The Afrobloggers spotlight series helps you to discover and connect with African digital storytellers from all around the globe. In this feature, we spotlight Award-winning Ghanaian blogger Josephine Amoako.
Josephine Amoako was the winner in the creative writing category in the Afrobloggers Awards 2020. Her blog, Joseyphina’s World is the definition of consistent.
Tell us a little about Josephine and the journey of Joseyphina’s World
I am just your girl next door who fell in love with words both in print and on-screen and felt inspired to write her own. Joseyphina’s World was birthed out of a desire to share a piece of myself with the world, inspiring and entertaining people with words.
What is your secret to having a consistent blog?
Personal determination and discipline, I guess. I also give God his due credit for giving me the strength and creative ideas to keep churning out content.
How does one balance the time between blogging and …well life?
Planning and intentional execution. There’s not enough time to do everything one wants to do but if something is important to you, you will make time for it. You may have to sacrifice some good sleeping time as well as social moments for it but it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth it.
Your blog has story instalments, a new chapter every week. In a world that’s said to have a low reading culture how have you managed to keep going and how do you think we can bring more interest to the literary arts.
Well, first of all, I started writing for my own sake so even when the patronage was quite low when I first started, I was innately motivated to keep going. However, I used to think people don’t like to read much these days but I’ve come to realize that people will read if they find good content. So, let’s not discourage ourselves about that. Just keep writing and the story lovers will find you.
How attached do you get to the characters you create?
Very attached. I think and dream about them and how interesting their lives can get. The crazier it gets, the better it is for me. Their world becomes my dream world; that’s all I think about until I’m done.
Born to write, that’s what your blog tag line reads. How long have you been writing and what’s the earliest thing you remember writing for fun?
I’ve been writing for over 20 years now and I’ve learned and grown in the craft along the years. I remember in third grade, I wrote a play which my classmates would read in turns. Fast forward a few years and my story at the time inspired a serial play during Entertainment Nights in senior high school. It’s been a fun ride.
To live the life I would call soul-satisfying-writing and serving others.
Josephine amoako
What apps or blogging peripherals do you recommend every blogger has?
- WordPress because of the amazing community it provides,
- a good dictionary to help with definitions, expressions and synonyms,
- Canva, Pixabay, Nappy for images
- CoSchedule Headline Analyzer to help with drafting the best headlines for posts etc.
Someone who is only discovering you by reading this interview, what post should they read from your blog?
That will be difficult to say. Every post was written from the heart so each one means a lot to me. Be it an article, tag post, poem or story, they are all must-reads.
To date what has been your most surprising experience because of your blog?
That would be when some people I wasn’t expecting to know about my blog come up to me and say they actually enjoy my pieces. It seems I’ve more silent readers than I’m aware of so whenever one of them reveals himself/herself, it’s a pleasant surprise.
Share a couple of bloggers that are on your reading list.
Kavuyi, Beaton, there are some others whose names have escaped me but I follow so check them out on my WordPress Reader.
What keeps you coming back to a blog?
Content consistent in quality.
Finally, if we could transport you back in time to just before you created Joseyphina’s World and you had the rare opportunity to give advice to the past you, what would you say to yourself?
Never look down on yourself; you are capable of doing much more than you think. Trust God and believe in yourself.
Thank you for the feature, Afrobloggers! Much appreciated.