Stacy Willingham emphasizes the importance of a well-designed writing space for comfort and inspiration.
Willingham immerses herself in characters' emotions, drawing inspiration from personal experiences to enhance their complexity.
Deep dives
Creating a Writing Space
Stacy Willingham discusses how she redesigned her writing space, focusing on comfort and inspiration. She shares her preference for a bright and organized environment, with bookshelves filled with writing resources and every version of her novel on display. Willingham emphasizes the importance of feeling comfortable and organized to enhance her writing process.
Character Development Process
Willingham delves into her character development process, explaining that she immerses herself in the emotions of her characters. She draws inspiration from her own experiences and memories to empathize with her characters' situations. By understanding the emotions shared with her characters, she vividly portrays their complexities and struggles.
Writing Approach and Revision
The author describes her writing approach as fluid and intuitive, relying on quick 'lightbulb' moments to guide the story. Willingham's initial drafts are winding and explorative, focusing on getting the story down before refining it in subsequent drafts. She emphasizes the importance of clarity and efficiency in later drafts to strengthen the narrative.
Balancing Writing with Daily Life
Willingham reflects on her transition from marketing to fiction writing and how each job informed her storytelling style. She shares how her background in marketing influenced her ability to craft compelling narratives with depth. Despite her book being optioned for TV adaptation, she remains focused on honing her craft and writing the best stories possible.
Stacy Willingham has just published her debut novel, 'A Flicker in the Dark'. The novel follows Chloe Davis, whose world was torn apart at 12 years old when her father confessed to the murder of six teenage girls in their small Louisiana town. 20 years later, Chloe is a successful psychologist in Baton Rouge. But when a local girl disappears, she starts to unravel. The rights have been optioned by the actress Emma Stone, and it's currently being developed for HBO Max. We talk about how it feels to have so many writers dreams seem to be coming true.
Stacy worked full-time in marketing and copywriting before publishing novels and we discuss how writing snappy slogans has affected the way she tells stories. You can hear about her specifically designed writing space, also why she moves around for the second draft, and how other authors inspire what she writes.
You can support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine