{"id":431,"date":"2015-12-02T12:05:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T12:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mrmushava.wordpress.com\/2015\/12\/02\/a-modest-proposal-for-motivational-writers\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T15:15:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T15:15:37","slug":"a-modest-proposal-for-motivational-writers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=431","title":{"rendered":"A Modest Proposal for Motivational Writers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>A navigable screen, in computing, usually points back to a dirty  floor and a crowded workspace at the head of software development.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>This  necessary contrast is equally visible in the creation and reception of  literature in its various categories.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>There are works which lend  themselves seamlessly to their audience and claim the foremost  stacks.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>&nbsp;Yet that polished finish,<span id=\"more-214321\"><\/span> the  illusion of effortlessness in the dazzle of genius, often belies endless  midnight hours of trial and error.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>Succinctly put, greater effort by  the creator means less effort for the receiver.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>In this  instalment, I submit not a papal bull but a modest proposal for writers  to be at it restlessly for the good of literature.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>There is already a  great deal of restlessness in the book sector, but perhaps not the kind  which is culturally profitable.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>&nbsp;An unsettling majority of books being  published in Zimbabwe leaps from conception to delivery without a period  of imaginative gestation.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>While the writers merit recognition for  keeping us posted, it would be much healthier if they harnessed their  energy into something more durable.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>Otherwise, a deathly aura will  forever cloud books which cannot take a life of their own beyond the  support of promo copy.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>These works, currently floating in peer  accolades, often lack the normative outlines and the novel vibe which  should constitute good writing.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>In some cases, what is passed for a book  is a little more than a collation of quotes and anecdotes by  influential figures.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>What remains attributable to the writer  borders not so much on inspiration but imitation.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>While resourcefulness  is a necessary faculty, it must be synthesised and packaged in a  harmonic fashion.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>The dictionary man, Dr Samuel Johnson, says from an  observable record, that a man will read a whole library just to write  one book.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>However, as we have seen in our computing metaphor, the  integration of influence is necessary in the background but must be kept  subliminal for the end user.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>Multiple influences weave into each other  to enrich content at the head of development but if their protuberance  at reception impedes ease of navigation, then there is a problem.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>The  worst fraud in the writing of the day is a tendency by authors to make  free with other people\u2019s work as if they have exclusive access to them.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>As  the terrain is at the moment, isolated notables need critical  rehabilitation to step out of this deluge of content.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>A massive segment  of the book industry in the current setting reflects publicity not  publishing, literacy not literature and activity not artistry.&nbsp;As long  as emerging writers major on detail but not quality and emotive  facility, they will only move by being drawn like vessels without  engines.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>The indie bubble is already enduring polemical assaults  from established writers, some of them rather generalised.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>Sue Grafton  puts down self-publishing to a short cut: \u201cI compare self-publishing to a  student managing to conquer Five Easy Pieces on the piano and then  wondering if she or he is ready to be booked into Carnegie Hall.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>For  Grafton and others, established writers are not necessarily children of  privilege but uncompromising workers who earned their contracts.&nbsp;Such  an assessment however does not consider that the space is rapidly  diminishing in the traditional sector.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>In Zimbabwe, for example, what  worked 15 years ago is a subject of nostalgia, nothing more. To  prescribe the same route for emerging writers is to disregard the  changing times.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>Wole Soyinka implies as much in a rejoinder to a  book when he accuses a \u201csterile literary aspirant\u201d for self-publishing  after self-respecting writers had rejected his trash. However, the indie  bubble is good news in that it allows divergence of opinion and  liberates access to the public square.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>It is a good thing that we can  hear different voices outside the austere structures of traditional  publishing but such an opportunity must be embraced with a sense of  professional responsibility.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>There is need to commit to research  and to cultivate a creative flair so that new works will not only be  timely but also timeless.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>As Leo Tolstoy observes that art obtains when  the writer \u201cconsciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to  others feelings he has lived through, and . . . other people are  infected by these feelings, and also experience them.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>It may be a  fair assessment that local writing has been clouded by the Zimdancehall  effect.&nbsp;To begin with, it is difficult to tell one writer from the  other.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>The same template, and the same anecdotal plug-ins, seems to  suffice for the writers.&nbsp;It is clear what is in jeopardy when writers do  not take it upon themselves to bring something new to the bookstore.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>The  industry is running down to a semblance, but not the substance, of  productivity.&nbsp;Like Zimdancehall again, there is no technical variety.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>It  is possible to predict the next piece by listening to the current or  remembering the elapsed.&nbsp;Sadly, this is true for most of our  mass-produced titles, particularly motivational literature.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>There  is, of course, nothing wrong with the positive drift after which most of  the new books are themed.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>Besides, the fascination with life  enhancement themes is understandable at a time when many are gasping for  the breath of inspiration.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>All the more reason for emerging writers to  have excellence in their bull\u2019s eye when gunning for publicity!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>Motivational  and evangelically themed literature certainly has its place in the  everyday canon as people struggle to make the most out of their  lives.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>However, the trouble is when so many tag themselves into a cause  without demonstrating their commitment to quality.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>While the  motivational upsurge may be sound in terms of its thematic propositions,  there is need to look beyond intention to reception.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>As noted  evangelically themed writer John Bunyan points out in his novel  \u201cPilgrim\u2019s Progress\u201d: \u201cNo one throws away the apple for the  core.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>Inspirational writing may be powered by some of the greatest  ideas but the writer\u2019s responsibility is to break them down for the  largest audience possible in the language of the day.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>What we have, for  the most part, at present, are ephemeral pamphlets of varying volumes,  not works of enduring literary value.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>This weak link compromises  the vast potential for transmission of great ideas through art.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>When  writers recycle scriptures in technically bankrupt paraphrases, they  short supply the self-replicating creative potential of the Bible.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>&nbsp;To  reach the world with their message, inspirational writers need to master  the beauty, melody, colour and potency of language.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: small\"><span>After all, as Albert Einstein says, \u201cCreativity is knowing how to hide your sources.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A navigable screen, in computing, usually points back to a dirty floor and a crowded workspace at the head of software development.&nbsp; This necessary contrast is equally visible in the creation and reception of literature in its various categories.&nbsp; There are works which lend themselves seamlessly to their audience and claim the foremost stacks. &nbsp;Yet that polished finish, the illusion of effortlessness in the dazzle of genius, often belies endless midnight hours of trial and error.&nbsp; Succinctly put, greater effort by the creator means less effort for the receiver. In this instalment, I submit not a papal bull but a modest proposal for writers to be at it restlessly for the good of literature.&nbsp; There is already a great deal of restlessness in the book sector, but perhaps not the kind which is culturally profitable. &nbsp;An unsettling majority of books being published in Zimbabwe leaps from conception to delivery without a period of imaginative gestation. While the writers merit recognition for keeping us posted, it would be much healthier if they harnessed their energy into something more durable.&nbsp; Otherwise, a deathly aura will forever cloud books which cannot take a life of their own beyond the support of promo copy.&nbsp; These works, currently floating in peer accolades, often lack the normative outlines and the novel vibe which should constitute good writing.&nbsp; In some cases, what is passed for a book is a little more than a collation of quotes and anecdotes by influential figures. What remains attributable to the writer borders not so much on inspiration but imitation. While resourcefulness is a necessary faculty, it must be synthesised and packaged in a harmonic fashion.&nbsp; The dictionary man, Dr Samuel Johnson, says from an observable record, that a man will read a whole library just to write one book. However, as we have seen in our computing metaphor, the integration of influence is necessary in the background but must be kept subliminal for the end user. Multiple influences weave into each other to enrich content at the head of development but if their protuberance at reception impedes ease of navigation, then there is a problem.&nbsp; The worst fraud in the writing of the day is a tendency by authors to make free with other people\u2019s work as if they have exclusive access to them. As the terrain is at the moment, isolated notables need critical rehabilitation to step out of this deluge of content. A massive segment of the book industry in the current setting reflects publicity not publishing, literacy not literature and activity not artistry.&nbsp;As long as emerging writers major on detail but not quality and emotive facility, they will only move by being drawn like vessels without engines. The indie bubble is already enduring polemical assaults from established writers, some of them rather generalised.&nbsp; Sue Grafton puts down self-publishing to a short cut: \u201cI compare self-publishing to a student managing to conquer Five Easy Pieces on the piano and then wondering if she or he is ready to be booked into Carnegie Hall.\u201d For Grafton and others, established writers are not necessarily children of privilege but uncompromising workers who earned their contracts.&nbsp;Such an assessment however does not consider that the space is rapidly diminishing in the traditional sector. In Zimbabwe, for example, what worked 15 years ago is a subject of nostalgia, nothing more. To prescribe the same route for emerging writers is to disregard the changing times. Wole Soyinka implies as much in a rejoinder to a book when he accuses a \u201csterile literary aspirant\u201d for self-publishing after self-respecting writers had rejected his trash. However, the indie bubble is good news in that it allows divergence of opinion and liberates access to the public square.&nbsp; It is a good thing that we can hear different voices outside the austere structures of traditional publishing but such an opportunity must be embraced with a sense of professional responsibility. There is need to commit to research and to cultivate a creative flair so that new works will not only be timely but also timeless.&nbsp; As Leo Tolstoy observes that art obtains when the writer \u201cconsciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and . . . other people are infected by these feelings, and also experience them.\u201d It may be a fair assessment that local writing has been clouded by the Zimdancehall effect.&nbsp;To begin with, it is difficult to tell one writer from the other. The same template, and the same anecdotal plug-ins, seems to suffice for the writers.&nbsp;It is clear what is in jeopardy when writers do not take it upon themselves to bring something new to the bookstore. The industry is running down to a semblance, but not the substance, of productivity.&nbsp;Like Zimdancehall again, there is no technical variety.&nbsp; It is possible to predict the next piece by listening to the current or remembering the elapsed.&nbsp;Sadly, this is true for most of our mass-produced titles, particularly motivational literature. There is, of course, nothing wrong with the positive drift after which most of the new books are themed.&nbsp; Besides, the fascination with life enhancement themes is understandable at a time when many are gasping for the breath of inspiration. All the more reason for emerging writers to have excellence in their bull\u2019s eye when gunning for publicity! Motivational and evangelically themed literature certainly has its place in the everyday canon as people struggle to make the most out of their lives. However, the trouble is when so many tag themselves into a cause without demonstrating their commitment to quality.&nbsp; While the motivational upsurge may be sound in terms of its thematic propositions, there is need to look beyond intention to reception. &nbsp; As noted evangelically themed writer John Bunyan points out in his novel \u201cPilgrim\u2019s Progress\u201d: \u201cNo one throws away the apple for the core.\u201d Inspirational writing may be powered by some of the greatest ideas but the writer\u2019s responsibility is to break them down for the largest audience possible in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Modest Proposal for Motivational Writers | Blockspace<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=431\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Modest Proposal for Motivational Writers | Blockspace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A navigable screen, in computing, usually points back to a dirty floor and a crowded workspace at the head of software development.&nbsp; This necessary contrast is equally visible in the creation and reception of literature in its various categories.&nbsp; There are works which lend themselves seamlessly to their audience and claim the foremost stacks. &nbsp;Yet that polished finish, the illusion of effortlessness in the dazzle of genius, often belies endless midnight hours of trial and error.&nbsp; Succinctly put, greater effort by the creator means less effort for the receiver. In this instalment, I submit not a papal bull but a modest proposal for writers to be at it restlessly for the good of literature.&nbsp; There is already a great deal of restlessness in the book sector, but perhaps not the kind which is culturally profitable. &nbsp;An unsettling majority of books being published in Zimbabwe leaps from conception to delivery without a period of imaginative gestation. While the writers merit recognition for keeping us posted, it would be much healthier if they harnessed their energy into something more durable.&nbsp; Otherwise, a deathly aura will forever cloud books which cannot take a life of their own beyond the support of promo copy.&nbsp; These works, currently floating in peer accolades, often lack the normative outlines and the novel vibe which should constitute good writing.&nbsp; In some cases, what is passed for a book is a little more than a collation of quotes and anecdotes by influential figures. What remains attributable to the writer borders not so much on inspiration but imitation. While resourcefulness is a necessary faculty, it must be synthesised and packaged in a harmonic fashion.&nbsp; The dictionary man, Dr Samuel Johnson, says from an observable record, that a man will read a whole library just to write one book. However, as we have seen in our computing metaphor, the integration of influence is necessary in the background but must be kept subliminal for the end user. Multiple influences weave into each other to enrich content at the head of development but if their protuberance at reception impedes ease of navigation, then there is a problem.&nbsp; The worst fraud in the writing of the day is a tendency by authors to make free with other people\u2019s work as if they have exclusive access to them. As the terrain is at the moment, isolated notables need critical rehabilitation to step out of this deluge of content. A massive segment of the book industry in the current setting reflects publicity not publishing, literacy not literature and activity not artistry.&nbsp;As long as emerging writers major on detail but not quality and emotive facility, they will only move by being drawn like vessels without engines. The indie bubble is already enduring polemical assaults from established writers, some of them rather generalised.&nbsp; Sue Grafton puts down self-publishing to a short cut: \u201cI compare self-publishing to a student managing to conquer Five Easy Pieces on the piano and then wondering if she or he is ready to be booked into Carnegie Hall.\u201d For Grafton and others, established writers are not necessarily children of privilege but uncompromising workers who earned their contracts.&nbsp;Such an assessment however does not consider that the space is rapidly diminishing in the traditional sector. In Zimbabwe, for example, what worked 15 years ago is a subject of nostalgia, nothing more. To prescribe the same route for emerging writers is to disregard the changing times. Wole Soyinka implies as much in a rejoinder to a book when he accuses a \u201csterile literary aspirant\u201d for self-publishing after self-respecting writers had rejected his trash. However, the indie bubble is good news in that it allows divergence of opinion and liberates access to the public square.&nbsp; It is a good thing that we can hear different voices outside the austere structures of traditional publishing but such an opportunity must be embraced with a sense of professional responsibility. There is need to commit to research and to cultivate a creative flair so that new works will not only be timely but also timeless.&nbsp; As Leo Tolstoy observes that art obtains when the writer \u201cconsciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and . . . other people are infected by these feelings, and also experience them.\u201d It may be a fair assessment that local writing has been clouded by the Zimdancehall effect.&nbsp;To begin with, it is difficult to tell one writer from the other. The same template, and the same anecdotal plug-ins, seems to suffice for the writers.&nbsp;It is clear what is in jeopardy when writers do not take it upon themselves to bring something new to the bookstore. The industry is running down to a semblance, but not the substance, of productivity.&nbsp;Like Zimdancehall again, there is no technical variety.&nbsp; It is possible to predict the next piece by listening to the current or remembering the elapsed.&nbsp;Sadly, this is true for most of our mass-produced titles, particularly motivational literature. There is, of course, nothing wrong with the positive drift after which most of the new books are themed.&nbsp; Besides, the fascination with life enhancement themes is understandable at a time when many are gasping for the breath of inspiration. All the more reason for emerging writers to have excellence in their bull\u2019s eye when gunning for publicity! Motivational and evangelically themed literature certainly has its place in the everyday canon as people struggle to make the most out of their lives. However, the trouble is when so many tag themselves into a cause without demonstrating their commitment to quality.&nbsp; While the motivational upsurge may be sound in terms of its thematic propositions, there is need to look beyond intention to reception. &nbsp; As noted evangelically themed writer John Bunyan points out in his novel \u201cPilgrim\u2019s Progress\u201d: \u201cNo one throws away the apple for the core.\u201d Inspirational writing may be powered by some of the greatest ideas but the writer\u2019s responsibility is to break them down for the largest audience possible in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=431\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blockspace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-02T12:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-25T15:15:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hardsouth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"hardsouth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blockspaceballads.com\\\/?p=431#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blockspaceballads.com\\\/?p=431\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"hardsouth\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blockspaceballads.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a336a678f28eacb341ce63c6b84b17d0\"},\"headline\":\"A Modest Proposal for Motivational 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\/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Modest Proposal for Motivational Writers | Blockspace","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=431","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Modest Proposal for Motivational Writers | Blockspace","og_description":"A navigable screen, in computing, usually points back to a dirty floor and a crowded workspace at the head of software development.&nbsp; This necessary contrast is equally visible in the creation and reception of literature in its various categories.&nbsp; There are works which lend themselves seamlessly to their audience and claim the foremost stacks. &nbsp;Yet that polished finish, the illusion of effortlessness in the dazzle of genius, often belies endless midnight hours of trial and error.&nbsp; Succinctly put, greater effort by the creator means less effort for the receiver. In this instalment, I submit not a papal bull but a modest proposal for writers to be at it restlessly for the good of literature.&nbsp; There is already a great deal of restlessness in the book sector, but perhaps not the kind which is culturally profitable. &nbsp;An unsettling majority of books being published in Zimbabwe leaps from conception to delivery without a period of imaginative gestation. While the writers merit recognition for keeping us posted, it would be much healthier if they harnessed their energy into something more durable.&nbsp; Otherwise, a deathly aura will forever cloud books which cannot take a life of their own beyond the support of promo copy.&nbsp; These works, currently floating in peer accolades, often lack the normative outlines and the novel vibe which should constitute good writing.&nbsp; In some cases, what is passed for a book is a little more than a collation of quotes and anecdotes by influential figures. What remains attributable to the writer borders not so much on inspiration but imitation. While resourcefulness is a necessary faculty, it must be synthesised and packaged in a harmonic fashion.&nbsp; The dictionary man, Dr Samuel Johnson, says from an observable record, that a man will read a whole library just to write one book. However, as we have seen in our computing metaphor, the integration of influence is necessary in the background but must be kept subliminal for the end user. Multiple influences weave into each other to enrich content at the head of development but if their protuberance at reception impedes ease of navigation, then there is a problem.&nbsp; The worst fraud in the writing of the day is a tendency by authors to make free with other people\u2019s work as if they have exclusive access to them. As the terrain is at the moment, isolated notables need critical rehabilitation to step out of this deluge of content. A massive segment of the book industry in the current setting reflects publicity not publishing, literacy not literature and activity not artistry.&nbsp;As long as emerging writers major on detail but not quality and emotive facility, they will only move by being drawn like vessels without engines. The indie bubble is already enduring polemical assaults from established writers, some of them rather generalised.&nbsp; Sue Grafton puts down self-publishing to a short cut: \u201cI compare self-publishing to a student managing to conquer Five Easy Pieces on the piano and then wondering if she or he is ready to be booked into Carnegie Hall.\u201d For Grafton and others, established writers are not necessarily children of privilege but uncompromising workers who earned their contracts.&nbsp;Such an assessment however does not consider that the space is rapidly diminishing in the traditional sector. In Zimbabwe, for example, what worked 15 years ago is a subject of nostalgia, nothing more. To prescribe the same route for emerging writers is to disregard the changing times. Wole Soyinka implies as much in a rejoinder to a book when he accuses a \u201csterile literary aspirant\u201d for self-publishing after self-respecting writers had rejected his trash. However, the indie bubble is good news in that it allows divergence of opinion and liberates access to the public square.&nbsp; It is a good thing that we can hear different voices outside the austere structures of traditional publishing but such an opportunity must be embraced with a sense of professional responsibility. There is need to commit to research and to cultivate a creative flair so that new works will not only be timely but also timeless.&nbsp; As Leo Tolstoy observes that art obtains when the writer \u201cconsciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and . . . other people are infected by these feelings, and also experience them.\u201d It may be a fair assessment that local writing has been clouded by the Zimdancehall effect.&nbsp;To begin with, it is difficult to tell one writer from the other. The same template, and the same anecdotal plug-ins, seems to suffice for the writers.&nbsp;It is clear what is in jeopardy when writers do not take it upon themselves to bring something new to the bookstore. The industry is running down to a semblance, but not the substance, of productivity.&nbsp;Like Zimdancehall again, there is no technical variety.&nbsp; It is possible to predict the next piece by listening to the current or remembering the elapsed.&nbsp;Sadly, this is true for most of our mass-produced titles, particularly motivational literature. There is, of course, nothing wrong with the positive drift after which most of the new books are themed.&nbsp; Besides, the fascination with life enhancement themes is understandable at a time when many are gasping for the breath of inspiration. All the more reason for emerging writers to have excellence in their bull\u2019s eye when gunning for publicity! Motivational and evangelically themed literature certainly has its place in the everyday canon as people struggle to make the most out of their lives. However, the trouble is when so many tag themselves into a cause without demonstrating their commitment to quality.&nbsp; While the motivational upsurge may be sound in terms of its thematic propositions, there is need to look beyond intention to reception. &nbsp; As noted evangelically themed writer John Bunyan points out in his novel \u201cPilgrim\u2019s Progress\u201d: \u201cNo one throws away the apple for the core.\u201d Inspirational writing may be powered by some of the greatest ideas but the writer\u2019s responsibility is to break them down for the largest audience possible in","og_url":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=431","og_site_name":"Blockspace","article_published_time":"2015-12-02T12:05:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-10-25T15:15:37+00:00","author":"hardsouth","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"hardsouth","Est. reading time":"5 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