Jamie O'Connell, author of 'Diving for Pearls' - Debutant talks places as characters, refining structure, and the 500 word limit
Writer's Routine
Dan Simpson
4.9 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2021
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week's guest taking us inside their working day is Jamie O'Connell. He's published short stories before, runs an editing and mentoring site called 'Blackwater Writing', and his debut novel, 'Diving for Pearls', is out now.
It's a story set in Dubai, a mystical, alluring, divisive and controversial place. It's about a woman's death which influences a whole cast of strange and inter-connected characters. The most important character is Dubai itself, we talk about how he brought the place to life in his story.
Also, we talk about how he gets himself going everyday, how talismans help him write, why story-telling is like tuning a radio, and at what point you absolutely should change your font.
You can get a copy of the book here - https://amzn.to/3D2W2yp
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, welcome along to writer's routine. |
| 0:11.1 | This week we're chatting to Jamie O'Connell, an editor and a writing mentor whose debut novel, Diving for Pearls, is out right now. |
| 0:19.6 | It's a story of strange characters all linked to |
| 0:23.6 | mystical Dubai, a mirage of a place. We talk about his 500 words minimum rule, also how he made a city, a |
| 0:33.6 | location, into one of the most important characters in his story. |
| 0:38.2 | And he tells us how he makes sure that he gets things done. |
| 0:41.5 | I'm a control freak. |
| 0:42.4 | I'm trying to control my life. |
| 0:44.2 | And bit by bit, I'm sort of losing such tightness over my life. |
| 0:49.6 | And I find that's been very helpful to my creativity. |
| 0:52.5 | Because quite often, if I sat down in the morning and I'm |
| 0:55.5 | not ready to write at that moment and I push the words out. You know, it's a nightmare for me and the |
| 1:01.1 | words aren't necessarily always that good. Whereas actually if I sort of trust that need to clear the |
| 1:07.4 | mind, mind myself, put myself first, I can come back at four in the afternoon |
| 1:11.5 | and my 500,000 words write themselves. I barely, they're almost effortless because I've, |
| 1:18.2 | there's been a self-care in there, you know? So I think that's probably why I've grown to really |
| 1:24.1 | trust that process of trusting impulses as they arise. |
| 1:29.0 | There is more on the way with Jamie O'Connell in this week's writer's routine. |
| 1:40.1 | Yes, welcome along to writers' routine. My name's Dan Simpson. Hope you're well. I've had a remarkably |
| 1:46.0 | busy week, which is why I'm a little behind on on socials, in case you've noticed. I'm not |
| 1:51.3 | expecting that you have. I'm also behind on on Patreon stuff and spending quality time with |
| 1:56.5 | my loved ones. If you're waiting for something on the Patreon, by the way, just give me a sec or |
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