Ask the Author: Sarah Rose
Answered Questions (5)
Sarah Rose
I'm going to tell you what Richard Ford told me when I was 19 and in his class and I asked him the same question: Marry someone who is willing to support you.
I did not do this.
So insert all the handwaving feminist responses here. We shouldn't be dependent, etc etc. I agree!
But...
Richard is one of our greatest living writers and he did it because Kristina believed in him. She got a job, he stayed home and wrote beautiful books and stories and the world is forever better for it.
So the best advice is find someone who believes in you. Disaggregate writing from earning a living and live with your soulmate.
The second best advice is do not do what I did, which is enter a declining market and keep trying to earn a living as a reporter, an editor, an author, as magazines and newspapers fold and pay rates bottom out. It's all hardship, even when you're successful at it. The mental load of worrying about rent takes a bite out of your writing ability.
There is a huge upside to writing for money, and that it necessity. My landlord demands my money every month and it keeps my butt in a chair. I have to pay attention to what is selling, to what readers want. And I believe --firmly -- that we write to be read. So knowing that a book has to sell, or an article I pitch has to be bought, shapes the outcome. I always have a reader in mind.
So if you can't find your soulmate -- and so far, I can't -- always write to be read.
I did not do this.
So insert all the handwaving feminist responses here. We shouldn't be dependent, etc etc. I agree!
But...
Richard is one of our greatest living writers and he did it because Kristina believed in him. She got a job, he stayed home and wrote beautiful books and stories and the world is forever better for it.
So the best advice is find someone who believes in you. Disaggregate writing from earning a living and live with your soulmate.
The second best advice is do not do what I did, which is enter a declining market and keep trying to earn a living as a reporter, an editor, an author, as magazines and newspapers fold and pay rates bottom out. It's all hardship, even when you're successful at it. The mental load of worrying about rent takes a bite out of your writing ability.
There is a huge upside to writing for money, and that it necessity. My landlord demands my money every month and it keeps my butt in a chair. I have to pay attention to what is selling, to what readers want. And I believe --firmly -- that we write to be read. So knowing that a book has to sell, or an article I pitch has to be bought, shapes the outcome. I always have a reader in mind.
So if you can't find your soulmate -- and so far, I can't -- always write to be read.
Sarah Rose
I'm a bit of a drill sergeant about writers block.
I set tasks and don't let myself have rewards until they're completed. These might seem like extremely light lifts at the beginning of a project, say, 300 bad words a day. But I know that if I can get 300 lousy words a day on a page, day after day, then I'll have something to work with.
Some days I can't even do that. I make myself read 50 hard pages and take notes. Those notes will be useful, ultimately. They might make it into a text when I have a problem to solve later, they might inspire some bridge or insight. As long as I keep writing something.
It's a lot easier to sculpt clay than air.
So I bargain with and belittle myself and deny myself until I've reached some arbitrary goal. As long as I do it all the time, I'll end up with a book.
At some point, writing becomes self sustaining -- but not at the beginning. The first six months to year in a manuscript are nothing but work, then something kicks in, I fall in love, and I can't wait to go to work in the morning. I don't want anything to get between me and my love object. My friends stop seeing me. My personal life suffers. But I'm in love!
So, I do whatever it takes to get to the point of escape velocity. I put in the ugly time, pull up my socks, and keep plowing. Joy is coming. That's the one thing I know in the middle of my career -- it will always come. That knowledge keeps me going through the frustrating, dark days of blockage.
I set tasks and don't let myself have rewards until they're completed. These might seem like extremely light lifts at the beginning of a project, say, 300 bad words a day. But I know that if I can get 300 lousy words a day on a page, day after day, then I'll have something to work with.
Some days I can't even do that. I make myself read 50 hard pages and take notes. Those notes will be useful, ultimately. They might make it into a text when I have a problem to solve later, they might inspire some bridge or insight. As long as I keep writing something.
It's a lot easier to sculpt clay than air.
So I bargain with and belittle myself and deny myself until I've reached some arbitrary goal. As long as I do it all the time, I'll end up with a book.
At some point, writing becomes self sustaining -- but not at the beginning. The first six months to year in a manuscript are nothing but work, then something kicks in, I fall in love, and I can't wait to go to work in the morning. I don't want anything to get between me and my love object. My friends stop seeing me. My personal life suffers. But I'm in love!
So, I do whatever it takes to get to the point of escape velocity. I put in the ugly time, pull up my socks, and keep plowing. Joy is coming. That's the one thing I know in the middle of my career -- it will always come. That knowledge keeps me going through the frustrating, dark days of blockage.
Sarah Rose
The best thing about this job is being paid to be curious. The second best thing about being a writer is the moment of creation.
For D-Day Girls, I had to learn French. As an adult, I had to pick up a language I had never studied with enough facility to read newspapers and government documents and listen to oral histories. And that was my job!
I also wanted to understand the Corps Feminins' training, so I parachuted, learned to shoot, took a bootcamp, tried to learn Morse code, built a radio. And that was my homework. It was so cool.
We get to meet interesting people we wouldn't otherwise encounter: One man in his 90s had parachuted into France as a teen and had a whole lifetime of perspective to share with me. I interviewed him over champagne and it was one of the greatest - most French - experiences of my life.
Then there is the library. If you're a natively curious person, the idea that I get paid to go to a library and follow every meandering thought and query to wherever it may lead is like getting a massage.
The joy of creation doesn't kick in for me until the middle of the book -- when I know where I'm going and I'm arranging the pieces to get me there. When I think I'm inventing something the world has never known, and I find it beautiful and surprising and important.
Between research and creation, it is the best job on earth.
Moving to France was no hardship either!
For D-Day Girls, I had to learn French. As an adult, I had to pick up a language I had never studied with enough facility to read newspapers and government documents and listen to oral histories. And that was my job!
I also wanted to understand the Corps Feminins' training, so I parachuted, learned to shoot, took a bootcamp, tried to learn Morse code, built a radio. And that was my homework. It was so cool.
We get to meet interesting people we wouldn't otherwise encounter: One man in his 90s had parachuted into France as a teen and had a whole lifetime of perspective to share with me. I interviewed him over champagne and it was one of the greatest - most French - experiences of my life.
Then there is the library. If you're a natively curious person, the idea that I get paid to go to a library and follow every meandering thought and query to wherever it may lead is like getting a massage.
The joy of creation doesn't kick in for me until the middle of the book -- when I know where I'm going and I'm arranging the pieces to get me there. When I think I'm inventing something the world has never known, and I find it beautiful and surprising and important.
Between research and creation, it is the best job on earth.
Moving to France was no hardship either!
Sarah Rose
Writing is occasionally wonderful and often unpleasant.
At the beginning of a project, writing is a slog, it's difficult to put words on the page and all the pages are ugly. In those dark moments I'm really just inspired by a paycheck -- I know if I don't write I can't pay my rent. I'm inspired by panic, I have a deadline. Those days are hard and my self-esteem is tragic.
But in the middle of the book, writing becomes self sustaining. It is like being in love, where you can't wait to get back to the manuscript in the morning to see some brand new beauty the world hasn't yet recognized or seen, and it's yours alone. It's the best feeling on earth.
There is nowhere I would rather be than in a middle of a book, watching the pieces coming together, knowing where the end is and how to get there, but still having so much room to write before it's done.
So I'm motivated by sheer terror and total abject love. I know that if I keep writing past the misery, if I keep inching toward the paycheck, there will be a moment when I can't get enough of a text and all I want to do is luxuriate in it.
Honestly, I wish I were there now.
At the beginning of a project, writing is a slog, it's difficult to put words on the page and all the pages are ugly. In those dark moments I'm really just inspired by a paycheck -- I know if I don't write I can't pay my rent. I'm inspired by panic, I have a deadline. Those days are hard and my self-esteem is tragic.
But in the middle of the book, writing becomes self sustaining. It is like being in love, where you can't wait to get back to the manuscript in the morning to see some brand new beauty the world hasn't yet recognized or seen, and it's yours alone. It's the best feeling on earth.
There is nowhere I would rather be than in a middle of a book, watching the pieces coming together, knowing where the end is and how to get there, but still having so much room to write before it's done.
So I'm motivated by sheer terror and total abject love. I know that if I keep writing past the misery, if I keep inching toward the paycheck, there will be a moment when I can't get enough of a text and all I want to do is luxuriate in it.
Honestly, I wish I were there now.
Sarah Rose
The book began in Hawaii, where I work in winter and have a lot of military friends. There is no more exclusively male domain than war, but my friends are extraordinary to me, they constantly defy what my pre-conceived notions of women in a macho culture might do. I kind of fell in love with women in the military as a topic to investigate. This was in 2015, and women were admitted into all combat roles in the US military only in 2016.
So I wondered who was the first woman in combat? Surely there was a first. Who was she? What was her story? What was her life like?
A few searches later, I found that the first woman in combat wasn't contemporary in Afghanistan or Iraq, but 75 years ago, in World War II.
There were 39 women who parachuted into combat, or sailed through a sea of U-Boats, ahead of D-Day to arm and train the French resistance.
There were female commanders in Brittany and Normandy during the battle of France. What a great story.
So I wondered who was the first woman in combat? Surely there was a first. Who was she? What was her story? What was her life like?
A few searches later, I found that the first woman in combat wasn't contemporary in Afghanistan or Iraq, but 75 years ago, in World War II.
There were 39 women who parachuted into combat, or sailed through a sea of U-Boats, ahead of D-Day to arm and train the French resistance.
There were female commanders in Brittany and Normandy during the battle of France. What a great story.
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