‘Concentrate on Characters’

One of the last things that Doreen Baingana said at the reading was ‘concentrate on character…!’

The best advice I have ever heard on writing prose/fiction.

It was a book reading organised by Cassava Republic, the publishers (in West Africa) of Doreen Baingana’s Tropical Fish, and the Abuja Chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors. A sizeable crowd of writers and lovers of literature had gathered at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja on Monday, 28 September 2009.

Doreen Baingana is an award-winning writer from Uganda. She thrilled the audience with excerpts from Tropical Fish. It was a wonderful experience as she led us into the lives of her characters. It was unanimously agreed that she has indeed been able to show us her characters in simple language. She attributed her simple language to her work with the VOA. Indeed, the writing was unpretentious!

I came away with an autographed copy of Tropical Fish, which I will cherish so much. The author signed with ‘enjoy the trip to Uganda!’ but we all agreed that she had indeed portrayed our lives in Nigeria as well.

Let me go and start reading my book! Perhaps I can now start writing good stories by concentrating on my characters!