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

·54 min·5 clips

Chioma Okereke wrote a novel set in a Nigerian floating slum without ever visiting, relying on cooking shows and drone footage.

The episode begins with host Dan Simpson introducing Chioma Okereke and her novel 'Water Baby,' which follows a 19-year-old woman in a Nigerian floating community. Chioma describes her writing space, a spare bedroom painted eggshell gray with a cluttered desk filled with mementos like a Comet Relief Monkey, which she finds inspiring. She explains her daily routine of writing a thousand words in the morning, followed by a walk in the countryside to generate ideas. Chioma talks about her background as a performance poet who hated performing, and how therapy helped her overcome stage fright for book readings. She details her shift from poetry to novels, starting when a publisher dismissed her poetry and her work organically evolved into prose. Chioma discusses her strategic writing method, aiming to complete a novel in three months by writing a thousand words daily to minimize time spent on potential rejections. She shares how she researched Makoko without visiting, using online articles, videos, and drone footage, and later verified her accuracy during a visit. The conversation touches on her charity, Makoko Pearls, set up during her research, and the challenges of balancing writing with other commitments. Chioma reflects on her identity as a Nigerian-British writer and the importance of authentic representation in her work. She explains her plot development process, which involves characters emerging naturally rather than pre-planning, and how themes like education and digitalization arise from research. The episode concludes with Chioma discussing font changes as a tactic to overcome writer's block and her thoughts on future projects.

As heard by us

A practical look at the routines and work habits that keep Chioma Okorike moving.

Chioma Okorike's Writer's Routine appearance keeps its focus on Water Baby and on the habits that help her keep writing. Dan Simpson leans into practical questions about why she writes genre-less to explore, what she thinks her writing is for, and how she researches a location…

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For when you need your morning writing slot defended.

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