Ask the Author: Gina Fiametta
Answered Questions (3)
Gina Fiametta
The age-old question! I hope my answer continues to evolve across my career as I pick up new strategies. The one I've been turning to the most lately is just forcing myself to write SOMETHING. If I can't write the story, I journal about why I can't write the story. If I feel bored by a scene, I try to unpack what made me get off-track. I try to figure out what would help me fall back in love with the story. And above all, I'm constantly combing out plot tangles!
Another strategy I'm experimenting with may sound a little silly, but it really works! I pick someone for my imaginary audience, whoever I'm thinking about at the time. It can be someone I know or even a celebrity I'll never meet, and I imagine they're in the room with me and genuinely interested in what I'm doing, and then I explain to them what I'm writing and talk through the problems I'm having. I've come up with some of my best and most succinct thoughts this way, filled in plot holes, and even soothed my own doubts about a section by walking through the backstory and why things turned out the way they did. This works best if you either live alone or don't mind being perceived as a bit odd, and fortunately I have both going for me! (Sometimes my cat starts meowing back at me.)
Another strategy I'm experimenting with may sound a little silly, but it really works! I pick someone for my imaginary audience, whoever I'm thinking about at the time. It can be someone I know or even a celebrity I'll never meet, and I imagine they're in the room with me and genuinely interested in what I'm doing, and then I explain to them what I'm writing and talk through the problems I'm having. I've come up with some of my best and most succinct thoughts this way, filled in plot holes, and even soothed my own doubts about a section by walking through the backstory and why things turned out the way they did. This works best if you either live alone or don't mind being perceived as a bit odd, and fortunately I have both going for me! (Sometimes my cat starts meowing back at me.)
Gina Fiametta
Angels Strange and Beautiful is a two-part novel, and each part had its own inspiration. The first part came from a single photo (or piece of art; not sure which) on Pinterest. It was of a stone arch in a bunch of red leaves that I initially thought were rose petals. And just like that, I was off like a shot, making up characters and their stories to weave around that imagery!
The second half didn't come to me until a year or more later. I was stuck on one detail I needed to know in order to continue the story, and one day it hit me. But it still didn't quite give me a plot. That came one day when I had an imaginary argument with St. John Rivers from Jane Eyre, I think while I was cleaning or something. The somewhat fiery discussion I had with him brought to life several memories and passions of mine, and it birthed both another character and the core of the plot.
The second half didn't come to me until a year or more later. I was stuck on one detail I needed to know in order to continue the story, and one day it hit me. But it still didn't quite give me a plot. That came one day when I had an imaginary argument with St. John Rivers from Jane Eyre, I think while I was cleaning or something. The somewhat fiery discussion I had with him brought to life several memories and passions of mine, and it birthed both another character and the core of the plot.
Gina Fiametta
I'm working on a book I'm referring to as my Southern Gothic. I've always wanted to use the gorgeous backdrop of the old houses, old names, old culture, and old graveyards, (hat last one is highly significant) and a bunch of ideas came together and it started to take shape in October 2020. I've written about a chapter, but this is the type of story that demands that I stay many steps ahead of my characters, so writing per se is paused while I prepare. I don't like to outline, so I just describe the story to myself and make cast lists and such, and that's what I've been doing lately.
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