Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Wandering

I was asked to write a short author's bio for some article I had submitted in a competition.
I thought about it while in a matatu from Kisian to Kisumu, and when I got to the house all I could come up with was:
"Dora is a full time wanderer who dreams of becoming a Professor one day. Of what? She doesn't know, but she loves reading and can be spotted at Java sometimes taking coffee. To follow her journey, check out her profile @herhar."
I thought that was not such a serious depiction and so I went for something like:
"Dora lives in Kenya. She loves reading and writing, and hopes to get better at writing if not now, then maybe tomorrow. She can't wait forever you know. To follow her in this awesome quest check out her profile +dora okeyo."
I have since written thirteen drafts and let's just say that nothing comes close to all the stuff I want to say. One thing is true, that I am a wanderer. I am neither her nor there, and I have perfected the art of being elusive especially to my friends of late. Grace complained. Joseph complained. I told them the best way to draw me out of hiding was to invite me to coffee at Java. They did so, and I spent less than twenty minutes with them.
Why?
I am working on a lot of things, but am nowhere near completing even one of them.
This bio has been eating me up today because it's like writing a tweet. I have to talk about myself in less than one hundred words and it's at such time that I realize I have over a thousand words.
 
You know, there are times when the pressure is on you to deliver something and you freeze. I have often used this in my stories. When say characters reach a breaking point and the woman asks the man, "give me one good reason why I should believe you!" And the man freezes. 
He opens his mouth to say what he feels when he is with her, or how he cannot explain why she is angry at him and what he's done. Before he knows it, she has walked out on him and he's single.
 
Crazy, but true.
All it took was one request: "Please submit an author's bio of less than 200 words."
 
I thought about it while sitting on a sambaza from Kisian to Kisumu. I have written a total of fifteen drafts and am still awake as my mom watches "Married Again" ( an Indian drama on Zee World), thinking of what to write and how it will come across. Will it truly depict me?
 

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