Lately, I have been getting questions on how to apply for a role, interview questions and how to write an application letter. I don’t even talk about career progression that much but some people think I am the right person to ask.
Disclaimer: This is not a one size fits all. Feel very free to edit, criticize and mold the tips into what works for you.
Brief introduction: My name is Myra T. Okumu. I hold a BSc. in Medical Microbiology from the Malawi University of Science and Technology. I have worked in public health, research and clinical settings, and in that regard hold approximately three years working experience.
Lets get into it, then:
CV do’s and dont’s
When I submitted my CV during my internship, my mentor sent it back three times. Not only was the format wrong but it had so much unnecessary information that had absolutely nothing to do with what I was applying for, like hobbies. Remove hobbies from your curriculum vitae, they are not needed nor relevant.
Another flag was the format. While others choose to add their work experience first, I would advice to start with your education because that feeds into your work experience. Write it nicely and neatly, gas yourself but keep it short and professional. If you do not have a lot of experience to fill in the gap, expand on those few roles that you have held.
Don’t include your family details
Don’t write your whole life story
If demographics are not a requirement, don’t add them
Don’t refer to yourself in third person.
Leave out all negativity (unfortunately, difficult, frustrating, problems, discouraged) and focus on positive words (achiever, capable, enthusiastic, talented, powerful).
Your CV/resume should have:
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Hey, my name is Myra Trudea Okumu and welcome to my blog. If you have not subscribed to my newsletter, please do so and you get to receive updates, posts etc. in your inbox.
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For those who are new here, I am a writer through and through. I cannot remember a time when I was not writing. I discovered my love of books from an early age and, more, my love for learning new things. I have told this story several times but I will tell it once more.
When I was about 8 years old, I found a book in my grandmother’s house titled ‘Habitats’. I had no clue what that singular word meant so I took it to my dad on my weekend visit. My dad was an avid reader and even then, I knew he would know what it was. He sat me down for a full Sunday afternoon, reading the book with me and explaining every word I could not pronounce or did not know.
That was the beginning of my reading.
Every Saturday, my dad would take me to the Good Shepherd library and ask that I read as many books as I can. He would bring me a hotdog and a drink for lunch, and pick me up at closing time. From there, we would drive home and I would tell him about every story I read and why I liked/disliked it. Then, I would pull out a list of words I had learned that day after scheming through the dictionary for their meanings. I felt on top of the world each Saturday; I traveled into different worlds, met so many characters and lived vicariously through their journeys and adventures.
By 10 years old, I had read Meg Cabot, Cecilia Ahern, Danielle Steele, Stephen King, John Grisham, Eoin Colfer and the likes. I finished Lord of the Rings, Alex Rider, Artemis Fowl and Harry Potter by the time I was 11. And I read until I felt I had a story I could tell.
Given, my influence in writing stemmed from sites such as Wattpad but slowly, I found my voice. I found my way of telling stories and conveying a message. I found the stories I loved, the ones I wanted to read but could never find. I write every story for me, first.
I write stories I would want to read, stories I would give the time of day. How could I expect the world to love something I do not love? That would be an utterly ridiculous and delusional expectation.
I always joke to my friends that I would ran mad if I ever stopped writing, and I feel that becomes a possibility every day.
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I recently attended a writing retreat at Joe’s working space, and the lesson packed experience is worth sharing
As an aspiring academic, the want for uninterrupted, focused writing time often feels elusive. The pressures of daily responsibilities—laboratory work, writing for the newspaper, authoring my books, and personal commitments—create a fragmented schedule, making sustained concentration on writing projects challenging.
For two blissful days to the academic in me, I had the privilege of attending a writing retreat designed specifically for academics, an experience that not only rejuvenated my writing process but also provided invaluable insights into productive scholarly work.
Joe’s is equipped with amenities tailored to the needs of all kinds of writers, or anyone looking for a space to work. Spacious conference rooms and co-working spaces were available, providing both collaborative and solitary work environments.
Here, I share my reflections on this and the valuable lessons learned from this retreat.
Structured Writing Sessions
The retreat emphasized the importance of structured writing sessions. Each day was divided into blocks of uninterrupted writing time (which lasted an hour to an hour and a half), allowing for deep focus and productivity.
These sessions taught me the value of disciplined writing habits (and phones were not allowed during the writing session). Setting specific goals for each session and sticking to them improved my writing efficiency and output significantly. This disciplined approach is something I’ve carried back into my daily writing routine and I can, hopefully, maintain.
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It has been a minute and half since I wrote a novel (last seen in secondary school plagiarising wattpad books) but I am back and I have (almost) conquered the dating scene with Nasirumbi.
Also, the title has changed as this will have two books after.
Book 1:To all the girls she was Book 2: To all the girls she lost Book 3: To the woman she will be
Knowing myself and my indecisiveness, the title is likely to change again. Please do subscribe to my blog for updates. x
What inspired me to write a chick lit?
It all started when I was born…
Jokes
I was largely inspired by the piss-infested waters of the Blantyre dating pool.
I am so serious.
People in relationships are in ‘the streets’, married people are somewhere between the actual roads and the pavements and someone emptied their bowels into the community dating pool.
In short, I do not recommend.
Those garbage-laden, dimly lit sidewalks with two working streetlights in a 5 mile radius and four stray dogs named ‘poppy’ is where our story is set.
Of course, heartbreak is inevitable and our lead babe, Nasirumbi, will find herself fighting for her life in those murky waters. From the author (me), it is a definite must read!
Did I include any references from actual incidents?
Yes.
I summed up all my friends into one person, June.
Her clown behaviour is the total of the circus my friends have been running for years.
I could have sworn they had it patented.
BooBoo the fool, Pennywise, Bozo the clown, Krusty the clown etc.
I love them and I may have participated in said clowning contests sometime ago (far from the public eye), and June is our personification.
For all the times we accepted tainted love labelled free, for all the love we poured into cups not meant for us, for all our misguided attempts at trying to save others from themselves.
My girls, we have had a good run!
A big shoutout to the partners we found (and continue to find) that bandage and heal wounds they did not inflict.❤️
When will it be available and in which formats?
I am aiming for 60,000 words.
I have never written those many words for a single book and I am finding it exciting to challenge myself in that regard. 1500+ words a day is where troubles begin.
Nonetheless, I will be done writing 5 May 2024 and editing should take me through until 10 May (maybe). I’m not sure it will be available as a hard copy yet as I am still fighting to get “After the clouds, the sun” to you.
I will probably have it as a soft copy until we can get everything together and ticked off, and then we can consider hardcopies.
It’s been a rough year filled with hope, a paradoxical reality for me.
Still, we write!
From my paper filled desk to yours, see you all at the end of this book!❤️
The notion that writers spend their days leisurely in pajamas, sipping lattes while joyfully typing away is a charming thought, but the reality is quite different.
In truth, many of us juggle full or part-time jobs alongside our writing endeavours. Making a sustainable living as an author is challenging, often requiring multiple books or a blockbuster debut — which is rare (although I do hope ‘Sinful Basket’ will be a hit).
Balancing writing with an eight-hour workday, not to mention family commitments, self-care, exercise, blogging, and travel, poses a considerable challenge. While it’s tempting to think, “I’ll fit in my writing whenever I can,” I’ve found that this mindset often relegates writing to the background.
Personally, I prioritize routine, strategically allocating time to maximize productivity and planning ahead to ensure optimal use of every moment.
#1 – PROTECT YOUR WRITING TIME.
Many find it odd and inconvenient that my workday extends beyond the typical end time. This occasionally leads to missing out on social events or opportunities. However, if I make my writing easily reschedulable, it could establish a precedent for frequent rescheduling.
#2 – SET GOALS AND DEADLINES.
Think of them as your new best friend and your worst enemy at the same time. They are so helpful to achieving your writing dreams because they allow accountability and tracking milestones.
I would advice writing them down and pasting them somewhere you can see them. These goals could be number of words per day, the type of content you would like to write on certain days or writing deadlines that you have, including submissions.
#3 – COMMIT!
It only takes 21 days to form a habit, but you gotta stick with it! I know it is hard breaking down old habits of procrastination, but having the right motivations and mindset will help tremendously! If you can track milestones, or have an accountability chart, you do that.
#4 – BUT DON’T BE TOO HARD ON YOURSELF.
Ultimately, things happens. Illness, work deadlines, dead computers, seasonal depression,just life. So give yourself a little grace – especially in the beginning – to adjust and do what’s best for your life. Writing is not a chore, it should be an extension of who you are.
Good luck to all the writers out there and you continue to bring stories into the light and make true your literary dreams!
With love,
The dreams that belong to the multi coloured girl🫀
The things left unsaid to people we care about, and the void those unspoken words leave, often have more impact than what is said.
Tyler Knight
EMAIL SUBJECT LINES
There is not enough talk on how exhausting it is trying to find your footing in this world. Everything and everyone is on fast forward and there is never time to rest and reset. On to the next task, on to the next job, left, right and center. “Please find attached” and “Per my last email” run the day and do not clock out when you do.
Nobody talks about how hard it is to make friends as an adult when everyone is chasing the bag and making bread, nobody talks about the exhaustion that slowly sets in by Tuesday and has you dragging your body to Friday, or the lack of enthusiasm and time for the things that once rocked our worlds. I struggled to find my work-life-more-work balance and that is mainly because I let my ambitions get the best of me. Nevertheless, I understand the toil responsibility, deadlines, and upcoming events/projects bring in and today, we are practicing gratitude for the work we do, but actively set boundaries between the two.
It is okay to set aside a day for self-care devoid of any outside expectations, it is okay to take several steps back and delegate when you feel overwhelmed. You are human, you are meant to tire, that is your body’s cry for a day off. It is okay to not be okay, it is okay to feel frustrated at the list of tasks waiting for you, it is okay to say, ‘hey, I need help.’
THE BIGGEST APOLOGIES
The sad days are the ones nobody really prepares you for and today, I realised we owe ourselves the biggest apologies. For invalidating our feelings and for wanting to belong, for banging on closed doors and crying over spilled milk, for wanting to be chosen by people who would use us for rituals given the chance and finally, for not telling ourselves often enough how simply amazing we are.
Everyday is just a blur, a photocopied version of yesterday, the twin of what will be tomorrow but today, we are here and we are present. And to everyone reading this, this is your sign to be fearless, to be brave and, to be audacious. There is something, I tell you, about youthful naivety that makes you think you can conquer the world and that is the universe’s gift to you.
You should only have a pocket full of dreams, and not cups full of regret. You are only young once and should constantly choose to live. Live intentionally. Burn with so much passion, you put the stars and the sun to shame because you blaze brighter and with more purposes. You, who is wonderfully and beautifully created, curated and designed for a bigger purpose and a greater joy.
Take advice from your dear (not so old) auntie and live happily, truly and passionately. You will not have a lot to apologise for, I promise.
SING A NEW SONG
Things…life happens to everyone and despite what the burdens you carry want you believe, life is fair. If ever there was an epitome of fairness, it would be how justly life deals everyone a misery of their disliking; to each their own battle. Please, don’t get me wrong, there is suffering in the world but who am I or are you to tell how much it hurts when the experience is compacted in another’s body? We cannot gauge how heavy emotions can be or should be because at the end of the day we all experience moments, people, and emotions differently. Beneath the surfaces of smiles, laughter, and the shows of strength and courage, lies feelings and experiences we may never fully comprehend. While compassion may lead us to hold the hands of those in pain, to offer comforting words and sympathetic glances, we are merely spectators to their struggle. It hurts for them and that is enough, that is valid and does not need justification.
Today, empathize with the boy who carries the weight of his family’s expectations, the girl with silent and invisible tears…approach with warmth, empathy and humility those that the world has shut out.
Suffering is a universal experience: like a fingerprint, it is unique to everyone but cheap as clay and twice as common.
This is me signing out and calling it a day!🤍
Always rooting for you, always wishing you the very best of everything.
“I love you. I would like to be near you, I would like to have your arms around me. I would like to have your voice in my ear but that is not possible now. I love you so go. Love liberates, it doesn’t hold. That’s ego. Love liberates.”
~Maya Angelou
When the bible said, “Love is not selfish.” my mind rushed to associate those words with how we share things of the materialistic kind.
Selfish in terms of holding things to yourself, keeping all your cards sewn to our chest. 21 years, 5 months and 5 days later, I would change that verse to “Love unburdens.”
In the words of Maya Angelou. “I love you so go. Love liberates, it doesn’t hold. That’s ego. Love liberates.” But human nature does not willingly allow us to let go, to accept that love is not possession nor does it hold a person hostage.
Love, the feeling, started out in rose colored glasses and a fiery passion that put UY Scuti to shame: the constant phone calls that lasted hours, the longing when they were away and yearning that accompanies the kaleidoscope of butterflies in your stomach each time their name rings in the air,
They say time heals, mends and remedies, but you have since learned that time tells and turns things sour.
The rose-colored glasses fractured, and faded, letting in the harsh glare of reality. The butterflies that inhabited your stomach ceased to beat their wings, each day adding a layer of unwarranted complexities into your once vibrant union.
All of it as though the petals of roses withered when tested, leaving behind thorns that pricked and pierced; words that stung and stayed.
You tried to work it out, to put differences aside but nothing you do seems to work. Talks and more talks, with agendas: ‘clean slate’ and ‘let us try harder’, but what really does happen when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?
Beloved, love is a mercurial muse.
Blinded by love that wants to possess , a love that drips of selfishness, you try to hold on to a crippling maybe it will work this time, but you realize that the true show of your love is to loosen your grip, to set each other free. Your love was malnourished and you suffocated under the weight of the hurt, any more time and it would breed resentment.
Your heart broke: loud and irreparable. Feelings of failure and inadequancy for letting the fire die out came charging in, rattling your world and shading your days. Deep down, you understand it is for the best, and your happiness does not lie with each other.
The hearts you traded had to be returned, time was the overseer of that too.
“Love liberates, it does not hold,” you told yourself every time you felt your heart break. Days turned into weeks and weeks into years. The remnants of that love faded into the corner of your mind, a bittersweet ache that reminded you that once there was love.
Life bring new experiences, new loves, they all grow from the beautiful ashes of a former flame, a forgotten history.
Maybe, beloved, in some distant future, you will meet the love you liberated, your eyes will meet and recognition will dawn.
“I would have set the world on fire for you,” you will think with a smile. Your familiar stranger. You have grown, evolved, and rebranded a million times in the wake of your separation. You wish them well, you wish them happiness: your love does not confine.
You are grateful for the time, the memories, the moments, and the insane amounts of courage it took to say goodbye. You realize it was an act of grace and an offering of laissez-aller.
You remain strangers, untethered to each other, and each contented in your separate lives. Some loves, no matter how fierce, are not meant to last forever in the conventional way.
You let go, not out of weakness, but strength.
You went your way, not out of indifference, but out of love.
You send them your good wishes on whisphered winds, hoping that life’s wonders find their way to their doorstep and life’s serendipities grace their path.
Time does heal, you realize, and out of love, one should know when they have fallen out of love.
We live and breathe words. …. It was books that made me feel that perhaps I was not completely alone. They could be honest with me, and I with them. Reading your words, what you wrote, how you were lonely sometimes and afraid, but always brave; the way you saw the world, its colors and textures and sounds, I felt–I felt the way you thought, hoped, felt, dreamt. I felt I was dreaming and thinking and feeling with you.
Writing has always been that one thing I have never lost passion for: that everlasting fire in my heart. I mean, yes I have gone months without writing because I can’t get past the idea phase, or times where all I can write is gibberish and the frustration results in writer’s block, but words and I have never parted ways.
Despite working 18 hour shifts and running a full time business, writing still is a big part of who I am (and what I will always be!) and what use is writing if I can’t share that joy with others? What purpose does a story serve if not to be told? To be passed down? To entertain, educate?
Writing has always been second nature to me, something I was not taught but self-learned from reading others, and publishing (a) book(s) has been a goal I haven’t been able to shake off. That expensive, time-consuming, heart-wrenching goal that lives rent free in my mind.
Reading Danielle Steele, Meg Cabot and Cecilia Ahern, my love for stories grew with each read and each mind-blowing ending. Being from a third world country, my reality is different. The hurdles to be faced are different but very much real and very much unavoidable. Here is what I am learning in trying to get my books out and on the market:
ISBN application
When I decided that I wanted my books available on the international market, the one thing I needed was an ISBN, an international book serial number, which I wasn’t sure I could get in Malawi. The internet said we had a national archives where I could get one but their digital footprint is non-existent (gruesome story for another day). Buying an ISBN was out of the question as one was being sold for close to $200 on some sites! Several Google searches later, I stumbled upon the Archives office in South Africa and ISBN application was free, all I had to do was send an email with my book information and of course, a copy of a hard copy once published. Was that it? No. They reply hours later that I can use the archives in Malawi and at this point, I feel I am out of luck because the system in this country would involve me kicking and screaming all the way.
Fortunately, I was able to locate them in Zomba and I got my 3 ISBNs at less than $7 and the condition that I send them copies.
Book Cover Design
A book cover is sometimes the difference between someone reading your book or putting it down. I don’t have this down to a science but I have picked up a book solely because the cover was appealing to look at. This isn’t to say I haven’t read good stories with horrible covers but hey, good covers are eye catchers.
Finding a good designer is imperative, someone who is good at their job but also listens to your wants. The final result should depend on you, just don’t get in their creative well in the process.
This part needs you to know your book specifications including book trim size, cover paper, paperback or hard copy. All those trifling details for your perfect book. If you have any questions, you can always email me or write that in the comment section.
Getting Quotes From Publishers
If your ultimate plan is to get your book into a paperback or a hard copy, you will obviously need some people to print your book into existence. Regular printing and book printing are very different things and should be treated as such. Do not carry your precious book to any company that has the words ‘print’ on their door! Find the companies you feel can do the job and ask if they do book printing. Here are some questions to ask:
Do you offer book printing services?
Any reference material on any books you have printed?
Can I get a quotation on a book with Xyz attributes?
How long does these process between submission and printing take?
For my books, I chose TAG graphix (former: IPPL printing and packaging) and they have been such wonderful help through everything. I really can’t wait to work with them in publishing my books this year! A link to their website: http://www.taggraphixmw.com/
Choosing Editors
You have written every word you could muster and you feel this is your best work. You have edited all you could and this looks likes the goose that will lay golden eggs. It’s not there yet. You need a fresh set of eyes and someone willing to tell you the cold hard truth. One should be ready for constructive criticism and be willing to learn and grow from it. Editors are there to cross out what shouldn’t be there and help you build on your story. Think of it as the final layer of much needed colour on your masterpiece, the whole thing is you but it needed a step back and a fresh set of eyes to add that zing! to it. I picked 3 editors, each with a passion for story telling and all willing to point me in the direction of much needed change in some areas. They also do have a lot of experience in storytelling and writing and let’s just say, my manuscripts will be hitting their desks soon.
I am not a seasoned writer (yet), I am just a young woman who loves to write and share her writings. I write from passion and from my love of telling a good story. When I do publish my books, that will be an absolute dream come true and I will be sharing my journey here and on my YouTube channel as I go along, bare with me.
I hope whoever reads this finds it helpful and is a dreamer just like me, a true lover of words.
Love,
The girl who dreams in colours yet to be discovered.
About the blog
Myra Trudea Okumu is a personal blog that documents an individual’s journey through different aspects of living. Don’t forget to follow me on:
Myra Trudea Okumu 