Ask the Author: Joe Milazzo
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Joe Milazzo
While I had the idea for the basic story 20 years ago (!), CREPUSCULE W/ NELLIE ultimately represents about 6 to 7 years of concentrated writing. That said, I don't believe I could have finished this novel had I not lived those 20 years as I did, which was not always well or wisely. If I could "do it all over again" with more knowledge of what writing a novel, particularly a first novel entails, I would starting writing with more awareness of how little control you actually have over your characters. You spend a good deal of your time waiting for them to arrive, to give themselves over to your observation, to listening to them. The story is theirs to tell, not yours via them or some vague instrumentality that defines them. Could I have been more attentive to my characters as individuals, I would have been less wrapped up in my own authorial narcissism, and I might have avoided some false starts (however necessary invention finally made them).
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