Confessions of a poor woman
Online diary writer, Modiegi Abigail Thotobolo of Confessions of a Poor Woman book series on Facebook, dreams of turning her work into radio drama.
With over 235 000 followers, Thotobolo is one of the online writers who keep people awake with her informative fiction work. She told Vibe that her writing comes a long way from back in school and she is glad for the online platform to be able to share her creativity.
“I started writing back in Junior School, I would make my mother buy me scribblers and write short stories and then give to my friends to read,” she said, emphasizing that being a story teller has always been her calling. Back in 2015 when she discovered a South African Facebook writer, Lesego Maake of ‘Diary of a side chick makhwapheni’, she knew that she could also turn her hobby into something.
“I fell in love with his writing and story, then immediately sent him a mesaage and asked him how I can start writing and he just said to me, "Open a Facebook page and start writing. I did and I’m thankful to him because now people read my online books with passion,” she said.
Her first Facebook story was The Preacher's daughter. She told Vibe that this has helped her grow as a story teller, as she had to do more research to make her stories sound real and informative. “My stories are real African stories told about love and what we think love is. They are not always fairtytales because reality is that people now use social media to seek help and find comfort, and I use my writing to touch lives in that way,” she said, noting that she often covers issues including abuse, HIV, domestic violence and other social ills.
“I also like to add in a few jokes here and there, and just create a character whose sole purpose it to just be funny and entertaining, to give a good laugh to my readers because I understand that we all go through a lot at some point in life and need laughter as a therapeutic experience,” she said.
Under her current page, ’Confessions of a poor woman’, she has written 25 stories in a period of eight years and five short stories that she sold on WhatsApp. Her biggest milestone was when she wrote a story for VUKA App. “I have written a story for Brastone for their VUKA app and that was my biggest breakthrough. I am forever grateful to them,” she said. “I have had people call me and just relate with my stories and how much I have helped them. That means a lot to me and basically keeps me going.
I love knowing that I have changed someone's life,” she said. Unfortunately she has not put her books on print yet. "I don't know if I ever will, it is just not in my bucket list but I have always dreamt of doing a radio drama. That is what I have been passionate about from day one, I grew up listening to Makgabaneng on the radio and I have always wanted to do something similar,” she said, adding that it has always been her dream. “By God's grace, I hope next year around this time we will be in production,” she said. She is currently writing her new book, 'Blood is thicker than water', which will also be shared on her Facebook page.