Maggie Shipstead
My first novel by far! Both Seating Arrangements and Astonish Me started as short stories that I couldn't quite get to work, so at least I had some idea of where I was going with the plot, but since Seating Arrangements was my first attempt at writing something long (I was 25 and had just finished my MFA), I had noooooooo idea how much stamina would be involved and how complicated it is to juggle all the pieces of a novel. Plus, that book had a "can I be a novelist?" sort of pressure attached to it. Astonish Me came about almost as an accident. I thought I was just revising the short story (this was in the charmed year-long period between when I finished final edits on Seating Arrangements and when it was published), but then it started to grow and grow. I didn't really think I was turning it into a novel until I had. I was writing for my own enjoyment, really. I'll probably never have a more pleasurable writing experience.
More Answered Questions
Susanna
asked
Maggie Shipstead:
I love your novels, thanks for writing! I would like to know how you come up with the characters? When reading your books, it seems like you can describe what men and women of different ages are thinking and feeling so incredibly well. How did you gain the ability to imagine this? Is it something that you just understand or is it something you deliberately studied?
Kim
asked
Maggie Shipstead:
As a reader, I can get awfully wrapped up a book and its characters and sometimes find it difficult to let them go when the story ends. (That happened to me when I read Seating Arrangements.) As a writer, do you have this same difficulty? Some authors seem to explore a similar theme in a very different storyline but is it the theme or certain character traits the author wants to revisit?
Jessica Rosner
asked
Maggie Shipstead:
My cousin died from cancer. I thought she was perfect, in the way people worship people who are a little older. She loved to dance, and when she was a teenager was accepted to the NY City Ballet. If she'd had different parents, she'd have gone. I got this book after she died. I know she would have loved this novel, and I thank you for helping me to picture her so clearly, reading it in her NY apartment ?
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