Salman Rushdie’s Top 13 Writing Tips
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After Salman Rushdie published The Satanic Verses in 1988, a religious extremist tried to assassinate him, and Rushdie found himself on Al Qaeda’s most-wanted list.
Few writers are bold enough to write controversial books. But Rushdie isn’t your average writer. He’s willing to weave supercharged topics into his surrealist stories, packaging truth in fictitious gift wrap.
Rushdie recently recorded a writing MasterClass in which he shares his best writing advice. If you haven’t yet spent the $180/year for a MasterClass subscription, you can find Rushdie’s top writing tips below. (All quotes are from his MasterClass.)
1. Learn thyself
Rushdie believes the best way to tap into your writing prowess is to become intimately familiar with yourself and what is most important to you.
He says that the best writers know their own deepest motivations and obstacles, and they tap into that self-knowledge to produce work that resonates with readers.
“A lot of the skill of the writer comes from your understanding of who you are and what you need to say to the world,” says Rushdie.
2. Write about “deeply necessary” topics
The best writing is personal. It’s inspiring because the writer was inspired. It comes from somewhere deep inside and bellows forth with the deep voice of authenticity.
Rushdie explains that there are already millions of books in the world, and the only reason to add another one to the stack is if you’re writing something that is “deeply necessary” and personal.
3. Work close to the bull
Harkening back to an idea from Hemingway, Rushdie says the greatest matadors are those who work closest to the bull. The fewer inches that separate the matador from the powerful beast, the more climactic the experience is for them and their audience.
Rushdie is quick to explain that he’s not a proponent of bullfighting (it’s brutish entertainment), but he says the matador concept is useful for writers. Your best writing will be your most dangerous writing — the high-risk, unnerving pieces that get you close to the bull.
4. Distinguish between style and voice
I never knew there was a difference between style and voice until Rushdie explained the two terms: “Style is the manner in which you choose to adhere to — or choose to break — the rules of classical form. Voice is your touch as an author. It is what makes a piece of writing your own.”
Style depends on the piece. Voice doesn’t. Your voice shows up no matter what type of story you’re writing.
Rushdie explains that every piece of writing demands specific stylistic decisions. For example, you may need to scrap conventional writing rules to stay true to a character. But your voice follows you throughout everything you write.
5. Don’t wait to write down ideas
Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night with a brilliant idea, but you didn’t feel like getting out of bed to write it down? I have. And I naively assumed I would remember the idea the next morning when I woke up, but it vanished in the night.
Rushdie says the same thing happens to him, and he’s learned to immediately jot down ideas and observations when they strike him.
“There are things which you hear…and if you don’t write them down at that moment, you will never remember them ever again, so you have to form the habit of making a record of your observations,” says Rushdie.
6. Write about unhappy people
Many authors talk about how conflict drives stories. Rushdie puts it differently: “If people are happy, there’s no story.”
I’ve never thought about it like that, but he’s right. It’s awfully hard to create a compelling story if every character is satisfied and no one is battling a major obstacle.
Conflict and dissatisfaction are at the heart of every story. Draw them out to develop suspense and keep your readers engaged.
7. Make a contract with the reader
“Very early in the book, you need to — so to speak — make a contract with the reader,” says Rushdie. “You have to say to the reader, ‘I’m gonna tell you this kind of story,’ and then, if they like that idea, they’ll stick with you. I think the worst thing you can do as a writer is to make the reader a kind of promise about what kind of story you’re gonna tell them and then not tell them that kind of story. You break the contract with the reader.”
Readers need to know what to expect. They’ll get frustrated if they go in expecting a thriller and your book turns out to be a soppy romance story. Or vice versa. Set expectations, then deliver on those expectations.
8. Find the right entry point for your story
As he’s writing a book, Rushdie often discovers that the beginning of the story is not really the beginning. He realizes he instead needs to jump in partway through a scene from the middle of the chronological timeline because that’s the right place to kick off the story for the reader.
“I find that actually, beginning a piece of writing is a question of finding the right entry point,” says Rushdie. “Some of the doors you go through will just lead to a dead-end, and other doors will open out into an attractive space — a space you want to be in.”
9. Write a killer opening sentence
“I do think opening sentences are unusually important,” says Rushdie. He references beloved opening lines from books like A Tale of Two Cities and Anna Karenina as examples of authors who kicked off their stories well.
And, according to Rushdie, once you’ve found the right opening sentence, sometimes that single line sets the tone and serves as your stylistic guidepost for the rest of the book.
10. Bring your characters to life
It’s difficult to make readers care about characters — to make them sob when a minor character dies or pump their fist when the protagonist succeeds.
The only way to bring characters to life is to become intimately familiar with each character’s story. Rushdie recommends asking yourself questions like the following:
- What clothes do they wear?
- Are they fashionable or unfashionable?
- How do they speak?
He says it’s often easiest to start with your knowledge of the outside of a character (clothes, voice, looks, etc.), then work your way inside (personality, motivations, fears, etc.).
11. Determine how to reveal character
Rushdie explains that there are three primary way to reveal the motivations and personalities of characters:
- Dialogue: What they say
- Interior Monologue: What’s going on in their head
- Action: What they do
Depending upon what traits you want to reveal, you may select a different mechanism for revealing those aspects of your character. But every scene and every bit of dialogue should serve a purpose.
12. Get to the end
For me, the most memorable line of Rushdie’s MasterClass was, “Writers are people who finish books.”
It’s easy to start writing a book. It’s much, much more difficult to finish one.
Rushdie encourages writers to keep pushing and just get to the end. He explains that as soon as you reach the end, you often unlock a new way of viewing the story. Looking at the completed first draft, you suddenly begin to see new ideas and make fresh connections that simplify the rewriting process.
13. Say nothing
When I give a draft to a friend, I sometimes frame the story by giving a brief explanation of what I’m trying to achieve with the piece.
Rushdie says that’s a mistake.
“When I hand a draft of the book to an early reader, I say nothing at all,” says Rushdie. “I tell them nothing. I want to see how they read the book without my trying to influence them, because, you know, you want the book to speak for itself. When somebody buys a book in a bookstore, it doesn’t come with the writer’s explanation. It’s just the book, and it has to do the work by itself.”
If you enjoyed this article, please support Salman Rushdie by picking up one of his many books.
Happy writing!
