Poetry led me to short story writing – Ogbere

Louis Ogbere is one of two Nigerians recently long-listed for the 2015 Short Story Day Africa (SSDA) Prize. He has published several short stories, including ‘World Crimes Day’ and ‘Freedom Street.’ Here, he talks about how he turned a few lines of poetry into his first short story, the relevance of contests and much more. […]

Louis Ogbere is one of two Nigerians recently long-listed for the 2015 Short Story Day Africa (SSDA) Prize. He has published several short stories, including ‘World Crimes Day’ and ‘Freedom Street.’ Here, he talks about how he turned a few lines of poetry into his first short story, the relevance of contests and much more.
Bookshelf: You were recently long-listed for the Short Story Day Africa Prize. How did this happen?
Louis Ogbere: A friend of mine sent an email when the call for entries was made. Because of the work schedule of my day job, I couldn’t send in my entry until few weeks to the deadline. Now I’m here, in the long-list. However, the title of my long-listed entry for the 2015 Short Story Day Africa Prize isn’t in the public eye. All entries for the prize are read blind and will only be revealed at the short-list stage.
Bookshelf: What inspires you to write?
Ogbere: Curiosity! There’s a sort of voyeurism associated with writing I think. It is characteristic. Oftentimes, just a chanced real life encounter, even when glimpsed momentarily, can spark a story that surprises even the writer.
Bookshelf: How did you start writing stories?
Ogbere: I grew up in Oron, Akwa Ibom State. My father was a police officer and so I spent the greater part of my childhood in a barrack. It is a period I hold fond memories of because I learnt first-hand the art of storytelling, when during the evenings we traded stories under the full gaze of the moon. I came into the short story form by coincidence. Back in the university, I was neck-deep in poetry writing. A particular narrative poem I had written just would not get off my head – it haunted me. The character wanted more than a couple of lines of flowery words and metaphors. So, to exorcise it, I began expanding the poem until it bloomed into what I would later learn was a short story. Before that time, I had no idea what constituted a short story. I have not written poetry in years now.
Bookshelf: How did you develop your writing skills, especially as someone who studied banking and finance?
Ogbere: The easiest way to developing one’s writing skill is by reading a lot. I am yet to come across a writer who doesn’t love reading. There’s no going around this. I started out reading newspapers, then graduated to borrowing my father’s books, both fiction and non-fiction. When I was old enough to know what I could use my pocket money on, I began buying the kind of books I loved to read. In terms of genre, I wanted to become skilled and the ‘how to’ articles on the internet became my source. There are hundreds of good resources about writing on the internet that the new writer can benefit from.
Bookshelf: Do you make out a particular time of day to write?
Ogbere: When I started out, yes, but with the greater control over the creative process I have now, anytime of the day is just fine. Nevertheless, I am at my most creative during the early hours of the morning.
Bookshelf: So how do you juggle between your role as head of customer care in a bank and writing?
Ogbere: Writing has gone past the stage of being a hobby for me. I treat it like I would my day job. Both are time-consuming, but that’s the fun of it. I become the devil’s workshop whenever I discover that I have too much time on my hands. And since I have most of the weekends to myself, I usually do the bulk of my writing then. That way, both jobs don’t suffer.
Bookshelf: How do you research for your stories?
Ogbere: I usually rely on the internet and seldom, the state library whenever a story-in-progress demands that I get my facts right. But I don’t dwell heavily on research. There is the pit-fall of knowing when to stop and let imagination take over. Other than that, I test the idea of a new work on my unsuspecting non-writer friends.
Bookshelf: Are you optimistic you will win the SSDA 2015 prize?
Ogbere: First off, I think it will be over-confidence to say I will win the 2015 Short Story Day Africa Prize, especially when I am in the running with some of Africa’s brightest writers. I am no good at predicting eventualities. Being long-listed is on its own a great honour. That said, it’s only the judges who, at the appropriate time, will decide the winner of the prize.
Bookshelf: Do you think contests are vital in encouraging writing in Africa; Why?
Ogbere: Absolutely! Writing is a really tough business. If a sort of payment or validation comes along the way, then it’s a good thing. But it shouldn’t be something that writers should go all out for. A writer who concerns himself with writing a certain kind of story to fit a particular criterion for a prize can only pray that such prize is run in perpetuity or that the sponsors’ tastes do not change. Writers, not just in Africa, seem to have imbued themselves with the parental admonition of whether the person who won this or that award has two heads. We shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that contests are the only avenue of encouraging writing.
Bookshelf: To what height do you intend to take your writing?
Ogbere: I have been working on a short story collection for a while now, adding and tweaking stories as the intended themes of the collection evolves. When I am satisfied with the overall outcome, then I can start the search for a publisher. Maybe when that is accomplished, I can brace for the next project that presents itself. In other words, I am contented with flowing with the trajectory of my writing career.