My belated recap for the The Plot Thickens, November edition, hosted by Epigram Books and moderated by my formidable editor Gwee Li Sui. (More photos here)
Gwee and I went deep into the nuts and bolts of how Finding Chopin was conceived, developed, then reshaped and polished to the version you have in your hands today. Gwee shared with the audience how his goal was to guide me towards adding details about characters and in scenes so that readers would be as clear as possible about who they were seeing on the page and what was happening—while my job as author was to fix the blind spots while also protecting my characters and preserving my voice.
We also talked about the difference between the various iterations of the manuscript and how much pacing changed with adjustments to narrative sequence in a story straddling three generations, with memory weaving in and out of dialogue and characters’ consciousness.
Time ran out before we could to touch on the use of music or go into Chopin’s connection to it all, but it was wonderful to interact with the audience, who asked many good questions. For a second time, someone requested for an audiobook version (hmm) and even who I would choose to be a voice actor 🤓
My final thoughts: it truly makes all the difference having an editor who gets your work and knows how to guide you towards taking your story to the best place possible. Gwee was superb—is superb—and if you liked Finding Chopin, he deserves the credit.
Thanks again to everyone who came to attend this cosy literary conversation.
Reading Rachel 