{"id":3905,"date":"2014-02-09T09:03:57","date_gmt":"2014-02-09T09:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spontaneousdevelopment.com\/sdnuggets\/?p=3905"},"modified":"2014-02-08T17:27:17","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T17:27:17","slug":"achieve-writing-success-by-reading-more-frequently-and-deliberately","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/achieve-writing-success-by-reading-more-frequently-and-deliberately\/","title":{"rendered":"Achieve Writing Success by Reading More Frequently and Deliberately"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late last year, I decided to begin writing short story pieces. Click here<\/a> to read my first ever (500 word) attempt titled \u201cThe High School Students Street Fight<\/a>\u201d, which I entered for the GKBCinc Short Story Competition<\/a>\u00a0on 31st December 2013.<\/p>\n

I intend to write many more short stories.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Most will be based on real life experiences I've had, but written in a language that will appeal to kids as well as adults.<\/p>\n

My plan is to challenge myself by deliberately entering each piece for ANY available online competitions. Or offline ones that do not require much registration hassle. <\/em><\/p>\n

Why This Interest in Writing Short Stories?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

You see, I've noticed that people love to read stories...often fiction or part fiction. They love to read novels - be it fiction or those based on real life events.<\/p>\n

I happen to have lots of stories from real life experiences to share.<\/p>\n

Over the years, I've noticed formal non-fiction writing does not appeal to all those who stand to benefit from the lessons offered in my writing. <\/strong><\/p>\n

But I've observed that most people react positively to true story pieces I write. <\/em><\/p>\n

So, I'm deliberately adopting the use of short stories, to reach out to more members of my target audience.By infusing more entertainment - and less formality - into my writing, I aim to succeed more often in getting my message across to people who need to \"hear\" it.<\/p>\n

I'll be doing it based on the categories I focus on (e.g. career development, self-development, parenting, entrepreneurship, writing\/blogging etc).<\/p>\n

To this end, I have now created a Short Stories category to aid people who may wish to search for my write-ups that fall into this new area.<\/p>\n

I'm Also Doing It to Help My Kids Become More Competent Writers and Readers<\/h3>\n

You see, I pay a lot of attention to what my kids tell me about school. I ask them questions about what they learn, their teachers etc.<\/p>\n

What I learn convinces me I need to help my kids learn to use self-study techniques to complement whatever they get in school. <\/strong><\/p>\n

My passion for self-education drives me to challenge them to work hard at developing self-tutoring skills. <\/em><\/p>\n

Succeeding with self-tutoring requires forming a healthy reading habit.<\/p>\n

The problem is traditional schools, the way they operate, often make learners develop an aversion for reading.<\/p>\n

When reading is not felt to be pleasurable, by the learner, s\/he will avoid it wherever\/whenever possible. And that will happen a lot when s\/he is outside school ...where it is unlikely to be \"formally required\".<\/h3>\n

I noticed this was affecting my kids. They did not like being told to read - except it was a comic or magazine with fun content.<\/p>\n

So I began encouraging them to think up and write short stories of their own. <\/em><\/p>\n

To give them ideas, I suggested they read short story books by other authors, and to refer to narratives of traditional African folk tales.<\/p>\n

The process has been slow, but so far I've gotten the 14 year old to complete one short story<\/a>, while the 10 and 12 year olds are working to finish their first pieces.<\/p>\n

Starting a Parent and Children \"Self-Publishing Venture\"<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I have decided we'll publish - both online and off the web - a collection of our short stories as a family<\/span><\/em><\/strong>, in one book, that will be offered for sale.<\/p>\n

Years of experience working with kids and young people tells me this strategy can help me boost their natural interest in reading and writing. <\/em><\/p>\n

I believe when my kids see their names and stories in print, they'll get excited. Then even if only ONE sale happens, it will inspire them to think of writing more!<\/p>\n

And that desire to write more, with coaching I provide, will make them want to read more as well.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Why will this happen?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s because the writing process often benefits greatly from reading that is done by a person. <\/em>And they will discover that, as they participate in this exercise.<\/p>\n

Many Great Writers Are Reputed to Have Started Out as Great - Often Voracious(!) - Readers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This is true. And it makes a lot of sense does it not? Very common sense I might add!<\/p>\n

But one thing to note is that the quality of what is read is crucially important. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When you read \u201cjunk\u201d, your development as a writer is likely to suffer. That's why great writers recommend reading books by great authors\u2026and nothing else.<\/p>\n

Again, it's just simple common sense.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I'm going to apply that common sense in coaching my kids to develop sound reading\/writing skills. <\/em><\/p>\n

And I aim to help them acquire the ability to earn tangible income using those skills.<\/p>\n

Publishing My First Ever Short Story Is the First Step <\/strong><\/h3>\n

As I've mentioned earlier in this piece, I intend get \"The High School Students Street Fight\u201d published as one of a collection of short stories to appear in a book by me and my kids.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Read my 14 year old son\u2019s article titled \u201cThe Fool Who Thought He Was Wise<\/a> (A 14 Year old's Useful Story About HIV Aids Prevention)\u201d. It will also be included\u2026possibly with changes to make it a more compelling read.<\/p>\n

For now, I've published my first ever short story (500 words) on this blog \u2013 click here. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

I'll try and make our collection of stories have illustrations to make each one interesting, especially to kids.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today's advanced PC and Internet technologies make doing the above relatively easy, convenient and affordable.<\/p>\n

In fact it can even be done very cheap or at zero cost - if you choose to use Print On Demand Publishing \u2013 like I do, and which I strongly recommend. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

NB: <\/strong>Read my 2005 article titled \"How I Discovered Zero Cost Print On Demand publishing<\/a>.\" AND another titled \"Do You Really Have To Find A Conventional Publisher? (A Case for Print On Demand Publishing)<\/a>\"<\/span><\/p>\n

That's why I believe more parents may find it useful to adopt a similar approach, to help their kids develop more real world relevant reading and writing skills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Late last year, I decided to begin writing short story pieces. Click here to read my first ever (500 word) attempt titled \u201cThe High School Students Street Fight\u201d, which I entered for the GKBCinc Short Story Competition\u00a0on 31st December 2013. I intend to write many more short stories.\u00a0Most will be based on real life experiences […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,10,996,103],"tags":[997],"class_list":["post-3905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-dn-travel-news","category-self-development","category-short-stories","category-writingblogging","tag-achieve-writing-success-by-reading-more-frequently-and-deliberately"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":1256,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3905"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3907,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3905\/revisions\/3907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}