was Mark Twain that said he could live on compliments for weeks. I definitely get that).
So this is my update. I’m currently working on the first slice of PS, thinking about my characters as I write. I have a few weeks till my sister’s wedding, and (hopefully) NYSC, so it’s work and little play for me. Which reminds me, I was reading some short stories written by Mercedes Lackey, a popular science fiction writer, and in her introduction/prologue she said a good writer must write. A lot. In her words:
“…every minute that I wasn’t working [as a computer programmer] I was writing. I gave up hobbies, I stopped going to movies, I didn’t watch television; I wrote. Not less than five hours everyday, all day on Saturday and Sunday… [To become a writer,] You write. You write a great deal. You give up everything else so that you can concentrate on writing.”
Conclusion: I am not so speechless that I cannot say "wanda-ful” with awe!