Author name: Onyemechi Nwakonam

Good evening.
As I write this newsletter I am upstairs in a room made into a library by a church.
I want to take all my excuses and obstacles. Legit reasons why I can’t become the writer I imagined.
What stops me from doing the work I need to be writing.
And demystify them with actionable steps for me to deal with them.
I want you to come along on this ride. What is the “but” stopping you from writing
What is the argument the resistance uses to get you everytime you try to write.
Here’s…

This is for me and a reminder to myself. In the game of creative writing I have started ,failed and stopped writing for a long time. Only to continue again.
In this game there are no losers or winners there are only quitters and players as long as I keep playing I will win.
Writing is hard
While that might be true . It is not as hard as I make it seem. I know everytime I sit to write I am starting from scratch knowing that it might not work.
When I read the book The Alchemist by Paul Celho….

Will you be participating in Nanowrimo?
Nanowrimo might not be for you. Truth is it is not for everyone. You want to participate but not towards a novel after all the support and accountability is out there.
Before I proceed with a couple of housekeeping.
Nanowrimo is a competition held every November. Nanowrimo is short for National Novel Writing Month.
The goal is to write at least 50,000 words at the end of the month.
With this word count goal you will have to write an average of 1667…

Why did I fail my Writing Challenges?
Over the past five years I have been actively trying to be a writer. I have set goals but for some reason I did not achieve them. For some reason you would expect me to have learnt my lesson but I didn’t.
When I wrote the newsletter two weeks ago I decided to work on these projects.
100 days of Poetry
100 days of Short Story
100 days of Spoken word Poetry
90 days YouTube Challenge.
But two days in and I could not keep track of the many things I was…

The Law of 100:Setting Growth Writing Goals.
I made plans to embark on four writing challenges.
Starting on 1 October 2023.
But I quit.
Everything was overwhelming. I was losing track of so many things. I had so much I was doing I had to pause and do one thing.
Delete.
Delete all the things that were not as important.
While trying to decide I asked myself. Why was I doing the writing challenge? For me the goal is to become a better writer and establish my identity as a writer.
To me and to…

If you want to quit writing… read this
Today I want to share a story I am finding really helpful.
It is the highlight of what I am feeling right now and I know you will find it useful too.
Once upon a time Raymond Carver, a famous writer went for a meeting. During the Questions and Answers session. A member of the audience asked a question.
The young writer asked whether to quit writing or keep going.
Raymond Carver looked at the writer and he said, Quit writing. By all means do.
This was a…

Leaving my Comfort Zone of Writing.
Recently I was doing an audit of my skills and works as a writer.
The obvious to me was that I was not a very good writer(yet) to put it politely and be positive .
The next question I asked myself was “where is it?”
Where is what ?”
I asked the voice in my head.
Where’s your terrible writing?
Where’s your failed work?
I had nothing.
Of course I have a collection of my writing.
The question is something you have put in the effort and built to be shared. It…