S5 Ep. 307 A Writing Coach Teaches Kids How Stories Travel

SPEAKER_03: I'm going to ask you a series of questions. Then I'll come in to help your thinking in the process. Why, you know, how to think through as a writer, then the journey starts from there. Okay? We're going to start now. Our question. Let me. SPEAKER_04: So you're going to take this and introduce yourself. Speaking to the microphone, okay. What's your name? SPEAKER_07: My name is Michael Daniel. SPEAKER_04: Michael Daniel. You are the Nigerian name. Yes. What's your Nigerian name? Chim Kamsu. Chim Kamsu. I like that. Okay. How old are you? SPEAKER_07: I'm nine years. SPEAKER_04: How are you in? SPEAKER_07: I'm nine years good. SPEAKER_04: You're nine? Perfect. Class? SPEAKER_07: Basic five. SPEAKER_03: Basic five. What's the name of your school? SPEAKER_07: Hebziba Bilingual School. SPEAKER_03: Hebziba? unknown: Yes. SPEAKER_07: Bilingual School. SPEAKER_03: Bilingua. Wow. Okay, good. Welcome. Chinkam so. SPEAKER_04: Michael. Daniels. Good. unknown: Okay. SPEAKER_06: Morning, sir. My name is Abola de Angel Uluani Femi. Angel Uluani Femi. SPEAKER_04: Angel. So you're going to be the one to save us today. How old are you? SPEAKER_06: I'm 13. 13? What class? SS1. SS1. And the name of my school is Epziba Bilingual School. SPEAKER_04: Epsiba Bilingual School. Alright. Welcome, Angel. Thank you, sir. SPEAKER_08: Good morning, sir. My name is Falano Ninila Laulua Zoe. I'm 11 years old. The name of my school is Heziba Bilingual School. SPEAKER_03: Hezeba Bilingual School. They've hijacked me today. Healtziba Bilingual School, and I don't I don't mind it. I like that. Alright, let's hear from Daniel. SPEAKER_04: Daniel, introduce yourself. SPEAKER_07: Good morning, sir. SPEAKER_04: We can hear you, Daniel. You're whispering. SPEAKER_09: Good morning, sir. SPEAKER_04: Good morning. SPEAKER_09: My name is my name is King Daniel Solomon Andrews. I am I I I am six years old. I am in Hebrews Baba Balangua School. SPEAKER_03: Your name is King Daniel Solomon. You know how powerful that name is? That is the whole universe in one name. Do you know that? King Daniel Solomon. Powerful. I like that. Okay, guys. You're all welcome. No, let them say I'm not done with them. So we're going to start this this way. SPEAKER_01: You're going to tell me why you think you want to go on this journey with me. You understand what that means? SPEAKER_03: You say you want to write a book. So I'm going to ask Holote that question, then you tell me why. Then we'll go on that journey. Is that okay? SPEAKER_01: Yes. SPEAKER_03: Alright, Daniel? Sorry. SPEAKER_01: Michael, am I correct? unknown: Yeah. SPEAKER_01: Chicom Sub, okay? Go ahead. SPEAKER_07: I want to write a book so that I can inspire young children with my books. SPEAKER_04: You can inspire young children. SPEAKER_03: So now so when you say young children, it means you're not young anymore. Is that what you insinuate? SPEAKER_08: I am. SPEAKER_03: You want to inspire the world of children, you know, with your work. SPEAKER_04: Is this your first time? SPEAKER_01: No. SPEAKER_03: You've written a book before? Yes. Have you published before? SPEAKER_01: No. SPEAKER_03: You know what it means to publish? SPEAKER_01: Yes. SPEAKER_03: What does it mean to publish? SPEAKER_07: Uh to uh uh design the book and make it presentable for others read. SPEAKER_03: Long and short. You see all of this? They are called published work. So to publish means to have your book on this shelf, either digitally or physically. Digitally is like on Amazon or any of the digital platforms, okay? SPEAKER_04: Nice. Okay. Angel. SPEAKER_06: Okay. I think I would like to go on this journey because you think or you know. I I know I would like to go on this journey because based on the way the country is now, I think teenagers need books to like you know, read and inspire them to like make the country a better what do you know about the country? SPEAKER_03: The way the country here tell me how is the country? The country here you're talking about Nigeria, isn't it? SPEAKER_04: So tell me what's the country like? SPEAKER_06: Based on what I see, I think it's now a corrupt. Okay, it is a corrupt and it's no longer safe in security. SPEAKER_04: Really? So you feel right and would help us get out of it. SPEAKER_06: Yes. SPEAKER_04: You know that. Amazing. All right. SPEAKER_08: Okay, I actually have two reasons. Number one is what she said. Nigeria has become how'd I explain it? Corrupt, insecure, and she's on the break to a downfall a little bit. So on the break to a downfall. A downfall. Yeah. So if we can get these books into the minds of children who are leaders of tomorrow, they can be inspired and actually make a move to make the Nigeria a better place. Another reason, I think books no, books are windows to the world. SPEAKER_04: Books are windows to the world. SPEAKER_08: Yes, you can read a book in your room and find yourself in China or Japan. Yeah. So instead of traveling around the world, you can just read a book. Okay. And you will know about a particular country or a town without even going there. So that is why I think I should write a book so that people can learn about Nigeria. SPEAKER_06: Okay. SPEAKER_08: And maybe someone can, you know, come and help a bit. SPEAKER_04: Uh vice versa. Vice versa. Alright, good. Daniel, why do you want to write? SPEAKER_09: The what? The full armor of God. SPEAKER_04: The form of God. SPEAKER_09: The the full armor of God. The full armor of God. SPEAKER_03: Do you know what the armor of God is? You do. And what do we use armor for? SPEAKER_09: For fighting against the devil evil cheeks. SPEAKER_01: You know for fighting against the go up, Daniel. Sorry. King Daniel. King Daniel. And I get you. I get you. So Jeff, help me, please. SPEAKER_03: So feel free. As we're talking, if you have a qu if you hear, you know, you have a question, fine. But I love your perspective. I love it. You know, the reason why you want to write, or the reason why you want your work to be out there, I hear you talk about culture shaping. I hear you talk about fighting corruption in our country. It's so amazing that at your age you know what corruption is. It's unfortunate. Oh my goodness. Because when I was your age, it was SME Street and all that we were playing around. We don't know anything about corruption, but the world we live, you know, the country we are in, even nine years old now, know what corruption is, and it's that it's okay. And it's good. And she said something that got to me that books are windows to the world. So there's this poem written by Emily Dickinson. You can write it down and you go research it. She said something that is so amazing in that she was talking about books, that there's no free gate like a book that takes you lands away. How frugal is the chariot that bears the human soul. It takes no cost or toll. Don't cram it. Please don't cram it. Go research it there. So when she talked about that, Emily Dickinson. I don't know if she's related to Charles Dickens anyway. And that poem was written, I think, in 16 something. And she was so apt, Dickinson, she was so apt in that expression. So books take your lands away. There's no chariot, as in and how frugal is the chariot. You don't pay a toll, there's no cost to it. If I want to know what China looks like, Shanghai or New Delhi in India or New York City in America, or even Oju Elecba, I can pick up a book. I can pick up a book. So what happens is the minute I start reading the book, I can smell what that place looks like. I can taste it. I can walk in it. That is to say, my five senses can be activated and somewhat I'll be teleported, as it were, to that location. You get me? So let me tell you something. When I was growing up, I used to, in our generation, it was called Sesame Street. I don't think any of you know what Sesame Street. You know Sesame Street. Okay, what's Sesame Street? SPEAKER_08: It's like a TV show. A TV show. Some Muppets learn lessons and teach children how to Fantastic. SPEAKER_03: Fantastic. So Sesame Street was put together by the American educational system in the late 60s into the early 70s to teach children, you know, and we caught up with it. It came to Africa and Nigeria, and you know, that's my generation. We we wake up every afternoon, we watch Sesame Street. Now you know the word, do you know the meaning of the word sesame? SPEAKER_08: What I know is the like spice, I don't know. SPEAKER_03: Sesame seeds, thank you. So sesame is from the word sesame seeds, but this is where they got the concept of sesame to create the show Sesame Street. Alibaba and the 40 Thieves. You've heard about Alibaba and the 40 Thieves? Okay, don't worry, write it down. You go, you read about it. Alibaba and the 40 Thieves is a story of Alibaba and his friends who are thieves, who became thieves. 40. It is similar to the story of Robin Hood. You know Robin Hood? What do you know about Robin Hood? Good, thank you. Even though we can't prove it, but it was a fiction. It is believed to be a fiction created, but I still will not go there. Alibaba and the 40 thieves existed somewhere in the Middle East, the Arabian Desert or the Arabian Peninsula. That's why the name Alibaba. So they went out to read, like the story of Robin Hood. So each time they come back, they keep their roots in a cave. And you know the secret word to open the cave. Guess open sesame. So these are the elements of writing I'm trying to teach you, your imagination traveling. Open sesame. So when they say open sesame, it means one, you're part of the gang, two, you know the secret word. Three, you are part of us. And the cave opens. So you see now that imagination is very powerful when it comes to writing. So growing up, I wanted to learn how to speak very well. Do you like the way I speak? You do? Okay. So let me tell you how I learned how to speak, which is part of writing. So I sit in front of television, Sesame Street, and I listen to the way the conversation flows, how they pronounce words, how they give out words. Then I now like moved from sesame street to watching CNN, which I don't do anymore. Don't ask me why. So I used to listen to CNN as a child. Then a teenager, we used to have names like Riz Kahn, Jonetta Mann. Then there was this fashion lady, Elsa Clinch. She comes on CNN. My generation will understand what I'm talking about. And the way they spoke, their body language, their composure on TV, I noticed that. It's like they are seeing themselves talking. So what I did was to stand in front of a mirror and try to speak to myself, looking at my image in the mirror. I started practicing speaking, and that was how I got how to speak very well. So mirror your audience when you're writing. You want to communicate a message to them, correct? unknown: Yes. SPEAKER_03: So can you see your audience? Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Who is your audience? SPEAKER_08: Readers. SPEAKER_03: Readers. Who are the readers? SPEAKER_06: People the books get to. SPEAKER_03: People the books get to. Do you know them? SPEAKER_06: No, no. SPEAKER_03: But you want them to know you. So you need to imagine where they are. What if your audience is just one person? One child. In that community, somewhere in Zungeru. Or far north. SPEAKER_06: If you're aware of the child and no, don't answer. SPEAKER_03: I want you to travel. That's what I'm doing. We're traveling now. Okay, imagine your audience is in the US. United States of America. Maybe somewhere in Georgia. Have you been to America before? SPEAKER_06: No. SPEAKER_03: But you know, you can go to America by writing. Correct? Fine. Now, you look at the map of America, you see the size of the map of America, you look for where Georgia or California, Texas, or something is, and it's like, okay, I want my book to travel this far. Okay? Now the next question you ask yourself is what kind of language do they speak in America? What kind of language do they speak in America? Sorry? SPEAKER_05: No, not British, like their own kind of English. SPEAKER_03: America has their own kind of English. The Americans have their own kind of English. SPEAKER_08: Yes. SPEAKER_03: Okay. What's what do you call it? SPEAKER_08: For me, I'll say broken. SPEAKER_03: Broken? Oh. So Nigeria has her own kind of English. Yeah, really? So the Brits have their own kind of English. What do they call it? SPEAKER_05: Broken. SPEAKER_03: Broken? Okay. So let me give you a secret also. You're correct. The Americans have a language I describe as being expressive. You know, Americans are very expressive. They describe everything they say. So let me give you an example of an American speaking. If an American wants to describe this street, he's not going to tell you when you drive, when you drive right, you turn left, you see one black. No, the Americans won't do that. The Americans will like tell you, you drive two clicks, you see a traffic light. You take your first left turn. Or they tell you when you jump into the ditch, you take one Mississippi to Mississippi. You know what that means? One Mississippi to Mississippi. Breath pattern. So they are very expressive. The Americans are very expressive when they are right and very descriptive. The Brits are not so much, they are very conservative when they're expressing themselves. And polite, exactly. They are polite to a fault. Then Nigerians, do you know how Nigerians express themselves? Very well. Very well. We are loud in our expressions. Very loud. You know, when you when you see a Nigerian expressing himself, you will know. Even if you pick up a Nigerian material, you say this guy is a Nigerian. The person that wrote this work is a Nigerian. You know, we are very loud in our expressions. So you begin to understand your audience. I can write like an American. I have mastered it. And when you look at it, you can't tell that it's a Nigerian. Just like when you pick up Chimamanda's book, she writes like an American. But she's a Nigerian. Very descriptive, very detailed. She allows, I mean, the Americans allow your imagination really travel. They don't try to make you figure it out, while the British make you figure it out when you're writing. I mean, they are when you read, they are right up. You understand? So these are the things, these are the elements you need to have. You need to know as you sit down and you begin to scribble. My audience, the way they describe, express themselves. What else? How you want them to feel? How should it feel? SPEAKER_01: Can you describe the smell? Who can describe the smell? Who can describe this smell? Can you describe the smell? Try. Give it a try. Angel, give it a try. SPEAKER_03: Describing a smell. Okay, who can describe a color? SPEAKER_01: Can you describe a color? SPEAKER_03: You know, something I I like about women and colors. Women understand colors more than men. And they describe it so well. So imagine a woman describing red to you, and she really wants you to understand that it is red. She either goes with this word, cyan red, pepper red, cameroon pepper red. And it's like, do you have to do all of that? But she's trying to describe it, yes. She's trying to tell you the range of color, that's red. Or she's trying to tell you onion pink. And it's like, okay, pink is pink. Why should you say onion pink? But she's trying to tell you that the shade of this pink can only be understood if you know what onion looks like. Yeah, good afternoon. What's her name? SPEAKER_05: She's Audrey Charles. SPEAKER_03: She's late for my class. SPEAKER_05: So it's traffic. SPEAKER_03: In this Abuja. You're welcome, Audrey. Please let her come closer. She will listen to the video and catch up. King Daniel, come this way. All right. It's pleasant, correct? So you got into that room. The smell hit you. You couldn't resist it. It stopped you on your track. And all you could remember was mommy's givinchy. So it means the smell is sweet, correct? It's pleasant, correct? So it means I should take more steps into the room, correct? Okay, let me describe this again. And when I got into the room, the stench stopped me halfway. My stomach ached like a pungent. You know what a pungent smell is? Awful. Very like a pungent mechanic sweaty body. Have you been to a mechanic before? SPEAKER_07: Yes. SPEAKER_03: You know how that place smells? Good. Is it pleasant? So now you're describing a smell. So whoever picks up your material and reading could either like, okay, let's continue this journey. Let us continue this journey. So you must master, you must learn to describe the unseen and make it sin. Is that okay? Is that okay? Then you must learn how to communicate emotions. What's emotion? SPEAKER_08: Like what you feel. SPEAKER_03: Is it feeling? Oh. SPEAKER_08: Scientifically is actually hormones. SPEAKER_03: Scientifically is actually hormones. Father, now you read good books. Scientifically is actually hormones. So she has come from a scientific view. So I want to describe an I want to describe a feeling. She called it. I mean, I want to describe an emotion. She called it feeling. You called it hormone scientifically. What do you call it? Feeling. Okay, let me let me help you so that you can break it when the time comes. Spell emotion. SPEAKER_01: Split the word emotion. Try. Mm-hmm. SPEAKER_03: Split it. You need syllables. Okay, that's one part I'm coming to now after this. Syllables. Emo okay, give me two out of it. Huh? So E motion. E motion. Energy in motion. Did you get it? Because when you say feeling, so when you feel something, what happens to you? Yeah. SPEAKER_01: Sad. Okay, correct, but there's something you do. When you feel something, there's something you do. SPEAKER_03: You emote, you move, you correct? When you're happy, you jump up. When you're sad, you keep something that way. But that's you're expressing what? Energy. Emotion. Emotion. Emotions move you. So when you're communicating emotions, it evokes something. Sorry, am I speaking above your head? SPEAKER_05: No. SPEAKER_03: You know the meaning of the word evoke? Yes. What does it mean? SPEAKER_08: To reject hope. SPEAKER_03: Huh? SPEAKER_08: Evoke means to let me not say phosphory, but bring up it excites. SPEAKER_03: Thank you, Falona. To emote, evokes. It's like you are invoking. You are what? Invoking. You know, in Africa, when they hear you use the word invoking, they think you're one mysterious person. See, that guy was invoking. But it's simple, you're expressing an emotion. That's all. There's nothing uh metaphysical about it. Sorry, I'm speaking above your head. Okay. Okay, fine. No, I want to believe yes, because you read, so you should. When you what do you need a minute of metaphysical? SPEAKER_05: Something mental. SPEAKER_03: Nah, that's not it. Metaphysical is something intangible. You know, meta is a Greek word. It was coined by Aristotle. When you can't see something, meta. That's why we you see they call some people meta-humans. This more it means what? Superhumans. The powers they have are unseen, but you see them expressing themselves. Superman is a meta-human, by the way. All right, let's come to grammar in writing. So this is one thing I see is my opinion. And I've proved it. But I know some people will argue with me because I've written. Please, can we get a copy of that book? Building Beyond You. SPEAKER_01: Guys. SPEAKER_03: My books is in the other roving heights, the one in Wussea. Maybe I'll bring my books here. So this book, can you see it? We wrote this book. Do you know this lady? Tara Feladru Toy. She's a very powerful woman. She made cosmetic beauty, what do you call it, makeup in Nigeria, a household name. So we worked with her to bring this book to life. Do you know why I brought it? It is a testament to what we do. And that's why I want to say it now. Writing is not being grammatically correct for your information. Somebody says, Why are you teaching our children that? I'll let you know. Can you write in your native language? Can you think in your native language? You try. Where are you from? Or your state. So you're Yoruba. Igbo. Eboy, Ibo. Plateau? Good. Plateau is not Hausa. What's the native language of Plato again now? SPEAKER_05: Well, the major tribe then, if you just say it's housa, because they have varieties of different tribes. SPEAKER_03: Everybody sitting down here can think in English, correct? So I want to help you think in your dialect because that's another way to on earth open so many locked-up potential for people to understand. So, how many of you have seen an Italian movie before? Or having you heard Italian language before? Yes. Okay, fine. The root word or the root, the foundation of Italian language is what? Who knows? It's Latin. Most of the language you see in Europe, the root is Latin. Now, English says, I want you to say this. I L O V E Y O U. How do you say that? How do you pronounce it? I love you. Okay. All right. Now, let us flip it to Italia. It will help you with what I want to do now. SPEAKER_01: T-I-A-M-O. A M O R E. SPEAKER_03: Can you pronounce it? Ti amo or Tiamo amore. SPEAKER_07: Ti amo. SPEAKER_03: Ti amo amore. Do you know what that means? It's the same thing you just said in English, but the other way. Me, I love you. Is it correct? Is it correct? Linguistically speaking, is it correct? It's very correct in Italia, but in English, you say grammatically is wrong. You can't say me, I love you. No, you are you're supposed to say I love you. Ti amo. Ti amo. Or you say ti amore. It means I. Or me love you. That speech in English. Abby? But now that's how the Italians express themselves. So when you read an Italian material, when they are speaking, when you're reading it, when they are speaking, they're very passionate about it. Now bring it to your Yoruba language. You want people to experience the Plato language, the Egbo language from that dimension. SPEAKER_01: How do you do it? Who wants to try? SPEAKER_03: You know that those things your mommy will shout at you in the kitchen or at home in typical Eba or Yoruba act deep. Who wants to try? You know, certain things your mommy says at home when you try to translate them into English, like it doesn't make sense. Like your mommy says, I'll kill you in Yoruba language. You know, she doesn't mean like literally killing you. You understand? But these are strong adjectives to communicate frustration and anger or discipline. So your your writing must transcend. You know what it means, you know what it means of transcending? Go beyond. Okay, it must transcend the common street language. Okay, now imagine you want to communicate pidgin. Because you know, you know, pigeon is a very powerful language. Do you know that now pigeon English is recognized in Oxford that we have some pigeon nuances in Oxford Dictionary? I don't want to call. They always start with the bad ones. Yes, there's one bad word. They put it in Oxford Dictionary. I won't say it here. Go and Google it. Do you know why? Should I tell you why? Pigeon English is commercially viable. You know when a language is commercially viable, you know what it means for a language to be commercially viable. Do you know? SPEAKER_01: You can buy and sell in Pidgin English. SPEAKER_03: So it's commercially viable. And when a language is commercially viable, it means it can be taught in schools. Because you need to understand the street. So now I want to communicate Pidgin English in my writing. How do I do it if I don't understand the nuance? How do I do it if I don't understand the spirit behind the letter? You know, writing. Writing has a spirit. Hope you know that. SPEAKER_08: That's what makes it that interesting. That's what makes it that interesting. SPEAKER_03: Yes, that's what makes it interesting or boring, because it has a spirit. So let me explain that aspect to you now. When you pick up a material, when you're reading it, you hear a voice, don't you? You do hear a voice. SPEAKER_08: Like you're the one reading it voice. SPEAKER_03: It's not necessarily your, yes, you're the one reading it, but it's not your voice. Do you hear a voice? Do you know what that voice is called? Should I tell you? It's called persona. Okay, persona. Here in English they tell you persona non grata. It means you are not granted access into this place. That's Latin. So when you pick up materials, there's a voice. But it's not your voice. It is the voice in it. It is called persona. Even the writer is not the writer's voice. It's not like you reading Alice in Wonderland. You see a lot of characters created there. And it's like, excuse me, how would somebody think out such? So there's a spirit behind it. And not until you understand that you won't communicate it. Like the street pidgin English. So now, now when you go out, I'll try and use the pigeon English, the brand of pigeon English we speak in Abuja, because Pidgin English has a lot of brands. Do you know that? You go to Lagos, they speak the kind of pigeon English they speak, you'll be wondering, what are these? Then when you go to Wari, you're lost completely. If you go to River State, Port Harcourt, then if you now go to the east, the fusion, you'll be like, Am I still in this country? But again, it's to show how diverse we are. You get so now you go on the street, you ask, you want to buy something? And ogar, how much? First of all, you've identified the person who is selling as what? What does og mean? A boss. So you now see that you can't call somebody who is selling something a boss. But you know what you just did? You created an elevation. You have put a person on the pedestal to look at you as lower than him, og you see now, you're trying to express how much for this thing or for this thing. And the guy looks at you and tries to tell you, and maybe you anger him. And he goes, Ogar, I go change them for you. So, what does it mean to say, I go change them for you? Typically in English, if you want to translate that, what would you say? You not like what I'll do to you. He's trying to show his frustration or whatever, I go change them for you. So somebody heard us one day speaking, a non-Nigerian, and he kept hearing us when we see us how far? How far? So the guy was like, excuse me, what's the meaning of how far? And we all laughed. To him, he was seeing a distance or something, like people are traveling. So, how far? It's a simple way of asking. How are you? How are you doing? So these are aspects you must understand when you are communicating. One last thing I'm going to say. Then oh, we'll still have a little time. We'll now interact. Writing is therapeutic. SPEAKER_01: You know what it means for something to be therapeutic? It can okay, what's therapy? SPEAKER_08: Like helping someone pass through trauma. SPEAKER_03: Okay. Helping someone pass through trauma. A therapist. So you can put that you can put that word into the mood of medicine. You get me? Medicine or health care. When you say something is therapeutic, it means it has the potential and capacity to heal you. SPEAKER_05: Equal to medicine. SPEAKER_03: Equal to medicine, exactly. Like what medicine can do to you. So writing is therapeutic. That's what I, you know, one aspect of writing. So imagine you go through the therapy of writing, you just sit down, pick up your material, and you're just writing. You're just expressing yourself. If you do that for a while, you see this ease you will have all around you. Thank you. So you must see writing from that perspective. Is that okay? The mistakes in writing. Mistakes in writing. There's never a mistake in writing. So let me put it this way: a dancer on a stage, imagine a dancer on a stage, a ballet dancer, or he or she makes a move according to the script. And along the line, maybe something happened and they lose their balance and they fall. You notice that they don't stop dancing. They what? They improvise and they keep going. Do you know what I call that? Should I tell you? Making the fall part of the dance. So when you're writing, you must make the fall. Part of what? Do you understand what I mean by that? That thing you call the mistake is not just a mystic. You improvise exactly. You add it to the writing. You don't cancel it. You don't say, oh, I made a mistake. Nah. Your mind may have wandered to a place that you needed to be to bring that aspect into the work. So you don't write with the intention, oh, my grammar is wrong. That's secondary. That's what editors do for you. That's what she does. I mean, you know her. She's my editor. We work together to edit my work. So sometimes you make grammatical errors. Okay, no problem. We will walk around it. That's very secondary. SPEAKER_01: Very. SPEAKER_03: All right. Now is your turn to ask some questions, then I will come back and ask more or say one or two things again. SPEAKER_01: Questions? Who wants to start? Oops. Did I turn it off? Okay. Okay. SPEAKER_08: I don't think my question is really a question. So in writing, for example, how like you said, if you want the audience, sorry, if you want your book to reach one an audience in a particular place, what do you do that? Actually reaches that place because you know books can reach this person and meet this person and meet this person. So, how we how do you know that it'll reach that that audience that you really want it to like reach? SPEAKER_03: You just work as an aspect of publishing, it's called marketing and promoting your work. Like I want my material to get to the US. I want my material to get to the US. So, what do I do? I look for a channel. And one of a good channel is Amazon. You go on Amazon. Then I do what I call targeted promoting. I look for a particular region. I want my work to go there. You promote it. But don't worry, that's very far from what we're doing. You've not written the work yet. So, but I like that question. SPEAKER_01: Any other? Yeah. Thank you, sir. So uh you said writing is um there's no mistake in writing. SPEAKER_02: Yes, so that brought a word to my mind. Poetic license. So, sir, how do you bridge between poetic license and in writing there's no mistake? I just want to be clear. SPEAKER_04: Poetic license. You are licensed to be poetic. SPEAKER_03: Okay. You're welcome. Now, one factor human beings crave for is attention. We all need validation in one way or the other. So the question you ask is that person, you want to you want him or her to validate you? Sorry, where did the person get the license from? You know, when you hear somebody call, I'm a specialist, who made you a specialist? And who made that specialist that made you a specialist? A specialist. Who? So you must own. Yeah. You know, in the military, when they train you, they get to a point they call you've been licensed to what? Kill. The license you have to kill is when the danger has crossed, be careful. So you can use every force necessary to stop that danger. So when writing, give yourself the license. SPEAKER_01: Be poetic. Go ahead. SPEAKER_08: My question is you talked about a voice in the book. Now, you said that the voice is not really you, it's not really the writer. What if that voice is wrong? SPEAKER_03: Good question. What if that voice is wrong? So, good question. What if that voice is wrong? So that is where, as I as a writer, I'm a Christian. I subject all of my thoughts to my conviction. So the minute I get a voice that I know by practice is not of God. SPEAKER_01: What do I say? Bye. You know, bye. SPEAKER_03: Yep. So you must learn. I like that question. You must learn as a writer to descend the voice. Because you said books are the windows to what? The world. And we have some bad things in the world, you know. SPEAKER_08: But what if now what you wrote may appear differently to someone who read it? So the person is now like, is this what this person wrote? SPEAKER_01: Have you seen a river before? SPEAKER_03: What does a river do? It flows. So imagine hundred people jumping into a flowing river. Do you think they will have hundred different experiences? Yes. SPEAKER_05: One night and jump, one and two. SPEAKER_03: Nobody will jump. Two people cannot jump into the same spot in a river at the same time. Nah. Good. So the hundred people who jump into a river will have hundred experiences and perspective. Thank you. SPEAKER_01: So you as a writer, you're a flowing river. That's why. SPEAKER_03: Sorry, a little detour. That's why you go to a crowd, somebody is talking, and somebody comes and asks 10 people. Please, what did he say? My brother, I don't know. After you were listening to him, he said we should we should stand up and run. You ask the second person, the other second person may tell you, he actually said we should dress up very well and run. You ask the third, the third may tell you something quite different. So he tells me that everybody, we are all at a different when we are consuming content. SPEAKER_01: I love your questions. Any other one last one. Go ahead. I enjoy it. Go ahead. SPEAKER_08: Now, you have a book. SPEAKER_01: Yeah. SPEAKER_08: And you wanted to like they call popular books bestsellers. Yes, best sellers. Now, if you started small, for example, you started small. How and you make your book, you think that you make it made it very well. What makes you think that that book would be a bestseller? SPEAKER_04: So let me tell you. SPEAKER_03: Bestseller simply means number of books you sold. It doesn't mean how many people that read your book. That's the idea of a yes. So is the number of copies you sold. How best-selling authors, yes, it's the same thing. The number of copies you sold within a given period. You get me? So let me give you a secret. I like that. But let me give you a secret. So what best authors do when they work with renowned or known publishing firms, first of all, they create a community. They give the book some excerpts from the book. You know what an excerpt means? Just aspect of the book to the community. The community will read it, and when they publish it, that first day they publish it, the community will just go and buy the books on Amazon and the numbers will be reading, and it's not called bestseller. So that goes back to what? Promoting. Promoting your work. So imagine you write your book and all your classmates, your school, neighboring schools, buys your book. If we come up with a matrix in measuring how many people bought your book in one week and you sold 2,000 copies in a week, you're a best seller. SPEAKER_08: Like Robin Hood, you said fiction imaginative stories. So you said Robin Hood, it's a story that is nobody is sure whether it's true. So what about the author that wrote it? I don't really understand. SPEAKER_03: How old did you say you are again? 11. You're asking questions that professors deal with. So I'm going to use a story in explaining this fiction when you talk about imagination. How many of you have heard the name Shakespeare? Do you know how many books is credited or given credit to Shakespeare? SPEAKER_01: Matthew, okay. Name. Good. Julius Caesar. Okay, now if you look at the timelines of these stories, go and Google it. SPEAKER_03: You'll be wondering, when did Romeo and Juliet exist? When did Julius Caesar exist? When did Macbeth exist? SPEAKER_01: Then when did Shakespeare exist? Between centuries. SPEAKER_03: So whoever Mark I mean uh Shakespeare was, he heard stories told him. Correct? Fine. Now the stories that were told him are human encounters, experiences. SPEAKER_01: So the story of Rome and Juliet is about who? A man and a woman. SPEAKER_03: It talks about what? A love story. Have you heard about the word star-cross lovers? Google it. Google is your friend when it comes to things like this. So that's another aspect of writing. When you come encounter with words that you think you know, just Google it to have a better understanding. Star cross lovers simply put like two people from different regions or different economic status. Because the story of Romeo and Julia that two forbidding love, thank you. Two people from different families that hate each other. So this is what I'm trying to explain. Do you know that you can sit down and look at human interaction from storytelling and create characters and give them names? No, I you didn't know. Yes. The story of Julius Caesar is a Roman emperor or a no, yeah, Caesar is an emperor, who I'm summarizing it now, after his conquest and blah blah blah, his friends, the Senate or whatever, came together, and what did they do? They conspired, and what did they do? Who was the last person that struck him? Brutus, his closest friend and mentee. What was his response? You too, Brutus. Now, open your Bible. The disciples and Christ, what happened? Did no. SPEAKER_01: When they came for Jesus at the garden, who came to him? No, Judas. SPEAKER_03: What did he do? He kissed him. And what did Jesus say? You betrayed your master with a kiss. Does that sound like Julius Caesar? It too brute. So Julius Caesar studied whoever, I mean, uh Shakespeare, whoever, studied scriptures, and in communicating the greed in human nature, which transcends different timelines, he used Julius Caesar to express it. So that's why I stand to be corrected. The story of Robin Hood is fiction created by a writer to communicate the disparity in society and how some people in trying to like make a case can steal from the rich and give to the poor. Yeah, yeah. So imagine you want to write a fiction about Nigeria. I'm going to tell people a story. Your parents will know that story, but I'm not inciting you in any way. So there was a time in this country we had an arm robber who disturbed the South, the Delta, up until the Lagos Axis. You know what his name was? He gave himself a name. Should I tell you? Anini de la Law. Anini de Law. So imagine you want to write a fiction story, a fictional story about armed robbery in Nigeria that took a, what I call it, a national scale, and you bring a character. You don't call him Anini now, but you look for a character, a name, and you create it. Something, thank you. But it goes to underscore what led to Anini becoming a criminal and terrorizing his fellow human beings. When you investigate that, you come to see it's a human nature, it's in is in every every culture. So you're trying to point out the flaws in human nature. Exactly. So that's how you create. Now, Alice in Wonderland. If you pick up the book, Alice in Wonderland, and you if you if you really take your time to read that book, you go mad. What do I mean by you go mad? The volume. And you ask yourself, is it that this writer? Where is he getting all these materials from? It's fiction, imagination, but it's deep down within the human what? Nature. He's only digging deep to like, you know, the way we interact. Okay. Curiosity. Is curiosity human nature? Yeah, you're curious. And curiosity always kills what? So imagine I want to write about, okay, let me give you another fiction. One time in the United States of America, there was a man called Morgan. SPEAKER_01: Hmm? You've heard the name. It was a tough businessman. SPEAKER_03: He pulled the American Wall Street from, I think it was from Pennsylvania or so. I forgot the state. Now he pulled it to the where you have the New York Stock Exchange now. He now came up with a concept called Morganization. SPEAKER_01: They are the founder of this bank. The Morgan. SPEAKER_03: It's a true story. There's another man again in Africa who is behaving like him, or two of them actually. Ilumelu and Dangote. So imagine you want to write a fiction now and you come up with a name called Illumination or Dangotation. You're trying to tell a story from a human, an African, a Nigerian in our backyard who was courageous enough to take the global stage. Thank you. You bring in the element of failure, success. But what you're trying to do, you're communicating. This story you're writing now may not resonate with this generation. But imagine generations to come, they pick up your material and they begin to like, wow. So that's fiction for you. You're only taking from the human element and creating a relatable story. SPEAKER_01: Question? Anybody? I know. SPEAKER_04: No, go ahead. Disturb me. That's why we're here. SPEAKER_10: But it's not all stories that happened in the past, right? So most of the stories you are saying right now, they said they happened in the past. So if I want to form a story, I must not be something that happened in the past. I can write story happening now. SPEAKER_04: You can write anything you want, my dick. SPEAKER_03: So there's something called exaggeration in writing. No, it's not lie. I don't see it. I don't like seeing that way. You know, when you when you use the word exaggeration, it's not lying. You're trying to blow it out of proportion. unknown: What like? SPEAKER_03: No, no. The way you want you want you want it to be in everybody's face. Just like somebody telling you that, my lord, when the Greeks came to Troy, the walls were as high as the heavens. There's no you're exaggerating. But you just want people to pay attention to you. Exactly. The walls were high, but they were not as high as even the walls of Jericho were not as high as the use of the my lord was high as the heavens. So how did you scale through? Oh, they see he came up with an idea. You're telling a story, so you're bringing a little bit of drama and exaggeration because you want the attention to chat with that word. SPEAKER_08: So now there's a story I read. I've forgotten the name. This man, he made a story advancing like a hundred years into the future about the question about what's the question about the universe. When does the universe end? So he now explained all that happened, how humans got the essence to life, all of that. My question now is that how did his mind go that far? SPEAKER_01: How did his mind go that far? Do you know how far God is? God is infinite. SPEAKER_03: You know what it means for somebody to be infinite? Infinity, no beginning, no end. So everything God created is infinite. So that question you asked, that's how far the mind of God is. Farther than you can even conceive. So sometimes some of us writers get what I call revelation. So some things you're talking about are revelations that came to you, and you just feel like putting it down. And many, so many times, more often than not, you come to find people misunderstanding you because they are not in your frame. They're not in your mold. You're living light years from this age concept. But you're talking about them. I'm going to tell you a story. I want to believe it's not above your age, but you can go and Google it. Nikola Tesla. I think the name Nikola Tesla. I'm not talking about uh Elon Mox Tesla carnal. There was a man named Nikola Tesla. So there was a time in this world when electricity was a problem. As in after the discovery of electricity and all of that, there came a man, Thomas Edison, who was now he had nested. He now came up with what is called direct current DC. Direct current cannot go beyond this room. And he believed that that's how electricity should work. Then came another man called Thomas, I mean Nikola Tesla, and said, no. There's what is called alternating current. It exists. That electricity can travel far. That's alternating current. It can, yes, it can travel far. And he proved it. So two of them now had an issue called current war. Read about it, current war. Who will win? Guess who won? Nikola Tesla. Tesla was a man who told the world we can harness electricity from water, hydropower. He stood in front of Nagraya Falls. You know Nagraya Falls in Canada? Read about it. He was looking at it and he said, I see power from here. SPEAKER_01: Do you know when all of this happened? Guess, just guess the timeline. Late 19th century. You're almost there. SPEAKER_03: And see all of us were enjoying it now. He's dead. He's gone. Some people don't even know Nikola Tesla. So let me also give you another secret. Do you know that most of the robotics you're talking about today was invented or was written about by Thomas? I mean Nikola Tesla. Nikola Tesla walked into a room, his hotel room, I think in New York City then. He looked at the room and said the room was uneven. Right the room. He was obsessed with, you know, there's what they call people like that. He was fastidious. No, they can't stand when they see something. They must correct it. Like they were arguing with him, so they came and measured it. The room was uneven. And they looked at him. The American CIA confiscated untold data of Nikola Tesla that the world has not seen till tomorrow. Why? He said things that were scary. Yeah, he revealed a lot. They see most of the things. So you see, as a writer or as somebody who goes into that frame, you live way above your time. Sometimes it can be scary, but don't be don't be scared. Question. SPEAKER_01: Go ahead. That's why we're here. SPEAKER_08: Now my question is let me say a book like Dracula now. Dracula. So the they might have gotten the story from a real life event but turned it upside down. But how did they make the language so much so that? They made the language how the reader was meant to read it so much so that it became scary and exciting at the same time. And many people believed that story so much so that like they just believed it and it stuck. So now, what about the author? SPEAKER_03: The author of Dracula. Yeah. Who wrote about who's the author of Dracula? Do you know? There are so many stories about Dracula in so many writers. SPEAKER_08: I mean the original copy from the Green Brothers. SPEAKER_04: The Green Brothers. SPEAKER_08: So where did they get from the brothers green? SPEAKER_01: Yes. Where did they get the story from? SPEAKER_08: And wait. It's a 16th century book. What's the name? It's Dracula, but like it's a different name. An Italian name. SPEAKER_01: Dracula. It's a true story. Dracula is a true story. SPEAKER_03: Don't you know that? You didn't. Dracula is a true story. In Romania. Yeah. His name was Dracula. He went into a pact with the devil and got the name Dracula, son of the devil. So, like I said, let me not say things that are way past your age. Good. But it's a true story. What you read, like I mentioned earlier, some a bit, some bit of uh exaggeration here and there. But it was the the person Dracul existed. SPEAKER_05: Well, why did the dream brothers make with why did they even call themselves the Green Brothers? SPEAKER_03: What's the meaning of grim? Good. So the human nature is such a way that certain people get excited by scary things. I don't know why. I can't explain why. That's why people produce horror movies. Some people like it's okay. Oh, that's why you love horror movies. It excites them, it it just drives the adrenaline. They become hyper. I don't know why. But so there's a market for it. SPEAKER_05: Stop being never even explained. SPEAKER_03: That's what I'm telling you. It's just like you trying to explain the devil. You get people off course. Please don't push me to explain things that will go you'll get back home and it's not for your level. No, it's not your level. I've been there, so I know what I'm talking about. It's not for your level. My work here is to help you create. As we grow, we will begin to enter the MSc and the PhD of what you're talking about. SPEAKER_08: Like, one of those uh how about also happened today? Because I remember the story, but I don't remember the person. SPEAKER_03: Okay, so now you know that the German in Europe, most of the folklores in Europe were inspired from Prussia. There's a part of Europe that used to be known as Prussia, the kingdom of Prussia. That's where you find now, present, Germany, Austria, Poland. Persia is Iran. There was a place called Prussia. Yep, it existed. Now, those areas were filled with mind-boggling fairy tales, stories. So now to keep culture alive, the Green Brothers started harnessing these stories and writing them into what you call fiction now, like entertainment and passing it across. So generations begin to enjoy it. They try to, you know, get back to quote and unquote their roots. Yes. But again, like I said, for entertainment purposes, they now fuse in the element of exaggeration, drama, poetry, just to excite you. But these things exist. Yes, they did. Okay, let me give you an example. In Nigerian folklore, have you heard about the word Shongo? The name Shongo? God of Thunder. Okay, Shongo. What's the color of thunder? Some are white, some are blue, somehow. Okay, good. Have you heard about Thor? unknown: Yes, God of Thunder. SPEAKER_03: Thor is what? SPEAKER_01: The God of Thunder. Lightning was his symbol. A hammer. SPEAKER_03: That's what they called. The hammer. And when he raises it up, what happens? He transmits. Now, do you know that in the history of Nigeria, when they wanted to build our electrical powerhouse, what we used to call Nigerian electricity power? No, NEPA. Nepa office in Lagos had an image of a man with a touch raised up like this. The God of Thunder Shongo. So the Yoruba folklore has it that Shongo was the one who transmitted power from the heavens and transmitted it to the Yoruba as Oduduwa and the rest of them, you know. And does that sound like God of Thunder Thor in Marvel Universe? A bit. So you see the similarities of stories. You call it God of Thunder, Shongo, from the Yoruba folklore. Europeans call it Thor, the son of Odin. Who worships Odin? The Norsemen, the Scandinavians, the seagoing men. I like this class. So you now see why. So your folklore, you create it, then you add a little bit of exaggeration. Man always get excited by spooky things. I don't know why. I don't know. Maybe someday we'll understand it. There's always, you know, when when you tell a story, if there's no element of uh spiritual essence and all of people just this story, this story is dry. Thank you. But when you bring in that element, all right. Fast readers. Yeah, you're right. I know people who read fast, and I know people who read slow. But the world has two links, fast and slow. We all get there somehow. The hair runs, torches walks. Who got to the final line? It was Torches. He got there before the hair. That's all the story. You see now? You see how you use it? That's a way of telling stories. Alright, guys. What's the time? Alright. We have 30 minutes. Have you enjoyed this session? Yes, you want to ask a question? SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'll have to ask a question. SPEAKER_01: Thank you. SPEAKER_02: Okay. So um, first of all, I really appreciate the knowledge that you've shared with us. So a few days ago, Barack President Obama he posted that the right book as the right moment can change your life. So, sir, what do you make of that statement, even from your lived experience? Yeah. Moment can change. SPEAKER_03: I think it's a subjective statement. Yeah. That statement is subjective. You read a book. Take, for example, you read things fall apart. Yes. One of the best stories ever told. You read things fall apart. You read it some years ago, and somehow you went back to read it in 2026. And it's like a light bulb moment. Everything he talked about in things fall apart. You know, things fall apart is a true story. You see, Chenwa Achebe told things fall apart from his experience in his village, his hamlet. So when you read the story for your age and time, you may not appreciate it. But for our fathers, even me, those of us who grew up in the village, who sat under the moonlight to hear stories, who went to fetch water from the stream, who smelt the raw akbo cassava meal. They would appreciate it. He told the story in such a way that those in Europe, just like he said, books and windows, they understood the East reading Things Fall Apart. Things Fall Apart is about the only book from Nigeria that most universities use in their literature class. Because he was so original in his conveying of that message. The language he used, the Nigerian English, as we talk about now, flawless. I don't know why they didn't give him the price. That book is a bestseller any day, anytime. It's eternal. That's what we call eternal work. So that's it. So when you read it now, it's like it makes a lot of sense. And it drives you now to do the right thing. I'm going to end here. So our next activity from today would be we're going to split. SPEAKER_01: Just give me a minute. SPEAKER_03: We're going to split you guys into your groups, and you're going to write the introduction of your book. That's with the first assignment. Where is your mommy? I want the parents. Where is please? Let's come. The real work has started. Our class is done with all the. So the first assignment you're going to have from tomorrow or Monday, let's say Monday, you're going to be put in your, you're going to be given a work, I mean a Google Drive, access to a Google folder with your names. Please, let's have all their names. So when you receive that, the first thing you're going to do is to do what? Introduction of your of your book, the script. Like I said, you're not supposed to be, oh, I made a mistake in my grammar. No, just write. So how many of you use AI to write? So for this activity, I will discourage you. AI is supposed to assist you. AI is not supposed to write. But the minute you use AI to write, you lose your story. I will let you know when we're going to use AI. The stage we're going to use AI. But for now, no AI. Do you know what you're going to use? SPEAKER_01: Google and your dictionary. Google and dictionary. SPEAKER_03: Don't use AI now. We will let you know when AI will come in. So I want you to express yourself. That will be the first assignment. And I'm going to put a timeline when that assignment should be turned in. And if you don't turn it in, you will score low. Is that okay? Then we're going to have a virtual class. We're going to communicate all this to your parents on the WhatsApp group.