Many shades of creative writing | The story of Fayia

Creative writing, digital marketing, and filmmaking are among the main areas of focus for Fayia, a independent contractor based in Sierra Leone. In fact, one of the most fascinating aspects of Fayia is his many interests and his commitment to giving back to his community: to create knowledge and opportunities. We had the chance organise an interview and here's the story he shared with us.

My expertise is creative writing. For me, creative writing is a natural talent, even though it has been nurtured over the years and flows flawlessly within me. Before this time, I attempted to write my own books and dropped them off because of time and some personal issues.

Creative Writing is innate in me, and I love storytelling. In whatever we do as human beings, storytelling helps us keep our memories alive, maintain our presence, and secure the future base on the current situation we find ourselves in.

I lived as a refugee in the neighbouring Republic of Guinea from 1991 to 2004, and I started practicing creative writing at my primary school level. From 2002 to 2003, I started penning down my own songs. I was repatriated to pursue education back home in Sierra Leone and was admitted to the junior secondary school level. While in school, creative art was one of the main things that made me popular amongst my friends.

In senior secondary school, I lived on my own and things became very tough for me. I took part in a district poetry competition and got the second runner-up position. Plan International, the organization that organized the competition, paid my school fees.

After I sat the West African Senior School Certificate Examination, I thought in secondary school for two years and one of the subjects I thought was Literature.

I left teaching and was recruited by Restless Development and served as a volunteer peer educated from October 2010 to July 2011. One of the key reasons for recruiting me was that I was very good at storytelling.

In 2011, I made my debut appearance in a movie titled Dagadi, a local movie directed by one of our veterans Dr. Julius Spencer. Then in 2012, I wrote my first movie scripted and was advised by one of my friends to create a movie production group thereafter. I founded Creative Arts Production a movie production house while in college doing my diploma. I managed to network, build a production team, and was able to produce and direct up to four movie projects. Even though the said projects have been lost in a crashed PC.

From 2012 to this day, I have written a lot of poems, stories, scripts, and project impact case studies.  I have created, written, and directed a lot of community theatre shows and projects as a independent contractor.

I have always been interested in technology, especially apps. In fact, I grew interested in digital marketing properly in 2020 and I have been able to teach myself. I love it because I can be able to use my creative writing ability and combine the power of storytelling and creatively market any product or service.

In 2018, I served as a program coordinator with a local organization called Community Agenda where I was able to lead six volunteers, wrote songs, poems, and plays, and went with the team across the country and sensitized young people against electoral violence.

I first started using Google Blog post to write my blogs and went further to design my professional blog site  imageSALONE.com in 2020. Since then, I grew interested in web design and have worked on ardevconsulting.com, creativepictures.net and so many social media pages for a lot of growing celebrities, and businesses.

In my digital journey, I have used various social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Quora, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tiktok, etc.), Social Suite, Canva, Vimeo, YouTube, etc.

I have used web design software like WordPress and hosting platforms like, GoDaddy, Wordpress.com, HostGator, InterServer, Blue Host, Site123, etc.

I enjoy being in control of my undertakings and schedule and as well serving as my own boss. independent contracting gives me the bonus to be creative and using every possibility at my disposal to undertake whatever project within the required time and work frames. It is also a very good means for me to be able to challenge myself.

If Im not independent contracting Im normally writing blog posts for my blogsite, www.imagesalone.com. ImageSALONE is Sierra Leone Professional Filmmakers Diary where I write about Sierra Leones professional filmmakers home and abroad, and promote the filmmaking activities within and about the industry.

I sometimes read, or write poems especially when I get the inspiration, and at times work on my entrepreneurial dream. Otherwise, I like mentoring young people.

My goals are:

• I'd like to mentor as many young people, as I can.
• Making people I serve very happily in the best possible way.
• I'd love to support my entrepreneurial dream with whatever amount I get out of my independent jobs.
• I'm really keen on gathering the courage and write a book about my lifes journey

Through my work, I have been able to touch so many lives, made so many happy, and put a smile on the faces of so many.

My favourite organization will be one that gives me the open space for creativity and gives me the challenge that lets me out of my comfort zone.

Do you want to learn more and need support on storytelling from an expert in content? Connect with Fayia at Work for Impact. If you want to share your story as a independent contractor, you can reach us at community@workforimpact.com.

Read other stories here.