Brittle Paper’s Writer of the Month for February is Daniel Joe!
Born in Nigeria, Daniel moved around quite often. First in Festac, then Amuwo Odofin for his adolescent years, then to Ketu before going to the University of Port Harcourt where after three years studying sociology, he dropped out when he realized it wasn’t what he wanted. As the last born, by quite some miles, in a family of four children, Daniel spent a lot of time by himself which is perhaps why he has always seen himself as an introvert, a lone wolf, and a sort of outcast.
Having sought comfort in others’ writing, such as Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, C. S. Lewis, Chimamanda Adichie, Lola Shoneyin, and Sally Rooney, Daniel has recently taken up the pen himself. He now spends a lot of time learning and working on his writing, and is currently working on his first collection of short stories! So, without further ado, here is our interview with Daniel Joe.
Brittle Paper
Daniel, congratulations on being February Writer of the Month! Your piece “What’s the Point” was my standout in January. It’s one of those short stories that you keep coming back to because it holds so many different emotions and twists. We are going to discuss your work later on but before that, we are starting off as we always do.
When and how did you start writing?
Daniel Joe
First of all, thank you, it’s truly an honour to be recognised by this amazing publication in such a way and I would like to say thank you to the editor who really made the piece look polished and so much better than it was originally.
Well, I only started writing, around the middle of last year, but of course, my love for books, fiction in particular, dates back to my school days. I stumbled upon a novel my brother had been reading, Last Days at Forcados High. It gripped my interest in more ways than I could ever describe, so much so that I re-read it every single day that week. At the time though and for many years to come, it never occurred to me that I could actually try to be a writer or anything of the sort. I had kept journals for the longest time and I had tried to write a novel a couple of times but I had neither the patience nor the skill or potential to even go through with it. It just seemed like what really smart people did and I never fancied myself as that but I think that started to change a little when I came across, Chimamanda Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck. I began to develop an intense love for short stories and that led me to create a blog where I write essays and sometimes short stories. But it also gave me the much-needed push to actually try and be a writer. A short story writer.
Brittle Paper
That’s really impressive because to make writing seem almost effortless is a talent one has to practice for quite some time and here you are after a very short time being a fantastic writer.
I was reading some of your other works on your website and the majority of the pieces are essays which tackle the nuances of life. Do you find yourself being drawn more to essay writing than fiction? Or is it because you stumble upon thoughts to rant about rather than inspiration to write fiction?
Daniel Joe
I’m certainly much more drawn to fiction than I am to essay writing. But because the essays I write are very much opinion based and centred around pretty much anything that happens to catch my interest, it makes it way easier to write them than to craft fiction. For me, fiction is somewhat of a slow process, I like to take my time to craft it. I’ve begun to see fiction in almost the same way a blacksmith sees iron, the way he takes his time to forge things through the hot and cold process on an anvil.
Brittle Paper
I really like that metaphor.
Now, let’s get into your December piece, “What’s the Point?” which is a great amalgamation of loss and mourning, unlikely friendships, healing and trust, and all tied up by fantastic writing. How do you begin to construct and create such a piece?
Daniel Joe
For me, I’ve found that the way I like to write is to start with the characters first before the story but also bearing in mind a particular question or topic I’m trying to get at. Ideas for characters come first and then I start to fully flesh them out (the characters that are) only after this, does the idea for a story begin to develop. I actually got the idea for the lady in the garden when I was watching the music video for “Say Something” by A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera, and in the middle of the video, there’s an old man beside his wife on her deathbed, and slowly he watches her go, and that image stuck with me for days and out of that I got the woman in the garden’s character. The man’s character, if I’m being honest, started initially as somewhat of a reflection of myself but afterwards developed into something more and after I had gotten both it was a matter of what kind of a story I wanted to write. In this case, I was somewhat interested in what happens after that “person” isn’t there anymore and, depending on the circumstance, what does that do to you. That was the basis I started from and the more I wrote the more the story came to me.
Brittle Paper
I love when writers just make use of a simple plot because there’s nothing better than a simple plot executed well. With this story, it’s a simple plot of two people mourning and dealing with their loss, but it’s done through such a journey of mashups, and I absolutely love it. The way the story opens very idyllic with the descriptions of the beautiful landscape and church, and then we’re introduced to this man who is so fed up with the world, then we contrast the strange woman’s kindness to his newfound love of bringing misery to people, and then finally there’s just these two main characters who each mourn and feel loss very differently but form an effortlessly beautiful bond.
If you weren’t already aware of how much I like this story, I’m sure you are now. But my point is, you mention in your bio that you are drawn to things that are odd and chaotic. So, is it a source of inspiration for you to take something like a simple plot and see where you can inject odd and chaotic energy?
Daniel Joe
I think that’s something that just comes naturally to me, it isn’t really something I set my mind to. I think of characters just as I think of human beings in the real world. We are usually complex creatures, sometimes to the point of almost being a walking contradiction and usually that in of itself makes stories and even real-life events in the case of humans much more nuanced and in fact chaotic. The trajectories of simple stories are made not so simple, because of the characters or the individuals in them.
Brittle Paper
On that note, I go through every submission Brittle Paper gets, and a very prevalent theme is ‘grief’. I don’t think I’ve gone a day without seeing a submission about it. As a writer, “What’s the Point?” aside, is the theme of ‘grief’ a big part of your writing? And as a reader, do you think grief is focused on too much?
Daniel Joe
Well, first of all, I think grief, generally speaking, is a central theme in almost every individual’s life who’s lived long enough. Things like grief, suffering and death are very much inescapable and these are things that plague our minds consciously and unconsciously and so I think it’s only natural that a lot of writers will focus their attention there, especially those who are drawn to introspection. Personally, as a writer and a reader, I am very much interested in works that explore things like grief, pain, sorrow, death, suffering and other such things, but of course, those aren’t and shouldn’t be the only things.
Brittle Paper
We will get to read a new piece from you on Friday but besides your upcoming Brittle Paper publication, what else can our readers expect from you in the future?
Daniel Joe
I’m currently working on my first short story collection and then I am tackling the harsh and arduous journey of hopefully getting it published.
Brittle Paper
Before we go, apart from your writing, Daniel what is one thing about yourself that you want to share with our readers? Anything.
Daniel Joe
I’m an avid football lover. It’s one of my greatest passions and I play every chance I get. Once I put on my boots and start playing, I turn into a very different person. From the usually quiet, sometimes sarcastic, shy and soft-spoken guy, I become an aggressive monster who wants to win at all costs [laughs].
Brittle Paper
Daniel, thank you for chatting with us and for being our Writer of the Month. I look forward to one day reading the collection!
For more of Daniel’s work, be sure to check back in on Friday, and for more interviews with our writers, check out our last month’s with Abbey Khambule here.
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