Goodreads asked Rosa Fedele:

How do you get inspired to write?

Rosa Fedele Besides architectural inspiration (see my previous Goodreads Q&A answer) I tend to observe people and their environments with an artist's eye. We are taught not just to look, but to see. Just as Amsterdam has its own pearly and intimate light, perfectly captured by Vermeer and de Hooch, and the English countryside its own gentle grey-blue drifting clouds, so masterfully interpreted by Constable, Sydney has a particular atmosphere of its own. The sky’s blue is so startling it can burn retinas, the edge of every leaf is knife-sharp, the heat can singe nostril hair and our birds don’t twitter or chirp – they screech!

I suppose having a portraitist’s eye also helps: I watch inter-personal dynamics, mannerisms, the tilt of a head, a finger rubbed nervously across a philtrum. And so, as a character forms in my head, I make initial thumbnail sketches. Eventually these become finished drawings or paintings which I then incorporate into the book.

A peculiar thing I've also noticed: characters will take on a life of their own – just when you’ve got the plot sorted, the little buggers wander off and do anything they bloody please! Halfway through THE RED DOOR, my main girl’s behaviour was infuriating me. So, I tore up my first sketches and re-painted her as I preferred her – a no-nonsense woman with tenacity and resilience – and slowly she started to come around and see it my way ;)

flag