The writer's column ft Sophia Temiloluwa Adepoju

Sophia is a writer, book reviewer, bookstagramer, content creator, and occasionally an email marketer. She writes mostly fiction. She has written a couple of short stories and she goes by the pen name LACHELN. 

She mostly writes about women because she is a feminist who is passionate about the affairs of women. She is gravitating towards writing speculative fiction because she is sort of into fantasy and sci-fi works. She reads a lot of sci-fi, fantasy, and comic books. 

She is also the host of a podcast called the 20 questions podcast. She asks creatives 20 questions that explore their creative process. 

https://anchor.fm/sophia-adepoju

Sophia is a recent graduate of physiology from the University of Lagos. 

Writing Journey 

She started writing when she was very young, she can't remember exactly how old she was. She stopped at a point and then started again. She always gives credit to her friends Mayowa Isiaq and Modupe Laja who pushed her to start writing again. 

During the covid 19 pandemic (ie May 2020) she started blogging. She blogged about self-awareness and self-acceptance sharing a couple of her thoughts with people. If you have read Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, you would remember the part of Ifemelu’s blog where she interacted with people and shared her opinions. That is similar to what her blog is about. She took a break from blogging because she had to attend to other aspects of her life. 

From blogging, she took interest in wanting to write her book. She wrote her first manuscript titled NIGHT. It was supposed to be about a young girl who had Voodoo ancestors but the story felt strange, it was not authentic so she stopped. She read children of blood and bone by Tomi Adeyemi and wrote another story which she called ANIEKA but she never really wrapped her head around the plot so she stopped writing that as well.

She started writing short stories instead because she figured if she cannot finish a long story, why not write short ones instead. It also helped her practice. The first short story she wrote is titled OMINIRA. It is about 4 witches, they embark on a journey to rescue one of their own who ends up sacrificing her life. She wrote another one called WOMEN OF FIRE, it was quite popular, it had over 400 reads on Tell Africa (a platform where she publishes her short stories).

https://tell.africa/user/sophiatemiloluwa/

This made her excited and prompted her to write another one titled Dear Dakota. Dear Dakota was inspired by a true-life event. It was also the first time she attempted writing in the first person narrative. She feels writing in the first person POV is too revealing, she gets vulnerable when writing in this tone so she sticks to the third person and omniscient narrative. 

She wrote a few more short stories then she started entering competitions such as;

Penthusiast Media Contest- lie to me, Lyn (won the first round)

Ékọñké literary competition- the story of dying afresh

Prolific writers academy- Tamabri's last day on Earth (lost)

Kendeka Prize for African Literature- ONITSHA SHIFTED

She took some writing courses, watched videos on YouTube, and began to grow as a writer. 

Monetizing her writing 

Sophia suffers from imposter syndrome. That's part of the reason she does not share her writings anymore but regardless, she has been paid a few times to write. 

She currently has a job where she is paid a monthly salary to write. She also does freelance jobs from time to time. 

She has not taken writing as a full-time career so she cannot say what exactly she wants from it. She also does not want to fully monetize it because when you monetize something you enjoy doing, it becomes a chore. 

She believes monetizing her writing requires her putting in extra effort and it can lead to boredom, tiredness, and overthinking.

Inspiration 

Her inspiration for writing began when she started reading fantasy and sci-fi novels. She has a thing for wanting to create alternate realities. One of her favorite writers is Nnedi Okoroafor. 

Sophia is currently working on her debut novel, which is speculative fiction. It is Africa futurism meaning that it is set in the future of Africa and there is so much advancement in technology. She is also hoping to write more short stories on women.

Follow her on Instagram @__lachelnreadingbooks