Maura Cheeks, author of 'Acts of Forgiveness' - Debut writer discusses free-writing, how journalism affects novel-writing, and important stories
Writer's Routine
Dan Simpson
4.9 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2024
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week we chat to Maura Cheeks, who has written pieces and columns all over the place, being featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic and the Harvard Business Review. Her debut novel is called 'Acts of Forgiveness', and is out on the 13th February.
It tells the story of Willie Revel who gives up a career as journalist in New York to help run her family's struggling company in Philadelphia. When the President prepares to pass a bill allowing black families to claim reparations if they can prove they're descendants of slaves, Willie delves into the family history and learns much more than she expected.
We chat about the importance of subject, how writing columns as a journalist changes what you do as an author, and her method of free-writing. Her dad is NBA legend Maurice Cheeks, currently assistant coach of the Chicago Bulls, and we discuss whether growing up with successful parents has any impact on your own quest for success.
This week's episode is sponsored by 'Who is the Cheese Wire Killer?', about a 1983 unsolved murder, one of Scotland's grimest... and you can be part of the live investigation. Find it wherever you get your shows.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of writers' routine. This week we're chatting to Moora Cheeks. |
| 0:15.5 | Mora has worked as a journalist and columnist writing for the New York Times, The Atlantic and the Harvard Business |
| 0:21.7 | Review, and now has a novel out. It's called Acts of Forgiveness. You can hear all about her |
| 0:27.5 | technique of free writing, how that helps her get into the story. Also, whether growing up with |
| 0:33.1 | successful parents means she's got a more dedicated, driven spirit, I wonder, and find out |
| 0:40.1 | how much she knew about the story before sitting down to write. |
| 0:43.6 | Writers have different takes on this. I found it helpful to do less before writing my first |
| 0:48.9 | draft. So I had that idea. I had questions that I wanted to answer, and then I just started writing. |
| 0:55.6 | I wrote like six drafts of my book before I sold it. So it's probably not the most time-efficient |
| 1:03.9 | way to do it, but for me it took a lot of, my first draft, I think, was 100,000 words. |
| 1:09.1 | So for me, I was like, I know I can do it. Like, |
| 1:12.3 | now that I have 100,000 words, I know I can do it. There is more on the way with more |
| 1:16.2 | a Cheeks in this week's writer's routine. Yes, welcome along to writer's routine, where where we take a look through an author's working day. |
| 1:30.5 | We see what they do, where they are, how they plan their life, around giving them the best chance of getting words down on the page. |
| 1:39.0 | This week, we are sponsored by the True Crime Podcast, Who is the cheese wire killer. It's new true crime. |
| 1:47.1 | It puts you right in the heart of a live investigation. And I think it's perfect for you. |
| 1:52.7 | Because if you love crime writing and storytelling in particular, which I think that you do, |
| 1:58.6 | and if you love podcasts, which, well, I would imagine you do, |
| 2:02.9 | this brings the two together in a fantastic way. Who is the Cheese Wire Killer? It's all about |
| 2:08.3 | a 1983 murder. It's now regarded as one of Scotland's most gruesome, unsolved cases. And across five |
| 2:16.1 | episodes through a mixture of documentary and drama, this series |
| 2:19.4 | goes into the very centre of a live investigation because the killer is still on the run. And in |
... |
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