IFUNANYA ODINKA

Born and bred in the city of Port-Harcourt, Southern Nigeria, Ifunanya Odinka holds a B.Sc from the National Open University of Nigeria.

After participating in the Ray Anyasi Writers Mentoring Program where her writing skills were honed and her lifelong dream of being a published author received new life, she began to write her first novel.

Ifunanya is an entrepreneur and bibliophile currently living in Port-Harcourt with her loving husband and adorable children.

At what point in your growing up did it occur to you you were going to be a writer and how did you go about it?

Growing up as a child, I enjoyed English language classes better. I remember the composition and story writing questions being my favourite in exams. I also loved reading the stories and novel excerpts in my English textbooks; they were always the highlight of the day for me during “read aloud” time in class; because I was always called upon to read to the class. I also enjoyed to read by myself at home, and would finish reading my literature text as soon as my parents purchase mine, even before school’s resumption.

Unfortunately, I didn’t recognize my talents then and was busy looking at popular career options like; Law, Medicine, etc.
Sometime in the mid 2000’s when I came across news on TV about Author Chimamanda Adichie winning various awards for her book, Half of a Yellow Sun, I remembered my love for creating fictional stories and thought to myself “I could do this too”. But I didn’t do anything about it until 2017 after I had my fourth child and was bored at home; I came across an article online that talked about learning a skill or using your talents to earn extra income. While thinking about what I was naturally good at, I remembered my love for making up stories; I tried writing some, but realized I didn’t know how to begin or how to go about it. So I decided to hone my writing skills by attending writing workshops which helped me kick start my writing career.

Has your writing journey so far been as good as you had anticipated?

Not exactly. In fact my writing journey is getting more difficult than it was at the beginning, but I know that constant practice makes it better, and I have decided to take it one step at a time.
Sometimes your thoughts & ideas come clearly to you, other times they are unclear and don’t make any sense at all at first; but writing down all thoughts and analyzing them later bit by bit helps a lot.

What is the best thing you've ever done for your writing career so far and how hard or easy was it to do?

Investing in my writing career by attending writing workshops and buying books on writing is the best thing I’ve done for myself as a writer. But it’s not easy, because it will cost you money and time.
Sometimes you hardly find time to attend your classes online. Also if you do not have alternative source of income, and have not started earning as a writer, you’ll definitely have financial setbacks.

What was your biggest concern about young people that drove you to write Ifenna's Diaries and how has the book addressed it?

My biggest concern about young people is the issue of “Bullying”. As a pupil and student, I experienced my own share of bullying which sometimes still haunts me till date, but I never gave any serious thought to it. But after my first & second daughters got into secondary schools, the first in a boarding school, while the second in a day school, they both started coming back home with tales of bullying, which seriously brought up bottled up feelings as I could relate to all their individual stories, having experienced both kind of schools.
This led me to start talking to them about bullying, how they shouldn’t be a part of it and what they should do if they are victims. During the course of this talks which I refer to as “gist with my girls”, the idea of telling a little story about the dangers of bullying was borne, I decided to make it my first writing escapade.
so far the book, Ifenna’s Diaries, has in some ways addressed this issue of bullying in various forms such as; physical bullying and verbal bullying, which goes on in schools.
Most importantly I hope to address more forms of this issues in future works.

Do you think Ifenna's parents would have done something to help her deal with her challenges at school and how would you advice parents to handle the menace of bullying to help their children?

Yes, I think Ifenna's parents would have been able to help her if they had understood what she was going through, but because they were caught up in the act of favouritism, they could not read the handwriting on the wall and this almost cost them their daughters life.
I believe parents should be more proactive about the issue of bullying rather than pretend it doesn’t exist, especially parents whose children are bullies. They should stand up against bullying at every chance they get and in front of their kids. They should desist from the act of sending gifts to schools to cover up their children's bad behaviours and short comings. They should also address the issue before their children turn into monsters and become a menace to the society.
I am not against anyone sending gifts to schools, but it shouldn’t be done to shut authorities up or make them slack in disciplining a child who enjoys bullying other kids.

How has the feedback been from young people who read Ifenna's Diaries, including your children?

My children loved the book. The kids who could reach out to me all had positive things to say about the book. Most of them wanted to know if it was based on a true live event. Some even wanted me to coach them on writing.
So I can humbly say that the feedback from young people is a positive one, especially if it makes them want to tell their own stories. It also means that they could relate to it, which is a big win for me.

What's the biggest message you want readers to take away from Ifenna's Diaries?

I want readers of my book, Ifenna’s Diaries, to understand that bullying is wrong, it wreaks havoc to someone’s mind and psyche and should be avoided in its various forms. Be it physical violence or body shaming, it should not be encouraged at all.

In a world today where people as young as 16 are lured to money rituals, internet fraud and prostitution by peer pressures all because of money, how do you think we can best begin to address things back to normal?

I believe that it all begins from home. Parents should try to keep an eye on their kids, especially their preteen years through teen years. Monitoring the kind of TV shows they watch and places they go to.
Parents should know the kind of company their children keep, and try to encourage them to befriend only God fearing people. Bearing in mind that they can befriend bad people even in church.
Also teaching them how to make sound decisions when pressure from friends to belong arises, help them gain self confidence.
This will greatly reduce the effects of peer pressure on them, which will keep them away from crime in the future.

I’m currently working on my WIP, I’m still in the writing stage and don’t know when I’ll be done, as I have not put any deadline in place. But it’s been an interesting one so far.