Exploring your God-given talents - Two authors share their experience

It is important for one to discover his God-given talents; those he is aware of and those he would like to explore. It is very necessary to identify different areas of possible talent which include fashion, horticulture, cooking, arts, organising, dance, poetry and speaking.

Once you have identified your talents, there is the need to explore where and how you can apply them and it is for this reason that the Springboard, Your Virtual University, a Sunday evening radio programme on Joy FM, brought two writers, Mrs Elizabeth-Irene Baitie and Mrs Boakyewaa Glover, to educate listeners on how to explore one’s God-given talent.

The show formed part of the Career Development series, which is being held on the theme: “AGENDA 2027: Focusing on the next 10 years and how to gain mastery in your area of endeavour.”

The series is expected to inspire and motivate the audience throughout the country to inculcate the art of planning into the youth.

How the journey started

Answering a question on how her journey as a writer started, Mrs Baitie said she discovered her writing talent at the age of five as whenever she was asked what she wanted to do when she grew up, the only answer was to be a writer.

“It was something I realised when I was very young. I loved books and I was always reading,” she stated.

For her part, Mrs Glover also shared a similar story as she also started writing at a very young age.

“I started writing at a young age and it started from my interest in reading as I would read all kinds of books, wanting to tell similar stories,” she noted.

She said her dad, who was also a writer himself, also played a huge part in her chosen path by motivating her.

Importance of language

Touching on the importance of language in writing, Mrs Glover mentioned there was no way one could write convincingly without having a command over the language he or she was writing in.

She said a writer should be able to have the agility with words to be able to twist them around, bend them and create the situation that they want to convey.

“You need certain flexibility in your mind and be able to flip the words around and use them properly. So for me, you have to possess a command of the language and that will come from reading excellent books because you read and you realise that the way the writer used the words sticks in your mind and that helps improve your use of the language,” she pointed out.

Mrs Baitie also added that: “You are trying to create imagery in someone’s mind and you are trying to translate what is in your head and heart into someone’s mind and that is a difficult thing to do. You want them to feel what you are feeling and see what you are seeing through your mind and the only way you can effectively do that is through language so if the command is not there, it becomes very worrying.”

“You are not writing for yourself but for people so how do you do that if your communication tool is not sharp?” she questioned.

Content

When asked about how she generated content for her books, Mrs Baitie said she always started with a little idea which she then built the story around.

She said those ideas sometimes came from conversations she had with people, something she read in the newspapers or something she saw.

“I therefore often go around with a little notebook so that when I see or hear anything interesting I put it down in order not to forget. These ideas that I write down all become little scenes that a story can grow,” she stated.

“Sometimes you know what to do with the idea and sometimes you know it is interesting but you don’t know what to do with it at the moment so you just write it down and with time you try and make good use of it,” she added.

Begin the hustle

Mrs Glover used the opportunity to advise all potential writers to begin the hustles if they want to explore their God-given talents to the fullest.

“There are some people who will be there and their minds will feel like this is not the right time so they never start the hustle,” she said.

“The moment you would want to start would not look that perfect but you need to start,” he added.

She also urged them not to stop the hustle, stating that “there will be moments where it will be difficult and you would want to give up but just keep going”.

“When you use a muscle, it gets bigger and stronger and you can do so many things with it and writing is very much like this; the more you write the better you get at it,” Mrs Baitie said.

“Exercising your writing muscle by diving into blogs and articles keeps you flowing. If you stop you become rusty and stiff. Practicing will make you sharp,” she added.