Unpublished

Please, don’t get published.

No one wants to die without publishing something, even if it has little meaning or adds no value.

That’s because some of us who want to remain in the hallowed hallways of libraries and educational institutions have nothing more to offer the world than the regurgitated, paraphrased and misquoted theories and ideas of others. This is not a result of a wanton lack of meaning or value within ourselves. Far from it.

Getting published and becoming a bestselling writer seems to be on every person’s bucket list.

This means that even though, month after month, manuscripts are churned out and turned into book-club favourites with official sounding ceremonies popping up quicker than mushroom churches, more of these best-sellers and literary-prize winners are worth less than local swazi sativas found in the shadiest part of town.

Baby steps. Before you publish, you must edit, credit and re-edit. Before that, you must write. Just before that, research – a book that was never researched reads like a manual in a foreign language. Useless. But first, read.

One last time: read, research, write, edit, credit, re-edit.

Namaste