Interview with Angela Shaeffer
GetURBook
What
made you write a book about grief?
When
I started writing The Things They Didn’t See, my dad had recently passed
away and the different ways everyone grieved impacted me. (He had adult
children, young teenage children from a second marriage, a youngish wife and
many, many close friends and family.)
Additionally,
two of my four children were in college and I had two young teens at home. I
was getting more comfortable with their independence, but I could see how easy
it was to focus on worries about misbehaving rather than enjoying who they were.
Focusing on the wrong things can quickly turn into regrets, and I wanted to
explore the lessons I’d learned.
How long did it take you to write The
Things They Didn’t See?
I
enrolled in writing classes ten years ago and started this book two years later
when I got the courage to enroll in the novel writing series.
The
accountability and deadlines kept me disciplined. I learned that I could always
come up with a story no matter how challenging a prompt seemed at first. I’d
write one paragraph. Then another about something completely different. Often a
third and even a fourth. And every time one of those starts turned into a
bigger idea that I was excited to follow.
Just
start writing. Tell yourself you only need to write one paragraph of three
completely different stories. You’ll find the one that speaks to you.
What
came first, the plot or characters?
My
first draft was mostly dialogue. It comes pretty naturally to me and I
definitely understood the characters and their personalities by the time I was
through. I imagined a scenario and placed them in it to find out what they’d
say and what conflicts appeared.
It
wasn’t until my second draft that I added setting and body language. Describing
setting and action is more challenging for me.
What
advice would you give a new writer, someone just starting out?
Enroll
in a writing class (I took online courses from UCLA extension). I thrived with
the accountability of weekly homework, workshopping and critique, and the
camaraderie of classmates of all ages from all over the globe.
Also,
people watching and eavesdropping is fertile ground for fantastic story starts.
Write the good stuff in your phone or in a notebook and keep it with you at all
times.
Do you have another profession besides
writing?
I’m
fifty-four years old and have been a stay-at-home mom to one daughter and three
boys from when my oldest was born when I was twenty-five, until my youngest
went to college in 2023. Alongside raising my kids, I had an unintentional
career as a person who said yes to every volunteer request.
I
loved being involved in my kids’ schools, sports and at our church, and forged
many friendships and thrived as I love organizing people, events and things. Then
one year I didn’t love it anymore. I needed a change and that was when I
remembered my dream to write a book and I enrolled in writing classes.
What
do you like to do when you are not writing?
I
exercise every day, either road bike or hike and some type of strength
training. My husband and I travel a lot—either to visit our children who live
away, to our cabin in the San Juan Mountains, or to see a new place in the
world. Within the last year we took a cruise to Antarctica; toured Croatia and
Prague; and spent a week in the Cotswalds and London.
When
I’m home I always have some volunteer responsibility or organization project to
keep me busy. It’s protecting my writing time that’s more of the challenge.
On
my bedside table:
I’m
waiting to read Fredrik Backman’s My Friends until I have time to read
without stopping. I love to savor his books. Also, The Unselected Journals
of Emma M. Lion, Volume 8 by Beth Brower. A happy, delightful series—Anne
of Green Gables meets Pride and Prejudice with a smattering of Jane
Eyre.
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