PROJECT PEN [SEASON II]

BENDING THE LITERARY WORLD TO YOUR WILL

Guest WattNaija Celeb: Tolulope Adetayo Oyinoza

Wattpad Username: adetayo_first

Her books: Balogun, eefin, Hard Man and HHI (Heaven, Hell, and In-Between)

Lecture topic: Bending the literary World to your will.

I want to start by thanking all the organizers of this show for giving me this platform to be able to teach, and thanks to you all for tuning in to learn something.

Before I delve into the main topic of the evening, let me start by defining some basic details to help us better understand the topic:

LITERARY WORLD: This term is used to describe a time, place, event or situation that is depicted in a work of fiction.

BENDING SOMETHING TO ONE’s WILL: This is an idiom to express the expectation to do what is demanded by a stronger person; or by someone in authority.

Now that we understand these details fully, let’s go into our topic: BENDING THE LITERARY WORLD TO YOUR WILL

I remember when I published Balogun on Wattpad, I got over a 100 messages from people thanking me for helping them realize that they could write something like “that”. By that, I mean, a realistic world that is superimposed with reality. A fictional town situated in Nigeria. Since writing these stories, one common factor I’ve noticed is that people love to write, but they’re afraid to explore.

One characteristic of a good writer is the ability to stretch your imagination without limits. You’re the master, the world is your oyster, do with it what you please. If you decide you want to write a story about a fish that lives on land, you CAN. If you decide you want to write a story about a cow that loves in the seas, you CAN. There is no right or wrong; there’s only what you deem fit as a limit to your ability.

The fantasy genre of writing is a world set in an imaginary universe. It depicts magic, supernatural creatures, paranormal activities, unimaginable occurrences, it is out-of-reality. I like to tell people that Fantasy should be the easiest genre to write because you don’t have to pander to anybody. You can whip out a world from your imagination and no one will question you.

For example: Game of Thrones is fantasy. All the worlds were products of the writers’ imagination. They went out of the norms, they bent literature to their will. They didn’t pander to anyone by asking questions like: “Oh, what will people think about a woman (Daenerys) walking to the fire and coming out unscathed?” “Oh, people won’t believe it. People won’t love this.” They didn’t think about that, they just wrote it.

Dragons have been extinct for millions of years, yet these writers didn’t care. They went ahead and included three powerful dragons in their stories. Up until today, some people believe dragons exist because they watched it in Game of Thrones. That is your power as a writer. The ability to twist and turn people’s heads, have them questioning their realities in ways that they cannot imagine. You’re the one with the pen, the pen is the authority, bend the world to YOUR WILL.

As a writer, my favorite type of Fantasy and Horror is the one that messes with my reality. Not everyone can write this and that’s okay. These can only be written by fearless writers. Writers who go in their rooms and don’t come out until a world has been created that even they are in awe of. In this genre, writers create a fantasy world that exists in our reality. At the end of the book, readers are shaken. They start to wonder, does this actually exist? Are these things real? Do they live among us? Should I be afraid?

Let’s talk more about horror. I wrote a horror novel way back in 2014. I took it down because it gave me sleepless nights. Are you really a horror writer if your own book doesn’t scare you? If you read your book and you’re not shaken, what makes you think your readers will be afraid? What makes it horror, then? Don’t be afraid to stretch your imagination and bend your will. I've said this a thousand times, I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but I can’t stress this enough.

In literature (horror and fantasy), there is no real or fake. No right or wrong. Anything can be horror and anything can be a fantasy. Till date, one of the best horror novels I’ve read is about rats. Yes. Rats. In fact, this book was so good, it won awards and was adapted into a movie called “Deadly Eyes”. This goes to explain that you can write about anything at all, provided you are courageous enough to take authority of your imaginary world and bring it to life.

Here’s a general idea when it comes to writing. This has worked so well for me: when writing, assume your characters’ bodies. That’s why I like to write in a quiet place. When writing, I’m no longer on earth. I am in whatever world I am currently creating, you’d be surprised how much your characters will tell you or how close your characters will get, if you put yourself into their world.

One mistake people make when writing fantasies is to think, “Sheyb it is not real, ehn, who will notice?” They use this as an excuse to create subpar worlds.
Look at franchises like DC and Marvel. These people have made themselves billionaires through the “fantasy genres”

Look at Spider-Man, Superman, The Flash, Vision, Wanda, Black Widow. These people took ordinary things around us, breathed life into it, and made it extraordinary. Made it into billions of dollars.
Took Spider to Spider-Man. Lightning to The Flash. Physics to Doctor Strange and Iron-man, and so many examples. Pay attention to details, don’t gloss over anything. Immerse yourself and make sure you make your world believable, that even you are in awe of it.

Little Tip: This works for me, it might work for you too. When you write and you want friends and families to give you reviews. Don’t say “Here is something I wrote, what do you think?”

Say instead:

“Here’s a book excerpt I found online, what do you think?”
It’s easier for friends and families to be open-minded about an imaginary world when they don’t know the writer, than they are when they know you. They might not see the magic in it.

That is all on this topic. I hope we all had a good time and learned something. Let me know if there are any questions to be asked.