People who haven't read your book can teach you something important about it. Arguably something the people who have read it can't.
I'm in launch mode right now—a steady run of bookstore events, library talks, and author appearances—and the nature of the beast is that almost nobody in those rooms has read the book yet. It just came out. Some are there out of curiosity. Some are there for the cheese cubes. At least one was looking for a children's board book and committed to her mistake with real grace.
Which means the Q&A can't be about the book. Nobody's asking about the twist in chapter twelve, because nobody's gotten to chapter twelve. Nobody’s debating a character’s decision or speculating about clues; the audience simply doesn’t have access to that story yet.
And here's where it gets interesting: with no plot to interrogate, the room doesn't give up on story. It goes looking for the only one available—which is you. The author becomes the main character. You can feel the switch flip.
Then the questions start, and they're remarkably consistent:
• Why did you decide to write?
• How long did it take?
• What was the hardest part?
• What's your routine?
On the surface, that looks like small talk. It isn't. It's the same question in different hats: you set out to do something hard—tell us about the wanting. What did you want? What stood in your way? Did it almost beat you?
Notice what nobody asks. Nobody asks about the perfectly smooth path. Nobody is fascinated by the thing that came together effortlessly. Nobody in any of these rooms has ever asked me a comfortable question. They go straight for desire and difficulty, every time, like they're following a script none of them has seen.
Because they are. That's the lesson about the human condition hiding in a folding-chair Q&A: people are keyed into desire and strugle. Strip away everything else, and human attention reduces to two questions—who wants what, and what's in their way?
A person doing nothing is scenery. A person in hot pursuit is a story.
The writer trying to finish the manuscript, the sailor trying to make landfall in a storm, the detective trying to solve a murder—the details change, but the structure doesn’t. We are instinctively drawn to the person trying, striving, overcoming, and adapting.
For writers, the lesson cuts both ways, and it isn't gentle: write characters who don't want anything, who aren't straining against anything, and nobody will care. Mystery, romance, thriller, literary fiction—the engine is the same. A character wants something. The world says no. Not because readers are cruel, but because they're human, and you've given their attention nothing to grab. That's not a workshop rule. It's wiring.
The fun part is you can use this instinct right there in the room. Once you see that every question is secretly about want and struggle, you can answer honestly and tie it back to the book—because the book runs on the same engine. The room leans in for your version of that story for exactly the same reason a reader will turn pages for your character's.
I didn't learn this from a writing manual or a craft workshop. What looked like a standard Q&A about the writing life turned out to be a master class in what human beings find interesting—a brilliant storytelling seminar taught by a roomful of people who had never read a word of the textbook.
Figured I'd share. Your writing lesson of the day.
If you are interested in ordering The Washashore you can find it at—or order it from— these local bookstores: Wellesley Books (Wellesley, MA), The Bookshop of Needham (Needham, MA), Provincetown Bookshop (Provincetown, MA) and Elm Street Books (New Canaan, CT)
Or if you want the convenience and speed of online, but still want to support local bookstores, grab The Washashorethrough Bookshop.org
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