ONE
“DETERMINATION & REJECTION”- A great combo to becoming a good writer
(YEAR 2024)
“At this rate the number of readers has dropped drastically. No one wants to read a newspaper or a book anymore, not even the bible, and why is that?” I asked.
“Because everyone has immersed themselves in technology, Florence. No one wants to read a book anymore when it can be adapted into a movie. No one needs a newspaper when we have the news to watch on our TV screens and mobile phones.” He answered.
“If it continues this way, then soon enough books will go extinct,” I fearfully stated the obvious and he smiled and said, “Books will never go extinct, my dear. Don’t let the world make you think that.”
And while I pondered on his words, a thought I have been having in a while suddenly came back and I brought it up.
“What if I find a way to make people read again?”
“And how do you intend to do that?” He asked as he suddenly became intrigued.
“I do not know how the tech world works, but I intend to create a sensory experience for people to feel what it is like to be in a book.”
~
(YEAR 2020)
~{November, 16, 2020, during the coronavirus outbreak}~
This was the first time in all of history to be recorded in Nigeria that seniors who were to graduate from high school were writing their final year exams in late October which rolled all the way to December which was never meant to be.
I was part of this prestigious set and while everyone was thinking of a way to write and get the hell out of high school while barely reading their books, I was immersed in how to write a novel that can be felt.
I cared less about school and was in those categories of people who wanted to read and get done with anything called school so I can focus on what and who I want to be -A writer
“Once you graduate, what do you want to study in college, Florence?” My father once asked and I fumbled because all my life, I have been studying for him and not for me.
And one of my greatest outdoing of myself is studying science instead of art but I do not regret it, after all everything has a purpose.
A mistake in itself is a purpose.
“I want to st-”
“You know you will do well if you studied medicine or even law, right? With the way I am going, I want all my children to surround me with different skills. One is a doctor who will take care of me while another will handle my business and then the other will fight for me in court, if that should ever happen.”
Now that was the problem, he had already planned out our lives and I hated that.
I was only 17 years old and all I wanted was to satisfy his desires. I wanted to be that golden child who he loves, so I said, “I would like to study agriculture.”
“Good choice! Now you are talking!” He happily exclaimed and I felt glad that I made him feel that way but I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel bad.
I was raised in a city called Jos, located in the Northern part of Nigeria which can be shortened to J-Town and brought up in a family of six; My father, mother, two sisters, a brother and myself.
I am the second daughter and the second child born by my parents.
“You will go to school in China!” He proudly proclaimed while knowing fully well that he didn’t have the resources to even make a visa for me.
Yes, we were lacking in finances but that didn’t mean we were poor.
“I will love that,” I believingly said but deep down I had my own goals to achieve.
(YEAR 2021)
By the time I was done with high school, I already had a book down and was excited. Since I loved the American style even though I have never been there before, I mostly wrote about light skinned people.
I loved to read stories and novels which is why I could write and because of my love for reading, I happened to stumble across an illegal app called ‘light reader’ created for the Nigerian audience since we couldn’t afford to read books online due to the fact that we lacked money.
And during my time of reading a book by a famous WebNovel writer called Ash_Knight17, and another writer called Jikanyotomare, I then discovered that at the end of every chapter, she would say something about WebNovel and I got intrigued.
Mind you I had a book I had been writing and was looking to complete it so I can begin applying to publishing houses behind my father’s back since he didn’t like anything writing or drawing.
He saw no value in it and felt it was a waste of life and resources.
Yes, that is how he saw art -like thrash
He is the epitome of an African father but that didn’t mean he lacked knowledge on how the tech world works, in fact he knew his way around the computer and other gadgets I had no knowledge on.
The first time I had given him my book to read when I was 8 years old, he surprised me by reading it but when he gave it back to me, he told me to look for something reasonable to do with my life and stop doing such things.
That was painful as a little girl who looked up to her father for support. Yet, back in my primary school, a teacher noticed how good I was at writing and I told him I wrote a book which he happily told me to bring so he could check it out and give me his honest review.
A few days later, he called me to his office and said, “you are good but you can be more” and handed me back the book I crafted out myself with my own hands.
I loved paper craft so I had created my own notebook with a book cover of my own drawing and a well styled title; “The Evil Twin”
When I took the book, it had a lot of red underlinings and corrections which made me nearly cry but one thing was for sure, he loved it and amongst all told me to reduce the usage of ‘so’
Now, fast-forward to today, on seeing a book by Jikanyotomare titled “The Love of A Lycan,” I decided to look for the WebNovel app which is owned by a China company and it led me there.
As happy as I was that I would be able to share my work with readers and possibly earn, I realized there were things I didn’t know.
I didn’t know there was something called genre, POV, reader audience and so on. In other words, I was a complete novice.
And seeing how disoriented the app was, I got discouraged and went back to simply reading other people’s works.
Yet, determination drove me back to that app because of two things; one, to show my father that I can be successful in writing and rub it in his face, two, to earn and start my life.
But who would have thought that none of that will happen.
What delusional thinking I had as a teenager.
My first ever book on WebNovel was HER BLOOD.
When I discovered how the app worked, I posted my first book and excitedly waited for the readers to pour in and begin to read my work but nothing happened.
Two days went by
A week
A month
A year….and nothing
Just total silence like my work didn’t exist and I cried my eyes out.
Nonetheless, my will was stronger because one of the things WebNovel helped me realize is that I was finally getting the experience I needed to become a better writer.
