Tomi Wright (a pseudonym) is a creative writer, artist and amateur photographer. She had a column, Wheelchair Girl in Lagos in national newspapers – ThisDay and Genevieve Magazine. The Wheelchair Girl in Lagos series follows the adventures of a paralysed girl and her carer, inspired by her experiences after suffering a catastrophic injury in 2014. The column is now an Efena Smiles exclusive, a WordPress blog Tomi started in 2020 (www.efenasmiles.blog).
She is the author of Wheels of Imagination: Adventures and Verses of Resilience, a collection of stories, articles and poetry that analyses the subject of accessibility amongst other topical themes; as well as the fictional novel, What if Sasha Storm Lost Her Voice?, a book that explores the tension and relationship between fame and faith within the context of identity issues.
In this Quick Chat with Pride Magazine Nigeria, Tomi Wright discusses her journey as a writer and how stories provide meaning and comfort.
- You’ve been writing since the age of six. Do you remember the first story you ever told that made you think, ” This is what I want to do”?
Great question. When I was 14, I actually started writing a book. Unfortunately, my computer crashed, and I lost it all. That was the first time I thought – this is what I want to do. Then, I wanted to be a development economist till the debilitating injury caused by a road traffic accident nearly twelve years ago derailed my fledgling career as an economist. I come from a family of well-educated, brilliant writers. My Oxford-trained father has written fourteen books; my sister has written two bestsellers, and my mum, who studied at Oxford, is currently writing her second book. At Bethel Church in Redding, California, in the year 2016, at a Creativity Conference, I wrote a story as part of an exercise. It was about a woman who lost her mother, and the whole class erupted into applause as I read it out. That was the moment I thought – I am going to be a screenwriter. My love of the world of film and character-driven masterpieces fuelled my desire to write scripts. I actually applied for the Screenwriting Programme at the Bethel Conservatory of the Arts in 2023, and I attended for six weeks. After a stint in the hospital that took me out of the course, I decided that I was going to be a creative writer. My online blog, Efena Smiles, made me rediscover my love of words and literature.
- How has your journey as a writer evolved over the years?
In 2015, I started the blog, Efena Smiles, that detailed my adventures in California, Atlanta and London. I experimented with different forms of writing, from fiction inspired by fact to poetry to autobiographical accounts of my life as a wheelchair girl. At the end of 2023, I decided to compile my blog posts into a book titled Wheels of Imagination: Adventures and Verses of Resilience. To become an exceptional wordsmith, I studied poetry, various masterclasses and Udemy courses. Over time, my descriptive style of writing evolved, grew and deepened. People often say that they can picture the scenes in their imagination exactly as it was described on the page. For me, that is one of the highest compliments. My second book, What if Sasha Storm Lost Her Voice?, is a fictional novel that is a culmination of everything I have studied, and I must say it is my best work yet.
- Wheels of Imagination explores accessibility. What conversations were you hoping to spark with the book?
Conversations that discuss the lack of accessibility in Lagos and Nigeria, discussions about how far we need to go to become an accessible nation, discourse about tangible changes that need to be made to ensure that 25% of the country is not excluded, and dialogue that addresses the difficulties, challenges and obstacles that differently abled people face on a daily basis. My entry into the world of disability opened my eyes and mind. It made me more sensitive to the plight of the differently abled because I am now one of them. Able-bodied people who are not affected have no clue about the challenges we face. How inaccessible Lagos and Nigeria actually are. It is the land of steps. There are stairs, wholly unnecessary stairs, everywhere. There are no elevators where there should be. I miss out on comedy nights, concerts, food fairs, fashion shows, plays, musicals, beach parties, spoken word events, church services, baby naming ceremonies, birthday gatherings, you name it. My Coffee, aka Top Beans on Ozumba Mbadiwe, is the only business in Lagos that has wheelchair accessible toilets. Can you imagine? If people start having conversations about policy and long-lasting changes, that’s the dream. I want people to talk about inclusion and better accessibility. I want them to see us.
- Your latest novel asks a striking question: What if Sasha Storm Lost Her Voice? What inspired that premise?
What if Sasha Storm Lost Her Voice? was inspired by a dream I had in 2020, where Beyoncé lost her singing voice. I woke up at 4 a.m. and scribbled a few sentences on my Samsung Notes App. The next morning, I penned a short story on my blog titled, What if Beyoncé Lost Her Voice? The response was overwhelming, which got me thinking that this could be a novel. I wrote an outline for ten chapters and worked tirelessly on this book for five years. The book attempts to answer two very important questions: what use is there in gaining the world if you lose your soul, and what if your talent, something you consider to be the essence of your being, disappears overnight? What would you do?
5. How has your lived experience influenced the way you write about identity, resilience, and purpose?
I love this question. I have three words for you. Perseverance. Determination. Willpower. PDW is one of my mantras. Going through a life-changing injury that disrupted my entire life has influenced how I see myself, my capacity for strength and reframed the narrative by seeing myself not as a victim, but as an overcomer. As I went through surgery after surgery and lived life on a totally different continent, constantly in pain, it fuelled my drive and shaped how I wrote about identity and resilience. As I discovered my purpose in life, as my unflagging healing journey strengthened my fortitude and grit, my creativity became a sharp instrument of writerly and imaginative expression. Surviving what I went through, living in indescribable agony, silencing the voices that pleaded with me to leave my place in humanity, shaped my perspective and how I wrote my characters. I could put them through the worst and know they would come out on the other side. I created three-dimensional characters that think they know who they are, that are surprised by what they are capable of, that are flawed and beautiful in their complexity. What if Sasha Storm Lost Her Voice? explores identity crises, and writing about something so complicated and multifaceted allowed me to paint a rich 208-word tapestry replete with hard conversations about self.
6. Do you see your work as advocacy, storytelling, or a blend of both?
Definitely both. A great example is my Wheelchair Girl In…series on my blog. This collection of vignettes is an amalgamation of storytelling and advocacy. It follows a wheelchair girl (inspired by me) and a carer or family member as they go on adventures, visiting real-life places and scoring them on a scale, from one to five. The series starts and encourages dialogue centred around inclusion, social exclusion and accessibility. Many an able-bodied follower of my blog has said they now assess the accessibility of commercial and residential establishments they visit automatically. This is certainly a step in the right direction. I dream that these conversations actually influence a change in policy and the government implements a concrete system of punitive damages for places that fail to comply.
7. What has writing taught you about yourself that nothing else could?
Writing has taught me that out of the darkest darkness, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. When the lower limb paralysis happened nearly twelve years ago, I was in a deep depression, despondent and hapless about the future, questioning my existence. Writing pulled me out and set me on a path to greater discovery, learning and a deep knowing that I can overcome whatever valleys life throws at me.
8. What stories are you keen on exploring in the coming years?
My third book, titled The Girl in the Bright Orange Wheelchair is in the planning stages. It is about a girl in a magical wheelchair who gets lost in space with her best friend, and they need to find their way back home before their families leave for another galaxy. I am keen to explore this story and other types of tales which will be published on my blog. Writing for a younger audience is a challenge I am very much looking forward to. I plan to sharpen my writing skills even more and craft stories with unique and intricate characters. Writing is my first love. Without my talent, I would be adrift. Writing saved my life.