This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
INTERVIEW BY DEBS CARR
Dorothy Koomson is one of our favourite authors and she's kindly answered a few questions I put to her.
1. The Woman He Loved Before is your seventh novel, can you tell us something about your road to publication?
I’ve been published for eight years now, so it feels a long time ago! I’ve been making up stories since I was about 13. I loved drama and fiction, so read and watched a lot of television from around then. (I’m tempted to dig out my old notebooks and give those early stories a read again soon.) When I got older, I thought more about trying to get my stories published. I sent out a couple out to agents and I’m really grateful that they didn’t get taken up because my writing has moved on so much from then, I’d probably cringe at the thought of some of them being ‘out there’.
In 2002, I was working on the book that would become The Chocolate Run when I went to visit a friend in Leeds. Whilst I was there, I had the idea for The Cupid Effect. When I returned to London I sat down and wrote it. Because I could see the story so clearly in my mind, it was pretty easy to write. Originally I sent out the first three chapters to quite a few agents who all basically told me to go away. So I finished the book – I could do so without being too disheartened because I believed in the story. (That’s one of my biggest tips to unpublished authors – write a story you love and believe in because it’ll keep you going.) When I finished, I sent it out to agents again and got the same response: ‘Go Away!’
So I sent it to a publisher. It landed on their slush pile and I heard from them three months later. I’d been considering giving up the whole writing thing by that point but my friend Janet (who is very much like Jess in The Cupid Effect) reminded me that I couldn’t actually do that. I write because I love it.
The day my life changed, I remember laying in bed, thinking: ‘I need a sign or something that tells me I shouldn’t give up trying to get published’. A few minutes later, the postman rang my buzzer and had a letter offering me a two-book deal! My life as a published author began at that moment.
2. When you begin a new novel do you start with the plot or with the characters?
I love writing about people so when I write a book I often start with the basic premise of the relationships and characters in the book and the detail of the plot grows from there.
For example, with The Woman He Loved Before, I originally wanted to write about a woman who feels second-best in her marriage and how a traumatic experience forces her to re-evaluate her whole life and her relationsip. As I planned out the novel, the idea of telling the first wife’s tale grew. This also involved unravelling what was going on in the first wife’s life that influenced her husband so deeply that he found it hard to get over her. When I hit upon the first wife’s big secret, I knew I’d found one of the core elements of the book. I find, when I’m writing, as soon as I find one of the core elements, the story pretty much reveals itself to me.
3. How long does it take you to write a book and can you tell us about your typical writing day?
It takes between nine months and a year to get all the text down on the page for a book, but longer in terms of researching, coming up with the idea, sitting with it, exploring it and then finally writing it. I do a lot of pre-story work in terms of mulling over the story to see if it’ll work as a novel. A lot of stories are a great idea and plot, but can’t be sustained as a novel – yet. I sometimes revisit themes and ideas to see if they’re ready to become novels if that makes sense?
I don’t have a typical writing day. I know some authors are very regimented and good about doing a set number of words and/or hours a day. I’m more disciplined in that I will sit down and write but not in any set way.
If I’m not actively writing a book, I’m usually reading and researching and working through the story. I manage my time like this: I wake up, mentally go over my ‘to do’ list at the top of which is usually ‘write next book’ and by the time I go to bed I find I’ve generally done the things that people have nagged me for the most. In between that I squeeze in research or writing scenes that have popped into my head. The nearer I get to deadline, the more writing I try to squeeze into the day, which usually spills over into night. When deadline looms I will cancel virtually everything and concentrate – night and day – on finishing, then editing and rewriting the book.
It’s not very organised in the traditional sense, but it works for me. And that’s important for anyone who wants to become a writer, to find a system that works for them.
4. What is your favourite part of being a published author?
You mean apart from going into a shop and seeing your name on an actual book? That’s a wonderful feeling. But, better than that, is getting emails from readers who say that one of my books has changed their lives or changed their – possibly narrow – views on something. With The Ice Cream Girls I had a lot of readers opening up about the domestic violence they had suffered, and with The Woman He Loved Before it is hearing from people that the book has made them rethink their beliefs on one of the main themes. Some of the emails are so honest and touching I get a bit teary. That’s one of the most brilliant things about being a published author.
5. Would you consider writing in any other genre?
I would love to write sci-fi novels. I still might, if I can find the time in with everything else I do/want to do. I’m a bit of a sci-fi geek although I haven’t read as much of late. The beauty of sci-fi is that you can do pretty much anything you want without having to ground it in reality. At all.
6. And finally, if there’s one piece of advice you could give aspiring novelists to help them towards publication, what would it be?
As I said earlier, all aspiring novelists would do well to find a system that works for them. That means not sticking to the ‘rules’ and doing some ‘crazy’ things like writing another part of their book if the bit they’re working on doesn’t work. I don’t write in sequence so if I find the part of the book I’m writing isn’t flowing, I just write another part. That eliminates writers’ block for me. The other piece of advice I give to aspiring writers (sorry, I know it’s meant to be one) is to write what you love. Tell a story that you want to read. It’ll make the telling all that much easier and it’ll keep you going if you get a few knockbacks along the way.
Thanks very much for answering these questions, Dorothy and good luck with The Woman He Loved Before.
Thank you. And thanks for taking the time to write this interview.
Dorothy x
The Woman He Loved Before is out today and to be in with a chance of winning one of the four copies we have to give away, please leave a comment. The winners will be picked at random next Wednesday and their names posted on next weeks Women's Fiction Thursday.