Paying bills through writing

There are many avenues of writing. Winnie Thuku-Craig, Bonnie Kim, and Julius Sigei said jointly at the Daystar University’s writer’s workshop, Nairobi Campus. This Saturday’s morning was inspirational and informative as has been the trend for the past seven weeks.

Julius, the Nation’s editor said there’s a lot to be contributed to the newspapers: the literary section, opinion and educative pieces. Magazines, brochures, and blogs are other avenues to explore. He shared his writer’s journey and discouragements from critiques. “As long as you have a seed of writing, never say die”.

Winnie, with five titles to her name is a ghost writer, blogger, poet, songwriter and motivational speaker. “People expect me to be older. You don’t have to wait to be 50, to contribute to this generation”. Her writing came through a painful experience of losing a baby, a near death experience. In her book, Broken to be made whole, she speaks of stillbirth, a taboo subject in Africa.

Her life has been a series of long leaves. Being put on bed rests, from her first loss, an accident that broke her leg, and her two subsequent pregnancies. “This is the fourth time I have come out of my house this year due to my current pregnancy”. These breaks have produced her writing which pays her bills, though she is an accountant and has never been to a writing class.

Bonnie in his mid twenties has ten books to his name and is a motivational speaker. With a background in IT, he started as a volunteer computer tutor for genocide orphans in Rwanda in 2007.  He then served in cyber cafes in Kenya and later became Nakumatt’s head of training. He quit after five years, for full time writing.

His advice to cyber clients led to encouragement to write. His first book, Working beyond your limits was stolen by a cyber typist. He doesn’t have rough drafts, “writing like speech, should be intuitive. This has been proved by great speeches like Martin Luther’s ‘I have a dream’”.

Content management on social media and corporate blogs is another avenue. Writing is a one stop shop that pays bills. A simple proposal for writing after identifying the gaps, would earn a writer the job.

The workshop is open to the public for 500 shillings. Come discover more on writing, every Saturday from 8-11 a.m.