Tag: Writing

Blogging · Family · food · WordPress · writing challenge

Sense of home…

jacquelineobyikocha1 Comment

Several of my traditional home food evokes a whole lot of memories especially as I have been living outside my home county for decades now and unfortunately, our condiments are quite exorbitant here, thus, I don’t get to eat them as much as I would love to and sometimes the smell of anything similar to a traditional dish makes me feel nostalgic.

When I catch the whiff of fried plantain which we call ‘dodo’ I am reminded of my mothers warm kitchen, of nicking a slice or two of sweet plantain, of laughter and my mom’s reminders not to let the plantain burn and not to finish eating them whilst cooking.

The smell of party jollof rice simply brings joy. It is a staple in every Nigerian home and is synonymous with our celebrations both back home and in the diaspora. Wedding ceremonies, birthdays, child dedication, Sunday lunch, graduation even funerals et al.

A lot of quality family time means food shared, bonding, good music, camaraderie and love shared. I believe that I have somehow managed to transfer the love for jollof to my children especially my boys. They love eating spicy, delicious servings of Naija jollof and believe me, a good plate of flavourful jollof rice accompanied with essential condiments can make you hum with joy. It gives me a sense of home, warmth, culture and heritage that can’t be quantified.

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@beyondexisting.j

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Book · WordPress

Books, books and many more to read…

jacquelineobyikocha2 Comments

At various stages in my life, books that I have read and some that I recently discovered have impacted and shaped my life; including my own poetry books, and I know for sure that there are many fabulous treasures and invaluable words tucked away in many pages of books waiting to the discovered.

My childhood days were shaped by fairy tales and Enid Blyton books. My teenage years was a time of voracious and eclectic reading, from Harlequin Romance, Mills & Boon, James Hadley Chase, John Grisham and to anything legible and so forth. I soaked up many fictional literature like they were going out of fashion and spent a better portion of my pocket money on books.

It is said that knowledge is power, and the more we know, the more we can better ourselves. Now that I am well into my adulthood, many books have impacted my life and are still doing so. I find myself reaching out these days for books that don’t only help me to introspect, but serve as catalyst for change and growth in my life. Books that promote self-awareness and development, spiritual awakening, living purposefully, mindset, health, wealth and harnessing my potentials have become my staple although certain novels have tugged at my heart strings of late such as ‘And the mountains echoed by Khaled Hosseini.’

In recent times, it is no longer strange for me to be reading multiple books within the same frame of time and in the past few weeks, I revisited The Alchemist by Paul Coelho (previously read it because it was a rave at that time and now, reading it once again and discovering all the hidden gems/omens), No more Excuses by Brian Tracy, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, The power of positive thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. I can credit the Bible and these books for the positive changes and growth that I experience each day

Writing and publishing two poetry books have played a major role in helping me heal from past traumas and given me an invaluable sense of self that was gained during the process. Right now, I am caught in the middle of authoring two books (well overdue) and what I have discovered so far in this writing journey is that words are living and breathing. They become you. They shape you.

@beyondexisting.j

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Writing

Raise your writing bar – Master how to eliminate that passive voice.

jacquelineobyikocha8 Comments

Passive Voice, Active Voice, Eliminate Passive Voice, Readers Attention, Raise Writing Bar, Professional Writing

An important factor that holds your readers’ attention from the get-go is the voice your article/book/post is written in. Readers prefer active voice sentences and writing in the active voice communicates our message effectively. The active voice makes your writing stronger, less wordy and tiresome. It clearly identifies an action and who is performing that action.

On the other hand, writing in the passive voice which is a common mistake that could easily slip into your writing fails to hold your readers’ interest and simply makes your writing boring and hard to read.

Mastering the skill of writing in the active voice is easier than you anticipated and less tedious than finding those little grammatical errors and typos. One way to know if you are writing in the active or passive voice is to find the subject of the sentence and decide if the subject is doing the action or being acted upon.

How to Recognize and Eliminate Passive Voice

In the active voice, your subject is doing the action.

  1. Jake ran past the man.
  2. Susan cooked the food.

In the passive voice, the subject is acted upon.

  1. The man was run past by Jake.
  2. The food was cooked by Susan.

Reading these two sentences you know that it doesn’t sound natural or seem right.

Another easy giveaway of the passive voice is to look for verbs stuck together. A passive voice adds other helping verbs such as ‘to be, being, has been, will be, are, is, was, were’ to a verb that could stand alone.

You can instantly fix your passive voice by rewriting your sentence so that the subject of your sentence comes before the verb.

Your active voice resembles spoken language. When we speak, we automatically speak in the active voice and our writing should mirror this.

For instance, you would never say:

My bicycle (subject) was ridden (action) to the park by me.

Instead, you would say:

I (subject) rode (action) my bicycle (object) to the park.

As always there’s an exception to the rule where the passive voice is preferable: Read more…

Success · Writing

3 Things You Should Say No To While Writing

jacquelineobyikocha7 Comments

Struggling with your challenging essays and dream to become a successful student? Academic writing is not easy but the truth is that your success in college mostly depends on how well you can write academically. Unfortunately, we are not born good writers. If you want to improve your writing skills, you must work hard and be ready to make sacrifices. There are things you need to give up to succeed in your class.

Student, Studying, Writing

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Learn to Prioritize

College is really fantastic and the most memorable time for everyone but it’s a great challenge as well. How can find enough time for studies and having fun with your friends? It’s really hard to get down to work and write your essay when there are always a lot of people around you and every day could be an exciting party if only you wanted to. Socializing is great but you should remember that you are in college to study and gain new experiences necessary for your future career. You should learn to say no to going parties and hanging out with your friends when you have homework to do.

Devote Your Time to Writing

No one can expect you to become a confident writer in a few days. You should plan your time ahead and work every day. If you work consistently, your skills will improve and you will write better. Besides, academic essays are complicated projects and require a lot of planning, doing research, outlining, writing, revising, editing, and proofreading. So, you should say no to laziness and procrastination when you have several papers to complete.

Many students cannot resist the temptation to procrastinate and waste a lot of time instead of working hard on their assignments. Sometimes, they remember about their essays on the nights they are due. Luckily, they can always get fast and cheap help online.

You just have to find the best cheap essay writing service and ask: “Write my assignment for me!” If you are lucky to find a reliable custom writing service, you will be able to sign with relief even if you have to submit your paper tomorrow morning. Experienced writers work fast. So if you decide to buy cheap papers as a way out of a messy situation, make sure you deal with an essay writing company with a good reputation that has experienced writers on the staff.

Give Up Unhealthy Choices

We all know that junk food can be tasty. It can be enjoyable to play video games the whole night instead of going to bed early. It’s hard to exercise regularly instead of watching an exciting TV series. But when you live an unhealthy lifestyle, you may end up being burned out and it’s impossible to study hard if you don’t feel well.

So if you want to achieve more in your studies, you should consistently make healthy choices. Join the gym, eat right, go for walks, and get enough sleep every night. Adopting a healthy lifestyle will help you stay more productive and achieve success.

This is a collaborative post.
Inspiration - Motivation · My Thinking Corner

Go and Take A Seat!…Tuesday Thoughts

jacquelineobyikocha10 Comments

Working can be a deceptive form of procrastination. Tidying, cleaning, answering emails, surfing the net, planning meetings, attending meetings, grocery shopping and every chore that you can think of.

Sometimes they appear far more appealing and easier than facing the task of sitting down and writing or tackling and tapping into our innate creativity.

Calm, Peace, Sitting still, creativity,

Our 24/7 constantly on the go culture of a hamster, literally makes it impossible for people to simply be and to just keep still. Take a good look around you. At every juncture, people are fiddling with their phones – even when they are driving, which I find alarming and sad.

Some believe they’ve acquired the superpowers of texting, driving, drinking coffee and chatting all at the same time. I’m actually doubtful if we are really more productive with this hyper trend.

This hyperactive culture creates the impression and belief that being busy with futile activities is better than doing nothing. It’s almost as if there no end to these so-called useful tasks.

Listen up. To make inroads into your work you just have to stop yourself and simply do nothing. Unfolded clothes for a couple of days never killed anyone.

Allow your thoughts to gather and settle. You might be on edge and find it difficult to sit still for a bit. Just be patient.

The ideas will steal in when you create some calm. The solutions, the writing lines will come to you. They are there waiting to be dug out, instead, each day’s mundane activities are piled on them and they get buried under the heap.

© Jacqueline 2018

 

Friday Fiction in Five Sentences · Short Stories Series · Writing

Tomorrow…

jacquelineobyikocha17 Comments

Image result for image of african woman carrying basket

Mama counted the coins carefully and tied them in the old handkerchief which she always tucked into her thick cotton half-slip hidden under several layers of wrapper to keep them safe.

I sprinkled water on the freshly harvested pepper and pumpkin leaves, arranging them in the basket; their luscious healthy colour would attract the eyes of good buyers.

With ease, mama balanced the basket on her head, her headscarf formed a cradle and she set off to Orie Ozuda; she would walk tirelessly for miles and that basket would stay put.

‘Nwamaka my daughter, I hope today’s market day will be a good one and if I sell all my goods, tomorrow I will buy you that shoe for running that you’ve been asking for.’

‘Thank you, mama,‘ I replied with happiness ringing in my voice. I imagined my feet encased in the white canvas and I could hear the voices of my schoolmates cheering me on as I raced to the finish line; they always say that I run like 440.

Tomorrow never came. Mama never made it back. Her crushed body was brought back to the compound with her coins still carefully tucked under her half-slip. Nwamadi’s 440 car killed mama. I never ran again.

© Jacqueline

Quick Glossary

Run like 440 – a term used to emphasize how fast she ran.

Orie Ozuda – a market day

Nwamaka – an Igbo name for a girl. It means beautiful child.

 

Featured Blogs

Featured Posts…Share Your Post Links

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Sharing, Blogs, Networking, Growing Readership, Connection, Bloggers, Blog Posts

‘PLEASE SEND IN YOUR LINKS.’ 

Today’s featured blogs are:

Storm Puppies

What a darling little story. Short fifty words that will infuse your heart with warmth. Enjoy

Town talks with Deborah:

Let’s meet the creative vendors at Metropolitan Museum of Art.

You’ve got talent

A lovely and inspiring post to kick-start your morning.

Maybe you don’t recognize it, but you have something within you that you like to do, that you’re good at, and that can be used in God’s kingdom! Remember the parable of the talents? Notice that nobody was left out! One talent was the minimum given to anyone!

Tuesday Chatter

Eugenia’s chatter is like taking a hearty broth with chuckles and history tossed into the mix. I totally, totally enjoy them. Read the witty poem.

Why jails and prisons shouldn’t be asylums

I can’t even begin to imagine the horrors that happen in privatized prisons. It just doesn’t bear thinking and it’s rather unfortunate when mentally ill patients are incarcerated, ignored and treated like criminals.

White Poppies

Poppies are a scattered to serve as a reminder ‘lest we forget, always and forever.’ This beautiful image and deep thought inducing quote might appear simple, yet it’s simplicity speaks volumes.

 

Do step in, explore these blogs and show some love.

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