Hi, my name is Owolabi-Amos Jeremy and I was probably born into writing.
Wow, that really sounds like the catchphrase you would hear at the beginning of every episode of a series. Just like ‘ Hi, I’m Barry Allen and I’m the fastest man alive’ or 'My name is Oliver Queen and I’ve been stranded on this island for five years with only one goal . . . survive’.
Anyway, let me introduce myself. My name is Jeremy I am a 16 year old Nigerian writer, Steemit blogger (the teen with steam for steem), songwriter and musician. I am writing this post as my entry for the first task of the Sndbox Summer Camp: Writing Quest.
Moving forward, I am a writer of almost any type of writing but I specialize in prose-fiction, poetry, songwriting and article-writing. Although, most of my writing these days is mostly for my steemit blog, my writing journey didn't start from steemit. I started writing at a really young age and although I'm just 16, I can say I've been writing for about ten years now (Yes, you heard that right, since I was around six years old). For those who think I’m exaggerating, think again. I am a sixteen year old, who is a first year student studying law at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, after graduating from high school at age 15. I finished my primary school education at the age of nine and when I was six, I was somewhere around the third grade and third graders should be able to read and write, isn’t it? So yeah, I started writing stories almost immediately after I learnt to read and write. Over the years, my writing has evolved and grown almost just as much as my physical body has grown (puberty though…. Urrk). Well, for me, writing is more than a hobby or just something I do during my leisure time. It is a culture and a way of life.
Writing, although an art, is a science.
It is a form of breathing and it can become a person’s heartbeat. It weaves the fabrics of my very existence. I am literally addicted too writing and I write almost every single day of my life. Even when I’m not writing, I am probably thinking of what I could write or what I should write next. Yes, I am that addicted. The reason is not far-fetched! Writing is an awesome way of conveying emotions or fighting societal ills. Whenever I am clouded by emotions even I can’t understand, I write, because by penning down my thoughts, I get relief. I have never been a good fighter or someone who can protest so well but by writing I have found it easier to express my feelings about so many things I see and hear around me. I believe that the pen is the ultimate weapon against all forms of ills. After all, the pen, they say, is mightier than sword.
The pen is the weapon that writes/rights all wrongs
But here is a more detailed narration of my continuous and never ending voyage on the sea of writing
My Birth into Writing
Are you ready, y’all
If so, say aye aye captain!
I could really say I was born into writing because I've been writing for as long as I can remember, just like I have already said earlier. Most of my childhood memories begin from around when I was five or six years old and I have a few recollections of writing when I was just that young. Way back when I was just a little kid growing up in Ibadan, Nigeria, I used to write these short stories and there was actually a time when my elder sister and I did this little collaboration thing where we wrote a bunch of short stories and compiled them into one book which we created by stapling a bunch of papers together and using some blue paper as the cover. Our grammar was probably bad and the stories were probably whack, but to us, it meant a lot back then. We were really proud of ourselves at the time and there was this joy I felt about being able to write stories like that. The joy of being able to bring threads of my imagination together and weave them into ink penned on paper. There’s no greater joy. Of course, like the ecstatic little kids we were, we showed this little book to mum. I can imagine my little self saying something like 'Mum see, mum see! We wrote a book' (or something like that...lol). She promised to publish the book and all but she never did, which is probably a good thing. Despite that let down though, I kept writing.
I used to make books by getting paper together and then strapping it together with a broom stick. I would then write my stories inside. I probably had a lot of self-made books like that and there was a time i drifted towards making comics, but that didn't last anyway. After a while, I started writing my stories in proper books. Whenever I got to a new class, my parents would buy me a new set of notebooks, so I would keep some of the notebooks in a safe place so I could write stories in them later. I wrote my first proper short story when I was about 11 or 12. It was a story about an orphan boy or something and how he was able to succeed in life through hard-work, I really dedicated a lot of time to that story and it was my first really long story. I kept writing for a long while until I lost the book I was writing it in. It really hurts me that I never got to complete that book but I'm working on so many different books right now that I've scarcely had time to mourn over the lost book.
Songwriting
I really had a lot interests and hobbies which my sister also loved while growing up and music was one of them. About the same time we were writing all sorts of short stories, we were also composing songs. We never really wrote them down though. All we did was compose them then sing our lungs out till the song got stuck in our memory. I still remember a few of these songs and anytime anyone of us remembers a song and sings it, we both begin singing out our lungs once again like kids, laughing like crazy (those are good times). As I was saying before I got distracted, I never wrote songs I composed down up until I started rapping. I heard a rap song for the first time when I was eight years old, somewhere around the sixth grade (primary 6). It was the song ‘Love the Way You Lie’ by Eminem ft Rihanna and I took time to memorize every single line. After that, I was utterly mesmerized by rap music, that I started composing my own rap verses. I still remember the lyrics of a few and here is one.
I go from street to street
I don’t forget to greet
I do my kind of beat
It’s so hard for me to meet
I don’t go on my lane
She tells me I’m so lame
This is so insane
Cos I’m getting all the blame
I’m a way better rap artiste right now but I never did forget the lines of that verse as wacky as they were, I still remember a few of my old rap verses and songs but sadly that would be the only one I share today.
Anyway, till today, I still write all sorts of songs (not just rap) and its always really exciting for me to give melody and flow to the thoughts I pen down. So, yeah, I love writing songs!
Poetry
Poetry is probably my favourite type of writing. Perhaps because of it’s beauty.
I think poetry is the highest form of art
I don’t mean to be biased to one from of art because I am involved in so many, but I really can’t help favouring poetry over prose, drawing and all the other forms of art I do, except music though. But true music is poetry, so that’s a win-win for me (hehe). Anyway, like I have said earlier, I started my writing journey with story-writing. However as the troubles of began drifting in during my teenage years, I began to write poems. I wrote my first poem around when I was twelve or thirteen. I was inspired to write this poem when the mother of a close family friend, who happened to be like a godmother to me, passed away.
My eyes to the sky
Tears rolling down my cheeks
I cannot cry
But are not these tears on my cheeks
I scream,
Oh death
Like a dream,
You left
But I shall show no sorrow
For we shall meet tomorrow
(I cant quite remember this line but I know it’s something about meeting at the masters feet)
Goodbye, adieu
Right from that moment, I began to see poems as a means of escapism from pain and a means of quick and easy self-expression. My love for poetry was one of the reason why I changed schools when I was leaving Junior Secondary (Junior high) for senior secondary (high) school. My former school was a Federal Science and Technology School and due my new love for the arts, I gave up my dreams of studying aeronautical engineering for English and Literature and had to change to a school that teaches them. Although, I have now decided to study law and not English or Literature, I still really love Literature and English and had A1 in both during my finals (not bad, uhn?). My decisions shocked everyone since I was more of an all-rounder who did well in all subjects and everyone expected a bright kid like me to do a science course, but that didn’t change my mind. However, I still love Science so much and I even write science articles once in a while. After all, writing is writing and like I said, I can write on any topic I lay my hands on.
Article writing
I started article writing during my High School days of writing essays. I used to enjoy writing articles on the essay topics given by my English teacher and that sort of just imbued a great interest for writing articles in me. Till today, I love writing articles a lot and apart from the few I write on my blog here on steemit, my only other article writing experience was that I wrote an article for my school’s yearbook, once. I would love to reiterate that I can write almost anything.
My Interest in Taking Writing as a Profession
Although, I am studying to become a lawyer, I am still very much interested in pursuing a career in writing. I feel I have already started my writing career since I actually earn from steemit and a few other writing jobs I have. I also have a novel which I am writing on Wattpad called the Diary of a Nigerian Teenager. However, I hope to go as far as publishing books of my own as I have already taken part in some publications during my school days. The first time I ever took part in a real publication was last year when I was involved in two school publications, one was a collection of short stories for which I wrote two stories (one titled the Slough and the other titled Beneath the Veil). Aside from that, I also wrote an article and a poem in the yearbook. Right now, I'm working on publishing my first solo novel and I have already written over 20,000 words (I'm not even nearly halfway done with the novel yet though). I have to note that aside from this novel, I’m also working on about four more novels, as well as a novella or two which I hope to publish in the near future. I have written the first few chapters and mapped out the plot for each of them and all that is left is for me to put the pen to the paper and bring the novels into reality because they are already real in my mind
My writing style
Like I have said almost a bi-zillion times, I write almost anything and in the same way I write with so many different styles.
When it comes to prose-fiction, I at times like to write using first person narrative technique in which I put myself in the shoes of the protagonist. However, most times, I tend to use omniscient point of view too in which I know and can write about what each character is thinking (basically, I know everything about every character). I also tend to be very verbose and descriptive and I like to use simple and easy to understand expressions, so everyone can easily get the message without having to check the dictionary 10 times over. However, when it comes to poetry, I’m a bit more high-handed with my diction. I go for BIG words and use a lot of figurative expressions (especially puns) which I believe add more meaning and an ounce of mystery and encryption to my work. I believe that poetry should be a bit esoteric and subject to a billion interpretations and this is why I write my poems the way I do.
I also tend to try to be jovial and carry the reader along when I’m writing an article or a post like this one. On a very good day, I can write an article of over 2500 words and when I do so, I do not want my readers to get bored at any point, so I try to write like I’m actually conversing with them. I believe that makes it more interesting to read. Sometimes I wish I was a comedian so I could make my posts funny but, hey, I do my best. I also fancy adding arts I make or poems I write to my stories.
My dreams
The sndbox is a community that serves as an incubator for creative and entrepreneurs. It is a place where one can grow into the best at what they do through coaching and mentoring. Also, sndbox supports her members in achieving their goals and dreams. It is a place where dream can come true. I want to become a sndbox member because I strongly believe in the selfless vision behind sndbox. I am always working endlessly to become a better version of myself and I always want to improve and as far as becoming a better writer and quality content creator is concerned, sndbox is one of the best places to learn as I can rub minds with and learn from the best of the best on a personal level. This would really give a young teenager like myself a brilliant opportunity to become very good when I grow up. My primary reason for wanting to join sndbox is so I can be groomed for the future. The sndbox is also a great place to meet like minds and form strong partnerships and healthy relationships. However, I also have goals of helping others to.
I am constantly looking forward to bringing in more and more teenagers like myself into the light of steemit and with the support of sndbox, I could start a moment called sTEENit, that would drive hard to invite more and more teenagers to steemit so they too can earn money to save up for college, assist their parents and all that. This would be done through what I call peer-to-peer reachouts which can be documented on the steemit blockchain in form of posts by participants who successfully invite another teenager they know. It would a positive improvement for both steemit and the world at large because with vibrant teenager thronging into steemit, not only will there be a boost in population and awareness about steemit, there would also be a reduction in the over-dependence of teenagers on their parents. We would be building teens with steem as their steem and grooming future leaders and world changers. Also, I feel that steemit, through sTEENit, can be used as a medium for learning.
One of the most potent arguments about kids being able to join steemit is that they wouldn’t focus on their education. However, through sTEENit we would start a tag called #learnandteach with which students can research and read up various school topics and then come on the steemit blockchain to give lectures on this topics in forms of blog posts or vlogs. AFTER ALL, TEACHING IS THE BEST WAY TO LEARN, as it is very hard to forget what you teach. In other words, kids could be lEARNing and EARNing at the same time. That has a really nice ring to it, don’t you think. So this can be a massive boost for the educational system. A world where you get monetary reward for studying is every student’s dream, trust me on that one and of course there’s much more that sTEENit could be used to achieve, but I’ll stop here for now.
One of my biggest dreams on steemit is to start a community that helps other writers like me earn better on steemit. Although, this dream started with what I called the poetic-surge, which was aimed at keeping poetic dreams alive on steemit, after thinking more and more, I’ve begun to dream bigger than helping just poets and I would love to create a community that rewards poets, as well as prose writers, song writers and artists. It would be called The-surge and would have sub-communities like the poetic-surge and the likes. Although I once started activities for the poetic-surge by running a few contests and all that, I had to pause running the contests, not because I got tired but because I didn’t have the required funds or support to continue. However, I believe that with the support of sndbox, I can easily be in a position to resurge the poetic-surge and even amplify it into a bigger and better community that would help a broader selection of people by teaching them how to write better, rewarding them for writing well, holding contests, bringing writers and artists together to form good partnerships and so on.
I have even many more creative ideas I hope to bring into reality and getting into sndbox would really be a great first step in achieving them. I could go on and on, but I have written over 3k words already and would hate to bore you so, now I have to let you go.
Thanks for reading
With love,
(the teen with steam for steam)
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