Africa-Press – Lesotho. IN today’s piece, we focus on how we can write effectively by mastering the art of observation. In order to write well, one must be a keen observer. He or she must have a sharp eye for detail.
A good writer is one who has the ability of taking in all the details of their environment. Writing is a deeply immersive activity that requires one to paint all the details and particulars and colours of a particular event, person and place.
I think you have already seen that fine writing creates a mood or atmosphere. A beautiful piece of writing engages the senses. The reader must be able to hear, feel, touch, taste and smell the details of anything written about.
Here is an extract which demonstrates the essence and skill of good observation: “Lowering the fence poles at the entrance of a plot where an ox skull for a scarecrow blanched on a pole, they measured their job at a glance – a tangle of wild weeds entwined with creepers.
But the soil was good and they would make it as clean as a table top. This year Beaubrun wanted to try eggplant. “Line up!” the squadron chiefs would yell.
Then Simidor Antoine would throw the strap of his drum over his shoulder. Bienaime would take his commanding position in front of his men. Simidor would beat a brief prelude, and the rhythm would crackle under his fingers.
In a single movement, they would lift their hoes high in the air. A beam of light would strike each table. For a second they would be holding a table. Simidor’s voice rose, husky and strong: “Stroke it in!” The hoes fell with a single dull thud, attacking the rough hide of the earth. ”
What a fine read! Have you seen how moving and colourful the extract is? There is no doubt that you have sympathised with a group of people who are driven to work under compulsion. They are made to work in an agricultural enterprise as slaves.
We have seen how the weeds have been described, the rhythm of their hoes, the dingy environment where they worked interspersed with an intermittent ray of light which created a rainbow-like effect.
We have also heard the “yell” of the squadron chief which made us shiver with fear; his voice is full of sheer cold command. So, as we have demonstrated, good writing is captivating because of its attention to detail.
Learning to observe is the hallmark of effective and colourful writing. But for one to observe, he or she must be a person who is keen, deliberate and alive to his or her environment.
This means that if you are to observe and develop good writing skills, you have to take things at a ponderous pace, slowly and almost imperceptibly taking in all the details. Let’s look at another excellent extract which aptly demonstrates keen observation: “Manuel skirted the thicket.
The old clearing had eaten away its edges, but now a stubborn growth of arborescent cactus bristling with needles, their broad, hairy leaves thick and shiny like the skin of the crocodiles, was reclaiming its rights.
When he got home, the sky, turned iron-gray, was pressing down like a hot kettle top on the clearing in the trees. Their hut, leaning against the arbor, seemed as though abandoned for a long time.
Bienaime was nodding under the calabash tree. Life had been thrown off stride, congealed in its course. Squalls of dust swept the fields. Beyond the savanna, the horizon cut off the sight of hope.
Mending a dress that had been worn out a thousand times, worried Old Delira went on the same everyday thoughts: food was getting low; they were already reduced to a few handfuls of millet and Congo beans; oh! Virgin Mary! It wasn’t her fault, she had done her duty and taken precautions in keeping with the wisdom of her ancestral gods.
Before sowing the corn at dawn in the vigilant red eye of the sun, she had said to the Lord Jesus Christ, turning to the east, and to the angels of Guinea, turning to the south, to the spirits of the dead, turning to the west, to the saints, turning to the north, she had said to them, as she scattered the grain in the four sacred directions:
“Jesus Christ, angels, spirits of the dead, saints, here’s the corn that I give you. Give me in return the strength to work and the pleasure of reaping.
Protect me from disease, and all my family, too – Bienaime, my husband, and my boy in foreign lands. Protect this field against drought and voracious beasts. It’s a favor that I ask you, if you please, through the Virgin Miracles. Amen! And thank you!”
What an evocative extract this is! The extract, through careful and eyeful observation, has allowed us to immerse ourselves in the growing pains of a community battered by drought and hopelessness.
The sun is scorching, the fields are dry and there is no respite on the horizon. So here we go! It’s not easy but if we work to develop the art of close observation, we will be able to capture all the five senses in our beautiful writing.
For More News And Analysis About Lesotho Follow Africa-Press
