Interview with Angela Shaeffer

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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.