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My Writing Life: Dorothy Koomson

Dorothy Koomson is an award-winning, global bestselling author of 23 novels, with a writing career spanning more than 20 years. Her novels include the Sunday Times bestsellers I Know What You’ve Done, Tell Me Your Secret, The Brighton Mermaid, The Friend, The Ice Cream Girls, The Woman He Loved Before, The Chocolate Run and My Best Friend’s Girl. Her new novel, The Quiet Girls, was published earlier this month.

1. What book should every writer read?

The temptation to say one of my books is strong… ; ) I don’t know is the honest answer. I suppose you should look at what type of writing you want to do and then read something in a completely different genre. If you want to be a writer, it’s a good idea to read as widely as possible. The more outside your genre you read, the better your writing will be because you will learn lots of techniques you can apply to your own work.

2. What is your typical writing day like?

I don’t have a typical day because I have so many different things I need to do related to my writing life. I produce at least one book a year, so I am very rarely just writing a book at any one time. On top of writing a book, I’m usually editing another story, trying to promote a different novel, and then organising events or trying to find ways to help other authors. Having said that, when I’m near the end of the writing process or close to a deadline, I pull all-nighters to get the book written. I don’t recommend it though, because it gets physically and mentally harder and harder to do as time goes on.

3. Who has been an influential figure in your writing career?

I think my parents. My mum taught me to read and write when I was in nursery, and my dad had a lot of books and encouraged us to go to the library, so they both encouraged me in their own ways to explore the storytelling side of my nature

4. What is the one thing you wish someone had told you before you started your career as a professional writer?

That you’re going to get rejected A LOT at every stage of your career, yes, even when you have more than one number one bestselling title to your name. All writers face rejection – it doesn’t make it easier to immediately accept, but it can be comforting to know that you’re not alone and that you can still thrive after someone has said “no” to you. Or in my case, when everyone in the Writers & Artists Yearbook has said “no” to you. Twice. So I wish someone had told me that you’ll get rejected A LOT, that it will sting, but you have to keep going.

5. What is the best advice you’ve ever received about your writing?

That I need to put clues in that the main character of my novel is Black. It was a lesson that, as a Black working-class woman writer, the industry is going to ask things of me that they won’t ask of other people who aren’t at these intersections. It was unintentional but very valuable advice as it turned out, because it encouraged me to not allow other people’s unreasonable expectations and stereotypes to stop me creating the stories that I want to tell.

6. What has been the proudest moment of your career so far?

I am someone who tends to celebrate the opening of an envelope so I find a lot of joy in many moments of my career. I suppose, though, some of my proudest moments have been hearing from readers how my books have helped them feel less alone or make sense of their reality and the things that have happened to them. That says I’ve done good by telling my stories.

7. What are you reading right now?

Am in the middle of writing a book, so the only thing I’m reading are crochet patterns.

8. Bookmarker or page-folder?

Neither. I’m a “try to remember the page and then have to flick back and forth to find where I left off-er”.

This article originally appeared on our Substack.

Photo of Dorothy Koomson by Niall McDiarmid.

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