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sarah1Sarah Salway is a writer, publisher, creative writing tutor and the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the London School of Economics. She is the author of three novels, The ABCs of Love, Tell Me Everything and Getting the Picture (published by Ballantine, US) and two collections of short stories. She has climbed Kilimanjaro and spent one summer recently at a circus in Iowa but she mostly lives in Tunbridge Wells, England, where her 17th century house was once the illegal gaming rooms of Beau Nash. Visit her online at www.sarahsalway.net or www.speechbubblebooks.co.uk.

Q (Meg Pokrass): Were you mentored? Do you have thoughts relating to the mentor relationship for a writer?

The right creative writing MA programme is a bit like the perfect mentoring relationship. During mine, I worked on a one-to-one basis with my tutor, Rob Middlehurst who knew exactly what questions to ask about a piece that would push me into really understanding it myself. He helped me take my work much further than I would have done otherwise, mostly because I knew he believed I could do it. I think this was worth more than any lessons on craft techniques, although these are good too. I mentor students myself now, never more than three during any period, and we concentrate as much on process as the actual work. It’s a different job than being an editor.

Do you have tricks to move things creatively, when not feeling as inspired?

Write through it. I’m constantly amazed at how my feelings about writing a piece are not necessarily reflected in the words themselves. The hardest pieces to write often come across as having ‘tripped off the pen’. I also write dialogues in my journal between me and whatever I’m writing — to the characters, to the novel, even to the places – it sounds mad, but it works.

What are some habits you have learned over the years which are helpful as a writer?

I try to be as present on the page as I can. Years of meditation is great for this. Once I start to think about might happen to the piece I’m writing, or what has happened to previous pieces, I’m lost in writing terms for the day.

What is interesting about this era as a writer in terms of the internet and what it offers?

A real sense of fellowship with other writers around the world, and the chance to collaborate not just with other writers but with artists and musicians too. It’s like a giant playground full of all the kids I wish I’d been at school with.

I love Facebook and Twitter passionately, but I do fear that sometimes I’ve told my best stories through updates and tweets and so not saved them for my writing.

Any favorite writing exercises?

I put up a writing prompt every weekday on twitter (@sarahsalway) and I follow these myself – just write a page a day to whatever it might be. It was the genesis for my third novel, Getting the Picture, as characters started to come out of the prompts. This year, I’m really excited about a completely different book that’s emerging. There’s something about the daily routine that gives my imagination the space it needs. I work to other prompts too but those are more like a gym session, keeping me in shape.

Which writers, artists, musicians do you turn to time and again for inspiration?

I’m very inspired by art, and am lucky enough to have spent time in the Tate Modern writing poems to some of the artwork there, but probably the French artist Sophie Calle moves me the most through her sense of humour and playfulness combined with that painfully sharp and raw edge. I watch a lot of musicians performing via YouTube just to get that sense of what it’s like to be completely involved — body and mind — and to put it all out there, 100%. That’s what I want to be like when I’m physically writing — albeit just with the computer.

What is happening now?

To be honest, right now I feel a bit like Lazarus as my first two novels have just come out again in my home country of Britain (with Harper Collins), and it’s been wonderful. I’ve been very lucky to get the support of both of my writing heroes — Neil Gaiman and William Gibson — and have to keep pinching myself about that. Also with the poet, Catherine Smith, I have formed an independent publishing company, Speechbubble Books (www.speechbubblebooks.co.uk) to look particularly at short stories. We call ourselves ‘writer-led’ because we certainly don’t seem to be ‘business-led’! We’ve got great plans, but mostly to have fun with it all. It’s both a fantastic time for writers, and a terrible time, and we’re trying to at least take back some of our teeny little power as writers.

But my focus is on finishing my fourth novel, Follow Me, which is the first one I’ve written with someone else. My co-writer, Jerome Vincent and I paired up first to write up some proposals for the BBC, and kept one idea back for this novel. It’s a detective story and we’ve written alternate chapters from the two main characters involved. We’ve written two drafts already — mostly clarifying the story, and are now editing it. I think it’s brilliant, and so does he. And we’re still friends, which is something given the arguments we’ve had over the writing.

The Fictionaut Five is our ongoing series of interviews with Fictionaut authors. Every Wednesday, Meg Pokrass asks a writer five (or more) questions. Meg is the editor-at-large for BLIP Magazine, and her stories and poems have been published widely. Her first full collection of flash fiction, “Damn Sure Right” is now out from Press 53. She blogs at http://megpokrass.com.


  1. Marcus Speh

    Very inspiring, a great find. Looking forward to checking Sarah’s novels out. Her publishing company is especially interesting – bubbly and motivating, thank you!

  2. susan tepper

    Wonderful interview!

  3. David James

    The questions, the recipe, the answers, the fare. I enjoyed the interview much more than this corny-assed comment expresses.

  4. Robert Vaughan

    Great stuff for pondering, thanks ladies!

  5. Tania Hershman

    Great interview! I have every confidence, Sarah, that your best stories are not in your Tweets… but I do know the feeling!

  6. Sarah Salway

    Thanks all, and thanks Meg. Some great questions there.

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