My Writing Life: Simon Okotie
"You have to love writing it for its own sake."
Simon Okotie is a fiction writer and essayist. He is the author of Whatever Happened to Harold Absalon?, In the Absence of Absalon and After Absalon, an acclaimed trilogy of novels published by Salt: ‘Fiction as original as this deserves a long shelf life’ (the London Review of Books). His fiction and essays have appeared in Financial Times Weekend, Firmament and gorse and at The London Magazine, 3:AM Magazine and The White Review. ‘Bindings’ was selected for the Best British Short Stories 2021.
He is currently an RLF Writing Fellow at City, University of London.
1. What book should every writer read?
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. The first part was published in 1605, the second in 1615, so Cervantes is a contemporary of Shakespeare’s. But Don Quixote is such an incredibly modern and even postmodern book. As far as I’m concerned, it's an inexhaustible piece of literature that I return to again and again.
2. What is the one thing you wish someone had told you before you started your writing career?
I remember being at Hay-on-Wye Book Festival when I was just starting out and trying to write. I asked Ben Okri to sign one of his books. And it wasn't even advice, but he said, “Well, what do I do apart from writing?” I told him I was working in engineering. And he said, “That's good.” What I took from that was that becoming a writer can be a very slow process.
3. What is the best advice you’ve ever received about your writing?
One piece of advice I had was to read a book called Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande. It's a classic of creative writing. There are so many creative writing books out there — some of them are good, but this one is exceptional in terms of the process of actually becoming a writer.
4. What is the most underestimated challenge about being a professional writer?
Just how hard writing is. It's a really, really hard process. I guess you have to love doing it for its own sake.
5. What was the proudest moment of your writing career?
Being asked to write something, so being commissioned. I'm always so amazed when somebody has read something I’ve written and then asked me to write something else.
6. What is your typical writing day like?
Writers have routines, which are very individual. My writing routine is — I don't write creatively during winter. That's a fallow period. At the start of March, I will start writing, specifically on Wednesday mornings and Sunday mornings. So that's my writing routine!
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Interesting. I can’t imagine a winter fallow period. Summer, yes, though I rarely take it. And just writing Wednesdays and Sundays? I presume that’s due to other commitments rather than choice. I’m rather hungry to write every day, although long ago I learned to take weekends off to keep my marriage intact.