Born: Rhode Island
Resides: Lived in Lagos, Abidjan, E.Sussex, Ann Arbor, Philadelphia and now Boston.
About the Diary � not my first attempt at a diary. Former classmate of mine had a popular website � African connection, which later became the confluence. Saw a diary on her personal website. Decided it was a good idea and decided on a fictional one � this was in �97. Wrote 4 entries in one sitting then ran out of ideas � never completed it. First diary. www.geocities.com/omenau/diary.html (Geocities deleted it for inactivity)
Femi � always loved writing and reading. Grew up in a creative house. Summer holidays we would all draw, write, sing and record, wrote and illustrated my first book at around 6. Wrote songs and melodies with friends.
School project, wrote a short novella � Phantomed lives for English and it seemed like everyone loved it. Everyone in the dorm plus school really loved it and I got the highest grade in the project. It was encouraging.
English assignment in freshman year. Wrote another short story that apparently, no one could put down. I received a lot of praise from my classmates and felt more confident in my writing.
Writing had always been at the back of my mind so I graduated from college, had a job but not one that led to a career, was really bored so I decided to start this to pass the time. I found that the internet allows you to receive feedback from strangers so it�s unbiased.
The plot. It�s not my life � wish I had this much excitement. A little secret. Keith and Femi were going to break up but not as soon as they did. They were supposed to break up in the Jan/Feb but I was in a bad mood the day I wrote it so I decided to break them up. It was something like �I�m not in the mood to write romantic happy words when I�m so pissed.� And it was supposed to be so cute. They were supposed to be on the phone being cheesy. Femi asks Keith to write her a poem. He writes a sweet one. He demands one in return. She writes a humorous raunchy one. They talk about his. She�s like �you really feel that for me?� he says, �Not yet. But I can see it happening in the near future.� After posting it, I wanted to change it but decided against it. For now, Keith and Femi are finished (as my Brit friends would say) But who knows what the future holds? I�m keeping my fingers crossed.
Fears. When I first started I got a lot of �It�s so funny!� That scared me. I never intended it to be funny. So I remember sitting down in front of the computer, I think it was for the 7th week and I just thought to myself �How do I go about this? How do I make this funny?� I got really scared. Would I attempt to be funny and then end up looking silly? In the end I decided that I shouldn�t �try� to be anything � just be true to myself. About the humor, I don�t think I�m a funny person � more sarcastic than funny. But I think that people like to equate sarcasm to humor because they�ll like to think, �She said that evil thing because she�s sarcastic,� and not �She�s just plain evil.� So I think that�s what they found funny. Femi is a little crazy. There are some things she says that I doubt I could ever think- talk less of actually say. So I think it�s her tone that gets people laughing rather than the actual story, because personally, I don�t think hers is a particularly unique or interesting one� she leads a normal life. I think it�s her approach and her manner that makes it funny. And the diary format means she doesn�t have to be structurally or grammatically correct so she�s got the freedom to be herself.
On Femi. I�ll like to make one thing clear � I�m not Femi. She�s a figment of my imagination and when I first started writing her, I wasn�t quite sure who she was, much less who her friends were but now, I think I know a lot about her, what she�ll say, what she�ll never do, I�m just more confident and comfortable with her.
I really like her. She can be rude, offensive, obnoxious but underneath it all, I think she�s very sweet and riddled with insecurities �just like anyone else. And I never allow her to get away with anything so even though she gets shot down a lot, she refuses to change, which isn�t necessarily a positive thing but a quality I admire nonetheless.
How do I go about writing? The entries usually take me a little over an hour to complete. Sometimes I start off not knowing what to write other times during the week I�d write an idea on some scrap paper then write about that. There�s no format. So there�s no uniformity, i.e. between entries, there are seven different possibilities and the result basically depends on the day I choose to write.
Realism. I doubt I could ever be a sci-fi writer because I like my work to be very realistic. The funny thing about Femi�s Diary is, the more outlandish scenarios are based on actual events� I�ve got a lot of emails from people who�ve said, �I really enjoyed it but I don�t think this scenario is realistic� and I can tell you that 100% of the time, it�s based on an actual event� as they say, fact is stranger than fiction.