Stephen Buoro: On Listening to the Character’s Voice
Author Stephen Buoro discusses what he learned from the constructive feedback he reveived on the early drafts of his debut literary fiction novel, The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa.
Stephen Buoro was born in Nigeria in 1993. He has received a degree in mathematics and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia as the recipient of the Booker Prize Foundation Scholarship. (Previous winners include Ian McEwan, Anne Enright, and Kazuo Ishiguro.) He has also received the Deborah Rogers Foundation Award. He lives in Norwich, United Kingdom.
In this post, Stephen discusses what he learned from the constructive feedback he reveived on the early drafts of his debut literary fiction novel, The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa, the importance of writers creating their own rules, and more!
Name: Stephen Buoro
Literary agent: Nicola Chang, David Higham Associates; (David Evans temporarily)
Book title: The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Release date: April 18, 2023
Genre/category: Literary fiction
Elevator pitch for the book: The novel is about Andy Aziza, a smart and funny 15-year-old boy, coming of age in present-day Nigeria. He’s obsessed with blondes, whiteness, life abroad in the West, who his true father is, and these obsessions are intensified when his life is suddenly destabilized by communal violence.
What prompted you to write this book?
I wanted to examine the following: the legacy of colonialism in present-day Nigeria, the inundation of Western culture in the country (it’s Americanization and Anglicization), the crumbling nature of the country, and how these three impact contemporary Nigerian identity and stimulate xenocentrism, the desire for otherness, for the West.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
It took about five years. I first got the idea for the novel one evening in June 2018 while I was sitting in my living room in Nigeria. A voice suddenly came to me. The voice was full of so much urgency, energy, shame, sadness, the desire to confess. So, I picked up my BlackBerry and I began to follow the voice, to give it room to express itself, to try to understand it.
After writing about 500 words, I stopped and began to reread all that I had written. I discovered that it was the rawest, most “truthful” and animated piece of writing I had ever composed up till that time. This piece became the opening of the novel.
After this groundbreaking moment of inspiration, I spent some weeks sketching the characters, the plot, composing vignettes: I jotted down everything that came to me. Afterwards, I spent two and half weeks writing the first draft. On my BlackBerry. I wrote feverishly, night and day.
Around that time, I received an offer to study for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. When I began my course, for my first workshop I submitted the first chapter of the novel. The feedback was ecstatic, hugely encouraging. For my next workshop, I submitted the second and third chapters. This time, the feedback was mixed to negative. This feedback turned out to be hugely invaluable, for it forced me to rethink the entire novel, identify what I wasn’t doing well, gave me a fresh perspective on the narrative.
I decided to trash the entire first draft save for the first two pages. I reconstructed the novel, broadened its scope, introduced a few characters as well as removed others, and began writing again. This second iteration was organic, and it took me nearly two years to complete.
After securing publishers for the novel, I worked on the book for over two years—rewriting, polishing—guided by my editors.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
The entire publishing process has been hugely illuminating to me. It’s been interesting to see how people in the publishing industry—creative writing tutors, agents, editors, publicists, journalists—engage books differently. I’ve learnt hugely from my editors, of course. It’s also surprising to see how publishers collaborate with each other, and how everyone in the industry (at least here in the U.K.) seem to know each other.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
Many. Plot strands that I ended up not using, characters who changed, chapters that I thought were the best stuff I’d ever written which ended up in my bin. In fact, the book itself is a huge surprise. I never imagined I would ever write a novel that might be described as “satiric,” “playful,” even “tragicomic.” I thought I was a different sort of writer ... Hence, this book has been hugely revelatory.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
There are a hundred things that I could hope for, but my greatest desire is that they enjoy reading it, just as I have, the many times I’ve read it.
Being a writer often entails discovering your “rules” and sticking to them no matter what. But now and then, you’ve got to break these rules. Every writer always knows when.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
