Lessons from a Freelance Writer...

Or let's call it letter from a freelance writer. This piece was first published on Jobberman, a career website. There sure are tips for everyone to pick from it. Enjoy! Do you have any more tips? Feel free to share!

How can I ever forget that look on my mother’s face when I told her I wanted to be a writer—a you-are-joking-aint-you kind of look. Her fears were in two folds: why don’t you do something good, well, professional with your life? And the other one: how can you quit your 9-5 job for such uncertainty? I asked myself those questions before making my decision. I’d gotten to that stage where every ‘job’ that tried to reduce my ‘madness’ made me worse. Follow your passion passionately. Forgive the tautology!

I still wonder why it is hard for people to take you seriously when you tell them you are a writer. Maybe it’s because of their opinion of work—work is rising as early as 4:30 to beat the Lagos traffic; wearing that power suit; getting to the office as early as 6am to catch up on sleep. It’s 5pm, work is over. Rather than leave, they wait till the ‘traffic devil’ is placated. So, there’s time for more facebooking. Facebook isn’t bad but we all know it has the power to be your god and you its supplicant! That’s work, serious work or better still, an illusion of work. This is not absolute, there are people who love their jobs and work very hard. But why do people literally sneer at you when you tell them you work as a writer? Take whatever you do seriously even if others don’t.

Seriously, writing is hard work. That you face a blank piece of paper and have to transfer the thoughts in your head into words is hard enough, let alone thinking of your ‘target’ audience which influences your style, and not forgetting drafting and re-drafting. Writing, like every other business, has to meet a need: either for the writer, the editor or the reader. There’s a value chain. The writer is the producer/manufacturer/MD CEO (just may not be as rich); the editor is the primary market/consumer and the readers, the secondary market. God bless you, the editor does not like your story, there’s no money, shikena! Then you write loads of pitch emails most of them unsolicited, few may hit an acceptance. 

One editor told me: “the first lesson every writer should learn is bombarding. You have to know how to bombard editors for them to get your attention.” Maybe I should let Willa Carther say it all: “Writing ought either to be the manufacture of stories for which there is a market demand—a business as safe and commendable as making soap or breakfast foods—or it should be an art, which is always a search for something for which there is no market demand, something new and untried, where the values are intrinsic and have nothing to do with standardized values.” In my case, it’s ‘arty’ business. That for you my young professional is good knowledge of the dynamics of your profession.

Some editors also want you to write for free. Phew! They forget that like every other job a writer has capital which could be as tangible as a laptop connected to the internet or as immeasurable as the time spent harnessing creative energy in each word to mean exactly what’s intended. They go like: shebi it’s just a review, just write something. Sorry it’s not just a review—I have to buy the book; spend my invaluable time reading it and write what I think about it. As good old dramatist Moliere said “Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.” We may do it for free because we are anxious to see our name in print—little bouts of excitement but happiness won’t put food on the table. What value do you place on yourself?

Every paid worker has one fear: the end. This end comes either as a sack letter; a retirement letter, downsizing (thanks to the global crisis), or the EFCC hounding you down to present your financial history. You know what I mean. A writer also has fears—it’s not the rejections slips. It’s not even writer’s block; we succeed in slipping in and out of those. Our constant fear is that maybe someday, we won’t be able to do the magic again. We would lose that ‘talisman’ that we wound around our fingers when we write those stories. Maybe someday something will happen and we will lose our minds and the ability to write. Lurking in every writer’s head is the fear that they’ll move to the world beyond with many untold stories, unrealized potential. Most times, that fear drives us! Don’t let your fear kill you; use it instead for your own good.

My dear friend, that’s the little I can advice from my little writer’s corner. I hope it makes sense. Remember that professionalism is not in the sharp suit, neither is it in the 9-5 boredom many endure. It is in the value that you bring to your job. Call me a vanity writer if you like but I know I just added value.

Is Writing Still Relevant?

In this very short piece, Temitayo Olofinlua makes a defence for writing...you tell us why you think writing is still relevant. The piece was first published on the Future website. Read and comment...


The title sure makes me sound like an advocate for writing. All you can see is a lawyer trying to make a case for writing. The question shouldn’t really be is writing now irrelevant? Permit me to tweak it a bit—was writing ever relevant? If it was, why will it stop being relevant?

An attempt to answer these questions takes us on an historical trip to the origins of writing. And raise more questions. No one knows exactly when writing started but fingers have pointed to Mesopotamia and Egypt as the first sites of writing. Before then, all we had was speech. First question—why was speech insufficient? There was an increasing need to trap moments, to keep records. Writing met that need. Over the years, the functions of writing expanded to include storytelling and commemoration of the dead.

Fast forward to 2010—a fast paced world that threatens to leave you behind in the labyrinth of time. Writing has captured; preserved and transferred reality as it occurs across miles. We write our lives daily on Twitter. We start revolutions on Facebook. We take records with our diaries. Obits fill newspapers. Writing is with us. Unlike many things that die with time, writing has recreated itself in many forms—novels, newspapers, magazines, films, plays, internet, e-books, phones, amongst others. Writing has taken on many forms beyond handwriting; has it lost its significance? No!

Final questions—what’s the relevance of writing to the writer, the reader and the society? Writing makes us laugh; cry; smile; get angry; take action; pleases us. Writing humanizes us. Writing freezes moments in words. Until speech (or any other thing) outmatches writing in these ways, it may take a while before writing takes a backseat of irrelevance.

MGDFive.com: Voices Saving One Woman at a Time

Sometime last week, I stumbled on this blogger contest on maternal health. I read through many interesting ideas. And decided to write on MGDFive.com's innovative idea on media and maternal mortality. Enjoy it. Feel free to post your comments; your voice could also be a voice  for change. The post should be up on the Mommy Movement website soon.


MGDFive.com: Voices Saving One Woman at a Time
“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.”~ Virginia Woolf.
Early this year, I saw three short films Too Young, Too Far, Too Late about maternal mortality by Communicating for Change, an NGO based in Lagos, Nigeria. For the first time the ‘demons’ that kill pregnant women by the minute clawed at my heart so strongly. These women were not just figures, they could be my sisters. It could be me, on that bug-ridden bed, soaked in my own blood, dead cold.

Ignorance is a primary factor that leads to maternal mortality: ignorance from women on the importance of their health; ignorance by health workers; ignorance from the government. Ignorance reeks everywhere; it kills us. The media can rescue us from this death. MDGFive.com’s innovation is about the possibilities of media to keep women alive.

A coalition between the arts and the media will go a long way to effect the change we see: one poem, one song, one film can save one woman at a time. Entertainment sinks the message into the deepest parts of us. It is watching Too Young and being grateful for the power to decide when I would get pregnant. It is watching Too Far and being sad about pregnant women in rural areas walking miles to their death. It is watching Too Late, and getting angry seeing religious ignorance as a blanket of death. I bought a book on maternal health for my pregnant sister; I wanted to see her alive even as I carried her child. I dream of women’s smile as they look into their babies’ eyes.

I stumbled on Lisa Russells idea about the role of the media in safe motherhood recently. My co-blogger made a blogpost about it. Two poet-friends are interested in the project. Information is the first step; living is the end in sight. Media has the power to transform the dying ‘anonymous’ woman to your mother, your sister and your wife. MDGFive.com can unify forces for change at the personal, communal and social levels. Each poet, each writer, each person in the MDGFive.com innovation is a voice; a voice with potential ripple effects. These voices can keep thousands of women alive.

The road to change is not easy but it is not impossible. The revolution has started online but shouldn’t end there; the drums should be heard everywhere: schools, offices, government houses, hospitals and the market. Maybe then, women would pay more attention to their bodies. Maybe the government would execute more maternal friendly laws. Maybe medical personnel would pay closer attention to women’s health. Maybe life-endangering practices against women would end. Words and pictures stamp themselves on our hearts. They cling to our throats till we change. They would not let go until women no longer die as they give life.

Temitayo Olofinlua is a freelance writer based in Lagos, Nigeria. Her essay, “Fear—The Enemy of Gender Equality” won the Women Learning Partnership Essay Competition earlier this year.

Saraba, AW and A Thank You Note

Okay as usual, we are always sneaking around the internet for what's new and hot in the world of literature. This week, you have two online magazines, a short story and a winning essay, served hot and fresh. Enjoy!

Saraba Mag is one and they celebrate with an anniversary issue. Very rich with interesting memoirs, short stories and interviews.

African Writing Online is such a good one too, with many interesting interviews. BTW, that's their last 'fully' online edition. They are going to be in print. Yay!

Read Chika Unigwe's short story 'Those Safe Hands of His' in Open Wide Magazine.

BTW, Temitayo Olofinlua won the WLP Essay Contest. This is a thank you note from the Bookaholic Ladies. Thank you for all the support. Read the winning essay, On Fear.

Bookaholic Temitayo Needs Your Votes :-)

It's been fun for us doing this blog. And this is not about quitting though it sounds like the first lines when bloggers want to say goodbye. We are so many other things than Bookaholics, we write (that's very obvious by now!); we also enter for writing competitions.

This is about one of such competitions. It's also about Temitayo one of the Bookaholics. It's so exciting that she's been selected as a finalist of the WLP essay competition :--)

Would be great if you can read the essay here and comment on it. It doesn't end there blog about it, tweet about it, facebook it, forward it to your friends. There's the Audience Choice Award for the essay with the most comments. Your comments count much for her, and you would have extended the boundaries, in a way.

Time is not on our hands, we only today left for the votes. So what you waiting for? CLICK! READ! COMMENT!

Some Excerpts from the Essay.

"A woman’s fate is determined by men and women who play God. Her first gift is a doll-named-Baby with which she rehearses home maker, wife and mother. She is groomed to be a ‘proper woman’ — the silent one when the men are talking. All these in preparation for her husband’s house; is that not where all ‘good’ women end? A woman’s worth is defined first by her father, then her husband and last by the children she bears. She’s more blessed if she bore boys. If it’s a girl child, irrespective of her career success, she has to follow her mother’s steps. A ‘good woman’ doesn’t break the cycle! That’s not all, these ‘inequality gods’ add spice to her lifespan with other tough stops like the lack of freedom of choice; gender discrimination; rape and assaults of all kind. A woman should not allow these ‘inequality gods’, be they spiritual, economic, political or social, to script her life and that of her daughters."

"In Buchi Emecheta’s Joys of Motherhood, Nnu Ego the main character laments when she realizes that she has lived for others but herself. To quote her, “God when will you create a woman who will be fulfilled in herself, a full human being, not anybody’s appendage?” In response, that complete woman is you and me—educated or illiterate; rich or poor regardless of nationality. For ‘complete women’ to live in a gender equal world, courage is important.

As a woman, learn that nobody will give you equality.

You just have to decide that you are taking it.

Be fearless and then take it!