#WriterSpotlight – “Writing is amazing, it’s electric, and I am the conductor.” Ajikobi Ololade

fb_img_14801931198758515

Hello Sparkle Writers. It’s the beginning of the year and we are excited to feature our very first writer for the year. Whoop! His name is Ajikobi Ololade and although he’s a young writer, he has achieved a whole lot.

This is his interview with us. Enjoy!

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Ajikobi Ololade Emmanuel. I was born into a Christian home, and I’m the fourth child out of seven children. I grew up and had all my early education in the metropolitan city of Lagos. I’m currently studying ‘Pure and Applied Chemistry’ at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology.

How did your journey as a writer begin?

Growing up as a kid with so much emotional imbalance, I had so many things trigger my feelings, my thoughts and my emotions, ranging from society to friends and to family. I searched and craved for an opium but found nothing, and expressing myself  was almost an impossible task. Sometime in June 2016, I came across a young man on social media who writes so well. After going through his page I thought to myself, this is exactly how I feel, these are the thoughts I ruminate on, I can relate to all of his write-ups, ‘I can do this’ I thought to myself. Then I began an ‘unofficial’ mentorship program with him and that was how my writing escapade began.

What do you love most about writing?

I love absolutely everything about writing. It’s beautiful really, compressing life, feelings, emotions, chemicals upon chemicals, hundreds of years of study into words. Writing is amazing, it’s electric, and I am the conductor, I pass it on, and through my words people feel strength, and hope. It’s a beautiful thing when your words can reach into the brain and change hormones, for that split second, minute or half a minute of attention span, you control the imaginations of tens, hundreds of people… It’s amazing really, it’s not just words, you can summarize history in just three lines, and in your words, a universe exists, your universe. You can design stars and heroes, villains and monsters, you can create a world of peace or chaos. In those words you hold the power to life and death in your ink.

You are a script writer. Can you tell us where your inspiration to write scripts comes from?

My inspiration comes from our every day living activities, it comes from the happenings in my environment, it comes from my personal experiences, it comes from friends silly mistakes, it comes from music, it comes from movies, it comes from paintings, basically anywhere and anything.

In your writing journey, what challenges have you faced?

Well, I would say I haven’t really faced any threatening challenges (yet), apart from the fact I’m trying to balance writing and school work there’s nothing too serious.

What brings you the greatest fulfillment as a writer?

Stories have the ability to entertain, to inform, to teach, to inspire. So nothing brings me more joy or fulfillment  than when I put a piece out there and get a positive feedback or review from my audience, stating how they’ve been positively influenced, inspired or motivated.

fb_img_14801927533087324

There are people who believe that writing can never be financially rewarding. What are your thoughts about this?

Well, speaking with the little knowledge I have about this I can tell you writing is obviously not lucrative, though there’s a level of financial efficiency.

There’s an image writers have planted in the mind of our readers, we keep saying we are not in it for the money which seems true to an extent, but this just adds to their beliefs. Another issue is, the art of writing is not given enough recognition, it still seems underrated. However, we can’t totally rule out the fact that writing will be financially rewarding. It might just take time.

Do you think you will ever retire from writing?

Absolutely not, I don’t think I will ever retire from writing. It’s what makes our life worth living, so it’s what we’ll do till the end of time.

Aside from writing, what are your other hobbies?

I play basketball (a lot), I’m a guitarist, I’m a gym rat, of course I read books, and I take roles in stage dramas.

Any advice for upcoming writers and poets?

Listen dear, they’ll tell you because it’s not taught within those four walls it’s not a profession. They’ll dictate a career for you because they doubt your passion. They’ll mock you at a failed attempt, but there’s a difference between occupation and purpose, Occupation is what you do for a living and purpose is what makes your life worth living.. Strive  against all odds discover your purpose and stick to it.

 

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. ( Log Out / Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s