i mean it really it really it it really is and we'll get into some of that specifically what i think or what i meant by that but so how soon was it afterwards that you started to dive in you said a few months or before you really started to think about this and what ultimately made you decide to return to some of these characters

Yeah.

So, you know, when I finally, you know, post Art of Feeling Mania, when I finally sat down and, you know, the way I begin anything, the way I do most of my writing is just with a pen and a notebook and, you know, try to just get away from everything and get into just as kind of deep a space as possible.

I'm trying to bring something up from a much deeper place, right? I'm trying to get past my kind of surface everyday thoughts and just, and actually connect to something deeper.

And at that time I absolutely had no intention of, Going back to Westridge College, the world of the art of fielding, I felt like I spent 11 years working on the art of fielding, spent a couple more years talking about it.

I had zero intention of going back there.

I didn't think it would be a good idea.

But I wondered if for you, part of what is bringing him into the story was a great way to bring Pella, into the kind of whole new york literati scene in this whole other world i'm just so curious about that

Did you always know when writing The Art of Fielding that these are characters that you wanted to stick around with? Or was it kind of a process by which you initially started another novel project and then kind of felt called back to these characters?

Well, I mean, certainly when I was working on The Art of Fielding, all I dreamed of in those years was finishing that novel.

I certainly never dreamed that I would write another novel set at Westish.

And then The Art of Fielding came out.

I promoted that book for a long time.

I had no intention of returning to the world of Westish College.

But as I just sat down with my notebook and just tried to, you know, be in as...

Do you tend to outline when you're starting a new project or do you really just kind of let the story take you and explore?

Just talk to me about this aspect of your creative process, how long the gestation period is.

In both cases, it was certainly unintentional.

But I think in both cases, it also has some real payoffs in the end.

You know, with The Art of Fielding, you know, I had the idea for that book when I was 23.

Um, and I had done just very little fiction writing.

Like I had, um, I had not in college, I studied literature, but I, I did not, uh, I didn't write fiction and I didn't take a fiction workshop.

There hardly were any at that point in time.

And then the question is just sort of like, how has the strategy migrated since then? Like, are you kind of publishing it for the same reasons? How has, the place that it exists in in our literary culture changed