Ask the Author: Maggie Shipstead
Answered Questions (11)
Maggie Shipstead
Thanks, Elyse! You know, one thing I've learned since publishing Seating Arrangements is that readers will perceive your characters in all kinds of unexpected ways. It's really interesting! I don't think about likeability when I'm writing; I think more about if I'm interested in the character. (Not that my being interested in a character means everyone else will be or should be.) Seating Arrangements exists only because I had a lot of chemistry with the character of Winn Van Meter. I felt like I got him and like I had lots to say about him and lots of things I wanted to happen to him. I have a lot of affection for him! He's really my favorite character in that book.
In Astonish Me, some of the characters' self-absorption seemed to me like a natural by-product of dedicating their lives to a pursuit that requires you to stare into a mirror for hours every day, to focus so intensely on your body, to fight your way through hordes of competitors all in hopes of having a moment of glory onstage, being applauded. Not to say that there aren't plenty of well-adjusted, giving, generous ballet dancers--there certainly are. But a novel about them would be so bland!
In Astonish Me, some of the characters' self-absorption seemed to me like a natural by-product of dedicating their lives to a pursuit that requires you to stare into a mirror for hours every day, to focus so intensely on your body, to fight your way through hordes of competitors all in hopes of having a moment of glory onstage, being applauded. Not to say that there aren't plenty of well-adjusted, giving, generous ballet dancers--there certainly are. But a novel about them would be so bland!
Maggie Shipstead
Thanks, Susanna! I'm glad you feel that way about my characters, although I don't have a very good answer. To a certain extent, being able to write from a range of perspectives is something that comes relatively naturally to me, but it's also something I work hard at and think about a lot. For me, character is more difficult to figure out than, say, structure or language, so my revisions are often about adding depth and life to my characters. When I'm struggling, I often have to stop and focus very deliberately--like, eyes closed--on who this person is and what they would really say or do in a given moment. When I read a book or story I admire, I always try to identify what the author has done to create vibrant characters. Then I try to mimic their method.
Maggie Shipstead
Inescapably, Arslan has some commonalities with Mikhail Baryshnikov, although I used elements of Rudolf Nureyev, too, like his Tatar background. The mechanism of Arslan's defection is essentially identical to Baryshnikov's, which I chose partly because I knew it worked and partly because I wanted Arslan to suggest not so much Baryshnikov the person but the IDEA of him, the power of his charisma. Mr. K is meant to suggest George Balanchine (known as Mr. B) because he's this towering artistic figure, although Mr. K is bisexual and Balanchine wasn't. The female dancers aren't inspired by anyone specifically, really, although Ludmilla Yedemskaya's method of defection and trademark headscarf were borrowed from Natalia Makarova, though not Ludmilla's nasty personality.
I think this book would be impossible to translate to film (maybe I shouldn't say that--filmmakers, you are welcome to try!) so I haven't though much about that . . . I don't know! I think they'd have to be dancers, anyway.
I think this book would be impossible to translate to film (maybe I shouldn't say that--filmmakers, you are welcome to try!) so I haven't though much about that . . . I don't know! I think they'd have to be dancers, anyway.
Maggie Shipstead
Sometimes! Mostly it's just interest, wanting to get to the bottom of something. I grew up in California and didn't have any contact with WASP culture until I went to college in Massachusetts, and I was fascinated and puzzled by, you know, what preppy kids wore and what social codes people used to express wealth and status. That curiosity and "I don't get it" feeling is what eventually led me to write Seating Arrangements. And, with Astonish Me, I've always loved ballet and been intrigued by the lives of dancers. There's something so dramatic about the hierarchies of dance companies and how short (and vulnerable) dancers' careers often are and how they lead these very disciplined, physical lives. Once I started writing, I worked in other long-standing interests of mine, like Cold War defections and Orange County (where I grew up) and even the weirdness of Disneyland. Writing a novel takes so much time and thought--I couldn't possibly do it if I was intrigued by the subject I was digging into.
Maggie Shipstead
It's funny--once I'm done with a piece, either a novel or a story, I'm so DONE. I don't think about the characters anymore at all. I was surprised, when I first started doing readings for Seating Arrangements, when people would ask what happened to the characters afterward, and I had no idea! I remember one woman wanted to be assured that Livia is okay, and I realized I had the power to be like, "Oh, sorry, she got eaten by a shark." As a writer, I'm just so happy when something's done because that means I can move on to something different. But, of course, when I'm a reader, I get that feeling too, like the book is just one small window into a much vaster, complete whole.
You're so right about how authors have pet themes. I think, to a degree, you don't always see how you're repeating yourself in your fiction, although I do feel self-conscious about what I reveal about myself and my preoccupations, even inadvertently. I had someone ask what my deal was with May-December relationships in my books, and I didn't have an answer except that I think that particular power dynamic is interesting. (Much more so on the page than in life, btw.) I do like to attack a wide range of settings and subcultures in my work, though. Part of the fun, for me, is learning about new worlds.
You're so right about how authors have pet themes. I think, to a degree, you don't always see how you're repeating yourself in your fiction, although I do feel self-conscious about what I reveal about myself and my preoccupations, even inadvertently. I had someone ask what my deal was with May-December relationships in my books, and I didn't have an answer except that I think that particular power dynamic is interesting. (Much more so on the page than in life, btw.) I do like to attack a wide range of settings and subcultures in my work, though. Part of the fun, for me, is learning about new worlds.
Maggie Shipstead
Actually, Joan was the most difficult character for me. She's a person who, in life, wouldn't necessarily have the strongest personality even though she has had what I think is an interesting life and a set of experiences via her dancing that would be really alien to most people. But she's a reserved person, a stubborn person, a person who's life is more physical than cerebral, and that was challenging to get on the page. A frequent note I got was, "I'd like to know more about Joan." I had the easiest time with Arslan and Elaine.
I think generally I have a slightly harder time writing female characters than male. (Make of that what you will.) I seldom relate very strongly to any one character. I find if my fiction gets too close to home, autobiographically speaking, I write stuff that's boring and self-serving. In Astonish Me, though, I did feel like I was exploring some of the challenges of writing by digging into the challenges of dance. The two art forms are so different--solitary v. collaborative, sedentary v. physical, etc.--but some of the questions that the dancers in the book have to grapple with are questions I think about sometimes. For example: how do you make peace with your own limitations? How do you make room for life when your work demands huge amounts of time and energy? These aren't questions exclusively for artists, either. Most people have them.
I think generally I have a slightly harder time writing female characters than male. (Make of that what you will.) I seldom relate very strongly to any one character. I find if my fiction gets too close to home, autobiographically speaking, I write stuff that's boring and self-serving. In Astonish Me, though, I did feel like I was exploring some of the challenges of writing by digging into the challenges of dance. The two art forms are so different--solitary v. collaborative, sedentary v. physical, etc.--but some of the questions that the dancers in the book have to grapple with are questions I think about sometimes. For example: how do you make peace with your own limitations? How do you make room for life when your work demands huge amounts of time and energy? These aren't questions exclusively for artists, either. Most people have them.
Maggie Shipstead
I don't. Or, at least, I didn't with either of my published novels, and I don't with the novel I'm working on now. Welllll . . . actually, that's not entirely true. Seating Arrangements started out as a short story, and the story ended with essentially the same paragraph as the novel. But I didn't know what any of the action leading up to that paragraph would be. I'm not someone who outlines in advance--that kind of planning tends to kill the project for me, and I'm just not very good at it. For me to keep my writing momentum, it seems most important that I commit to a voice and structure and that I have a few plot waypoints out in the future that I'm writing toward. The way I originally drafted it, most chapters of Astonish Me ended where a piece of information was missing, and then the next chapter would usually jump back in time and supply that information. This made for pretty confusing reading and got simplified a bit as I edited, but the plot of the book evolved organically as I went.
Maggie Shipstead
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Maggie Shipstead
Thanks for this, Jessica. I'm so sorry to hear about your cousin, but I'm so touched the book brought her memory back.
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.
Maggie Shipstead
Thanks, Tara! This is by far the most frequently asked question--if I'm a dancer--and anyone who's ever seen me dance can attest that I'm not! My mom is a serious, lifelong ballet fan (she danced as a hobby, even in her 20s) and she started taking me to about four ballets a year from when I was five until I left for college. I grew up in Orange County, CA, where there's a great performing arts center, so I was lucky enough to see ABT every year and lots of other major companies. Since then, I've kept on going to the ballet when I have the chance, especially when I'm traveling. And I've read some dancer memoirs and watched lots of documentaries. So I had pretty decent ballet knowledge (for a layperson) when I started writing the book, but, as I wrote, I did a lot of additional research: more reading, lots more watching. YouTube was an incredible resource for me because of how many dance videos there are. Some companies, like NYCB and the Royal Ballet, post cool behind-the-scenes videos, which especially helped me with the class and rehearsal scenes in the book. I tried to listen carefully to how dancers describe their experiences, and then the rest--the actual feeling--I had to imagine. Fiction is always a risk!
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Aug 25, 2016 02:19PM · flag