Author Amity Gaige

AMHERST, Mass. (Mass Appeal) - Her essays, articles, and stories have appeared in various publications, including the Los Angeles Times and O magazines. Her multiple novels have won various awards and she's currently the Visiting Writer at Amherst College . Local author Amity Gaige is here not only as an author, but as a teacher and inspirational force.

I started writing very young. Probably first heading a story, maybe at 6 or 7 very, very simple, simple sentences and stories. I stuck with it. I made that choice when i was really young. Some kids do. They kind of know what they want to do and stick with it. My patients encouraged me and able to continue.

One of the early stories when I was really mad at my mom. She told me, recently, she said, yes, well, when you got upset or had strong emotions, she said, why not write about it? I owe a lot to her to say, yes, there is a good way to express yourself, create something from it.

A strong emotion makes the writing better. It feels invested. The reader feels the emotions through the words.

Most recent book is The Folded World. It centers on a social worker who has a very deep connection with his clients. I think I wanted to explore professions like social work where people see a lot of drama and hardship during the day. And come home and be a husband or a wife and parent and have dinner. Then, police officers or nurses, how do you shed all of that through the day? Do you? I had to do a lot of other research with mentally ill clients. I did spend time with mentally ill people in houses. I spent a couple days in mentally ill houses. I got the issue with both angles and enriching for me to do the research.

In some ways it's like a journalist. I just observe what they were doing and observe less the facts of things and more, their expressions what they said to each other, a detail. I remember when the details inspired me. Not factual stuff but little more vague things that inspired me to write my own, create my own characters.

I remember the image of a woman in the psychiatric ward and the lock ward who was asleep on her side as I walked past. I remember the image of her sleeping and that just, it somehow, it inspired me to write my own image of who she was. I didn't speak to her at all.

Take me through the process. You decide to write a book about a social worker. Then you do all of the social work research. Then what is the next step?

Then make a bunch of decisions and key ingredients to make the novel really felt. Really work. I would compare it to something like a recipe if you need several ingredients and go well together. So I would say one ingredient would be finding a story that feels really significant to you as a writer. I'm not talking about a plot. Many stories in Hollywood. Many that you make significant in a book. That feels significant to you. Philosophically. If you think that life is sweet, then you will find a story that demonstrates that life is sweet. If you think that life is cruel, you may find a story that will tell that so there is a philosophical elm to the story you choose.

You find a story that echoes or reflects something that you already experienced. I think when I was thinking of social work, I was using a lot of my experiences as a teacher, which I did previously and, some of the same issues of becoming attached to one student or a client. Or people where someone works. But the other ingredients I would say that is need, once you find the story, you also really have to be able to structure that story. In an interesting way.

If you have a long story, when you going to start it? At the beginning? Or at the end? Are you going to use multiple points of view and multiple perspectives an use one? Are you going to tell the history of the story? Or stick in the presence? So many ways which the structure of the story and again, these traces should be significant. They shouldn't be silly. They shouldn't be strick or tricky. They should feel real to you and authentic. I guess the third ingredient I would say, would be a style. Sense of your own style is a writer. And how your voice is.

Neek on the page. That means how you write your sentences, what words you choose. The tone you approach the story. That should be authentic to you and not what someone else does or how someone else does it.

For more information visit, www.amitygaige.com .