Writer urges parents to support career of children

Writer urges parents to support career of children

Thursday, April 26, 2018 1:40 pm


Odafe

Odafe Atogun, an Abuja based writer has urged parents to support their children on their career choices to enable them attain successes.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Atogun’s debut novel `Taduno’s Song’ was selected recently for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club.

Atogun in an interview with NAN in Abuja said such support would further boost the children’s confidence towards attaining their goals in life.

He advised budding writers to stay focused in pursuing their dreams adding that writing required consistence.

“My advice to young writers is to continue to write, they should not lose focus and they should not write just for the gains because that could take a long while to come.

“They should go into writing because they have a passion for it, when you have passion for what you’re doing even if it’s not beneficial in terms of money you will keep writing.

“Writing is like an adventure you embark upon, and it may be tiring, demanding and comes with its challenges but just keep going.

“You could also liken writing to the game of sports, football for instance, the more you play the better you become, so they should keep writing one day someone would take notice,’’ he said.

Atogu who is currently mentoring some writers said, “as writers our primary objective is to reach out to the younger generation and young coming up writers who wants to find their feet in the profession.

According to him,“ reaching out to the younger generation or young writers is not a direct or pacific project, but is more like a duty for every writer to help the younger ones.

“As often as they can with regards to inspiring them and helping to edit their works and putting them in the right direction.

“Ever since, one or two writers have reach out to me , a young guy who is aspiring to become a writer, that I have tried to mentor him as much as possible.

“Another young guy that have tried to reach out to me, and he has written a book which was self published, of which I bought ten copies to encourage him.

“These are young people that need encouragement, so whenever I can to inspire a young coming up writer I try because for all of us I think is a duty to encourage them,’’ he said.

Atogun has been compared to Franz Kafka and George Orwell in critical reviews.

Following his two-book deal with Canongate, Penguin Random House and Arche Verlag, Atogun’s second novel, Wake Me When I’m Gone, was published in 2017.

His works have been translated into several languages.


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