Mikki Brammer

But I do apply a few things from journalism to that, you know, you're taught to keep your sentences quite short and economical to vary the length.

And so I always try to do that.

I think a lot in rhythm.

I'm always reading for rhythm and cadence and just intuitively I can tell when a rhythm is off and then I'll tweak it.

And I think that might come from the journalism as well, because you're looking at the article as a whole and you want to make sure you end on that right note.

And for a similar reason, I keep my chapters very short so you can kind of have that

feeling of satisfaction and propulsion as you move.

As a reader, I love to, you know, that feeling when you're in bed and you're like, I should go to sleep, but I'll just finish this chapter.

And you see you only have three pages left, but then the chapter leaves you on a note where you want to read the next chapter.

And then you've read five chapters.

Whereas if it's a really, really long chapter,

You know, you're like, oh, well, I may as well stop here because I'm not going to read 50 more pages.

And so I love that feeling and I try to create that for the reader as well.

And I want them to have that feeling.

Like my books, both books, I think start off slow and people mention that.

I know that's a thing.

Some people say they don't, but I think a lot of people do.

But I do like that contemplative start, especially in both cases, these people are feeling out of step with the world and really they're a little bit lost.

Yeah, exactly.

And I do want to, you know, talk a lot about likeable, unlikable characters.