7 Things I’ve Learned So Far, by Sally Koslow
Outside of personal experience, the best way to learn is to get advice from people who’ve been there and done that. Discover the seven things learned so far by author Sally Koslow.
This is a recurring column called “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,”where writers (this installment written by Sally Koslow, author of THE WIDOW WALTZ and other books) at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent -- by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning.
1. Use exercise to kickstart your creativity. Nothing strategic. No Zumba, which is all about fancy footwork or Pilates, where your brain needs to concentrate on sucking in your gut—pardon, your core. Definitely no team sports, golf, tennis or walking with a chatterbox. Pick something repetitive like solo walking, running, biking or swimming, when you space out and mimic a dream state. When I run, I feel as if I’ve pressed my writing on button. I’m that geek who stops running to scribble ideas.
2. If you write fiction, cross-train your brain by trying non-fiction writer or vice versa. For fiction, imagination is the glue. For non-fiction, it’s curiosity. Memoir is a hybrid that needs a big scoop of both.
3. Picture your scenes as a movie and take notes on what you see and hear. Don’t make your dialogue too writerly. Most American speech is choppy, even rude, as we interrupt one another and forget whatever we know about grammar.
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4. Your computer is your friend (thank you, search engines and spell-check) but only up to a point. Don’t reread your work exclusively on a screen—it will look too finished. Print it out, more than once. The longer you work on something, the greater the fatigue-factor. It’s normal to get sick of your writing after a while. Every time you print, switch fonts to trick your eyes into seeing your work in a fresh way.
5. Read your work aloud. You may sound full of yourself, but this is the best way to listen for rhythm--or lack of it, to zone in on klutzy spots and to hear words you may overuse: all, always, just, so, usually, very, perhaps, really… If you repeat words, be intentional about it. This reminds me…
6. Keep a running list of words you overuse. When you’ve finished a chapter or draft, use your writing program’s find/replace feature to see what you can cut or change. Make it a head game. Who needs Candy Crush?
7. When you’re “finished,” put your writing aside to gel. Rushed writing is rarely your best work. Read, rinse, repeat--again and again.
8 (BONUS!). Remember that a published book has at least five sales hurdles. #1 is to yourself, when you decide your manuscript is ready to be seen by agent. #2: an agent agrees to work with you and presents your book to a select group of editors. One or more of them fall in love with it—there may be an auction--and try to convince a colleague committee to acquire the book. With luck, you make sale #3—to a publisher. The publisher’s sales team works to place your book in stores and other venues: sale #4. The most important sale, #5, is to readers, though you may be lucky with bonus sales to foreign publishers, television or Hollywood.
Sally Koslow’s most recent novel is The Real Mrs. Tobias, published by Harper Perennial in September, 2022. She was the editor-in-chief of McCall’s Magazine, which after 124 years was transformed into Rosie, a magazine that lasted for nine months. Its editor-in-chief was Rosie O’Donnell. Sally didn’t make that up.
