Matters Arising: I want to be a writer, but my parents and peers got me discouraged.

 

Matters Arising: I want to be a writer, but my parents and peers got me discouraged.

One of the professions that people look down on in Africa is the job of writers. To some parents seeing their child or children getting involved in writing is a waste of time to them. Especially when they want to compare them with people whose children are now banker or doctor.

I have been a victim of critics and condemnation while I was a young boy. My passion for letters was second to none. I love art and I like drawing comics and carton. I like writing stories for publications like heart and hint magazine. While reading Novels like Hadley Chase. My Dad tortured me whenever he sees me coming up with creative art like painting and drawing. What he wanted from me is to be solving mathematics and assignment related from elementary classes. Even when math’s does sounds appealing to me.

The greatest rejection that could happen to you as a writer is self-rejection. It is not what people say about you or say to you that matters. For you to scale you must self-talk yourself to success and being a successful writer. It takes effort and discipline for you to say you are a writer. The days of bad English when even you got mocked at or the days of poor tenses when MS word would underline your sentences with red. But you should know that English is our L2. And no know work of art is error free even from Genius. And the days of no power supply and no money to buy candle. And those ideas got escaped from you. All these are challenges that are worth embracing. I can’t stop writing.

The society we live in have so much expectation from us. And especially expectation from parents and family. They knew that you are now a graduate of Anatomy. They expect you to start a career in the Anatomy or medical related and start earning then take good care of things and people around. They need this with utmost urgency.  They feel bad about you when you choose divergence or shift in paradigm. How come you studied Anatomy and Physiology in school then choose to be a writer? This house would not be comfortable with you and us. Your parents called your uncle, and your uncle even called a family meeting. The subject titled is “Hey please help! Egba mi oh Egba wao!!!!!!!! Tunde has chosen to be a writer after years in school.” We asked this boy to school, graduate and to find work regular 8 to 5 works in banks or public parastatals. Look at what he turned to choose. Writing. Mr. Journalist. Ah, sister, writer.

The perception of people about you now become like you are the lazy one. Some would say maybe you don’t want to work. They see reading books, writing stories and even being on computer as something you choose as personal hobbies, leisure, and past times. Anytime you walk in the street, the people in the community start gossiping if you are becoming Psycho! Daddy and Mummy walk into your room to see everywhere full of books. They lament; “My dear, how much are they paying you for writing…you are getting slim…you don’t sleep…”  “See if you fail your course in school. I would disown you as a child…”

How do you prove to the society that you have a career in writing? The money is not forth coming. You have registered for so many unpaid internships.  You have attempted so many affiliates that doesn’t work after sweet mothering you to join their platform. You have volunteer for some many projects. You have written many articles for publications, editorial and newspapers. Yet, all you could get is readers’ comment telling you how good you are and while some criticize your work. And the painful aspect is when the write ups you have done with sleepless night got stolen by media. The painful heartbreak is when you lost your precious work to virus attack on your computer network or flash drive.

To be a writer is an inside job. To be a writer is to follow your conscience. To be a successful writer you must learn to let go of so many noises around you. And to be writer you must stop explaining yourself in any conversation like face-to-face with critics. No amount of explanation would save you from being gossip about. All you need is to ensure you are doing the right things with your time and having a niche to serve in other to make a living. Work smarter and harder to make sure your parents get proud of you for your craft.

Writers’ way back before the age of advanced technologies suffered much. They wrote many articles tirelessly without monetization. They think so hard to come up with article without support from any tech tools like ChatGPT.  Many writers but few were chosen in the writer’s hall of fame. This generation have a different story to share. They can easily write and get paid with smartphones in their hand. Thanks to internet of things.

Purpose Driven Writer

The objective of writing now is to monetize. You can share your work online with different publications and get paid. There are many platforms to start with like www.medium.com by so doing you would be able to earn a living from writing piece of content.

Meanwhile, your purpose should also go beyond the monetary aspect. First things first learn how to write to impact your audience through compelling storytelling.  Then put human effort first before ChatGPT. If all your write ups were ChatGPT enablement. It is going to hurt your creativity. What differentiate you from other writers is your own creativity, ability to make use of ChatGPT when required and ability to blend your own creativity with Generative AI. But try and place your own creativity as number one!

Writing is a career. No where to major your time. Do not major on the minor. And never minor on the major. No when to strike the balance. By so doing you would be able to let the society knows that you are not in for writing for the sake of being idle or in charity. Let them know that the profession of writing is a paying job that involves Thinker or creative thinker. It is an art and is a science. And you can change the world with it.

Your motivation starts here.

You will succeed.