Maria Semple

And it takes practice, but it is, you then get on a path to achieve happiness.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Exactly.

So I really was so excited about stoicism that I thought I really wanted to get inside that character.

And so at first when I wrote it, I was writing the character as kind of, like I was saying, emotionally shut down, a little grim.

Right.

And perhaps that reflected where I was at the time of my life, but I kept kind of trying to write from this point of view.

Exactly, yes.

I was, yeah, just like ending a long-term relationship.

And this was just the voice that I was writing in.

But I kept writing maybe by when I get to 50 pages, the kind of souffle would collapse, so to speak, because the voice just wasn't fun to write.

It wasn't fun to read.

And so I abandoned the book, I just put it away.

And then my relationship ended and I moved to New York City and I started life fresh in the city.

I was totally dazzled by New York and kind of was surprised at how much I love my new life here.

I kept thinking, God, there's so many cool things about that book that I really wanna get back to and I wish I could figure it out.

And when it was time to start writing, it occurred to me, why does a stoic have to be so grim and unfeeling?

What if I make her, what if I make my character like a stoic sage and make her just really happy?