Still on speaking out….

A couple of weeks ago I wrote on Speaking Out and I said that if we were intended to exist without each other it would have been one person per continent or country. But, we need each other to survive, and it is foolishness to suffer in silence when help is just a phone call or conversation away.

I had cause to ‘walk that talk’ recently. I had to seek help with some work and it was such a learning experience I thought I’d share so you would have a practical example. Also so that you wouldn’t just relate that post to mental or emotional issues, it applies to just about every aspect of our lives.

I’m particularly happy about this because simple as it is (now that I know better obviously) I could have decided to go it alone, and probably made mistakes in a more public place.

Ok, so I had to hand in an article as part of my Future Challenges commitment, and the more I wrote, the more it occurred to me that it was becoming a satirical piece. I finished writing it, loved it (how do you not love the work of your hands), and I was going to hand it in when I told myself it would be nice to get it vetted first.

I decided to send it to a friend who would know, and who I’d seen critique other forms of writing (fingers in the air if you’re an Abuja person and you ever attended GAP meetings). I rang @Elnathan (of the famous ‘How To’ Series), and he graciously agreed to have a look.

In 24 hours he’d sent it back (whoop), and it was my very first lesson in writing satire! I was so chuffed by the experience I saved some of the notes he made on the work and just feel like sharing them with you!

• …..The whole idea of satire is that you assume that the ridiculous situation is. Using quotation marks weakens the satire – it is a bit like seeing the camera man’s hands while watching a movie.
• Use only three dots for ellipsis (I’m always guilty).
• Remove the quotation marks in ‘illustrious’. Remember, in satire, you mean the ridiculous things you say. The exaggerations, and sarcasm employed for effect are taken seriously and done without apology.

That article ‘My new chosen career’ has since gone live for FC and I’m very happy!

Moral of the story? There’s nothing wrong with first acknowledging that you don’t know something, finding someone who’s more knowledgeable than you are, and then swallowing your pride enough to ask for their help! No shame in that at all; matter of fact, you’ll be better for it.

Toodles!

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