Matilda asked M.L. Rio:

As a (very) young author, I struggle to find a plot. I find an overall mood, characters, a theme, and a message easily, but I never quite figure out a plot. As a big fan of your novel, I would like to ask how to find one. And also, how do you make the mood (in your case, Shakespeare) so consistent? PS: Your novel motivated me to continue striving toward my passion for acting.

M.L. Rio I think this is different for every author, but for me the plot and characters are sort of mutually constitutive. For instance, sometimes I ask "What kind of person would do this thing that needs to happen to move the story forward?" and sometimes I ask, "What would this person do in this kind of situation?" This part of the process is very organic and can't be rushed, and I'll spend months, usually, finding the right "shape" for a story before I sit down to start writing scenes. (This is also different for every author; I just happen to be a very thorough outliner.) To answer your question about mood, which may also help answer your question about plot, I deliberately structured this story to mimic the structure of a Shakespearean tragedy. So that's the root of both, really. And that's not something you can totally manufacture; that was the result of me taking the trite but true advice to "write what you know." I'd been a Shakespearean actor for over a decade and I've worked in that academic field since, so translating those feelings to fiction came very naturally. Anyway, I'm glad the book has struck a chord for you, and I wish you the best of luck in your creative endeavors.

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