Mala Naidoo's Blog, page 4
November 14, 2020
Creative Risks
Dare you should—damned if you don’t Writing might simmer in the novice writer’s subconscious, afraid to put words on a page, or perhaps a manuscript sits half-written or complete, but safely locked in a desk drawer or tucked away in the garage under a heap of stuff. Are you that person? …
October 17, 2020
Patience and Perseverance
As creatives, we are flexible in what we do if we are steering the vessel. A sense of place and time is important to the creative, but in the unpredictability of current times, adapting to everything that comes our way is daunting. Patience is the ultimate virtue in a creative life. Nothing happens …
September 26, 2020
Creative Mindset: Flex and Extend
Routine is necessary to accomplish a finished product. The creative benefits from a routine that maximises goals and intentions. Rote, however, harms creative growth when curiosity is denied in favour of robotic daily ‘doing’ that limits the capacity and capabilities of the mind. Rote erodes enjoyment, takes the fun out of creativity if allowed …
September 11, 2020
Creative Mojo
Being a people-pleaser often impedes the writing deadline. Some perceive writing as not a regular day, serious job, and expectations are that the writer is always available, because the writer is self-employed, locked in the head of imagination that does not,(by choice of some), demand a fixed workspace. Write as a free-flowing …
August 14, 2020
My AllAuthor Interview
Where did you grow up? Do you think your background has colored your writing in any way? I grew up in South Africa during the apartheid era. This horrendous annihilation of a sense of authentic self, visibility and acknowledgement, features in and through my novels in shaping the necessity for inclusivity. What developed your interest …
August 7, 2020
Creating in a Challenging World
We have read it and heard it repeated everywhere we look and listen. Change is — has been — will impact all facets of life. The current global change that has claimed 2020 has challenged the ‘do I dare?’ mindset of the creative. The muse is a sensitive soul. She feels the angst as deeply …
July 25, 2020
May The Trilogy Be With You!
Writing a trilogy is not how I began writing, Souls of Her Daughters. The ending brought on an extension to the lives of Grace and Patience, and as the muse requested two more tales were born ending in the grand finale of, What Change May Come. The second book, Chosen Lives, picks up from Patience’s …
July 17, 2020
Doing Thinking Creating
A creative life calls for a balancing of our daily demands for a true representation of talent and untapped possibilities. Too much doing becomes a mindless mission – routine for the sake of routine. We rise – we shower – we go to work – we return home – dine – go to …
June 20, 2020
2020 and Beyond – Voices in Literature
Diverse voices exist in literature but are under-represented by trade publishers. All hail the dawn of self-publishing! The tragedy of George Floyd’s death in the United States has sparked a resurgence for the recognition of black writers. Read the rumble in the UK here on what the newly found Black Writer’s …
June 5, 2020
May I tell you?
Growing up in apartheid South Africa as a non-white person, living under the Group Areas Act where you only saw people like you with the same coloured skin, living with the knowledge that your people had to be hidden from view — white view, left scarred for life and needing immense strength to shelve the …
