Chioma Okereke, author of 'Water Baby' - Poet and Author discusses writing without genre, changing how you plot, and performing poetry

Writer's Routine

Dan Simpson

Arts, Hobbies, Books, Leisure

4.9 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2024

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chioma Okereke's writing career started as a performance poet, even though she was terrified of performing poetry. From there she wrote short fiction, and was a highly placed runner up in the Costa Short Story Award, for 'Trompette de la Mort'. Her move into long-form began with her debut 'Bitter Leaf', which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize.

Her new novel is 'Water Baby', which looks at a 19 year old woman trying to escape her community in Makoko in Lagos, Nigeria. It explores the themes of education, digitalisation, and the representation of Africa. Her research for the novel prompted her to start a charity, 'Makoko Pearls', which is a direct and safe way to financially support the community.

We discuss why it was inspired by her wandering thoughts during a cooking show, also how she researched the location, which is so vital to the plot, without going there for a while. You can hear why living around the world has influenced her reason to write stories, how changing her plotting method has helped her 2nd novel, and find out why you can accept that some days are simply bad.

You can hear why her desk is always messy, how performing poetry affected how she viewed novels, and what she does when facing a creative block.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, welcome along to a brand new episode of writers' routine.
0:12.0	This week we're chatting to Chioma Okorike.
0:14.9	Her new novel, Waterbaby, looks at a 19-year-old woman trying to escape her community.
0:21.1	We talk about why she writes genreless to explore,
0:26.2	and also what the purpose of her writing is.
0:28.7	You can hear how she researched her location
0:30.8	without actually going there for a little while.
0:33.3	And what she does when she comes up against a creative block.
0:36.8	You just move slower. It's like the ink in your pen is just running slower.
0:41.1	You just can't generate the thoughts, the propulsion.
0:45.3	I'm not entirely sure what it is.
0:46.6	But rather than push it, because I feel that to push it could lead to me becoming blocked again
0:53.1	in a way that I choose not to be, I just give that day a pass and approach it the next day. But usually when you, if anyone saw my first drafts, they would think I was a mad person if they didn't already assume that from my desk. Because there are lots of times where I don't even know what I'm doing or I've just put, in the mid-sentence,
1:12.8	I've put an X, X, X, X, X, which means, you know,
1:32.3	I kind of knew where that sentence was going, but I couldn't finish it enough and I'm still trying to do my thousand words, so I'll just leave that and fill it in later. It's all on the way with Chioma Okorikeke in this week's writer's routine. Yes, welcome along to the show.
1:35.5	This is writer's routine where we take a look through an author's working day.
1:37.2	My name's Dan Simpson.
1:39.4	Our job around here is simple.
1:41.1	Well, it sounds simple.
1:43.8	We chat to the best writers on the planet.
1:44.2	We try and see how they get stuff done.
1:47.2	Where, when, how they plan to give them the best chance of getting words down on the page.
	...

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