“I knew that I was writing for an American audience and that if I sold foreign rights, they would retranslate the book to make it make sense to that language. But one thing that was really important to me was not to italicize any of the words in the languages that were in the stories, because I feel like those foreign words felt just as important and integral to the story as everything else, so I wanted it all to just exist as its own thing.” IfsFeelsWritingImportantBookStoriesWantedLanguageFeltAudienceRightsOne ThingMake Sense Author:Molly Antopol
“With the Holocaust - I wonder if a lot of Jewish writers of my generation have felt this way - it feels really intimidating to approach it. I feel like so many writers who have either lived through it firsthand or were part of that generation where they were closer to the people who were in it have written so beautifully about it, so there's no lack of great books about it” PeopleIfsWayFeelsBookFeltWonderWrittenGenerationsApproachHolocaustIntimidatingMy GenerationGreat Book Author:Molly Antopol
“So if there was a way that I knew something about my character's desires or the things that they were resisting because I was saving it for some grand epiphany moment for my readers, I just feel like that's when you can feel the machine at work in a story. That's when you can feel the writer pulling the strings of the puppet.” IfsWayFeelsMomentsCharacterStoriesDesireReaderMachinesSavingStringsPullingPuppetsResistingEpiphany Author:Molly Antopol
“I felt like if I could get the epiphany out of the way in my drafting process, through my eighth or tenth draft, then that can just be part of how I've assembled the character, and then we can move on and move forward with it. In general, I don't ever want to feel smarter than my characters, because I just feel like that's not a great way to write a story.” IfsWayWantFeelsWritingCharacterStoriesMovingFeltProcessMoving ForwardIf I CouldSmarterEpiphanyDrafting Author:Molly Antopol