The author, a former English teacher, describes the physical and mental challenges of fly fishing, noting that the sport is often romanticized in media but remains difficult in practice. She recounts a recent experience where a wasp sting in the eye nearly deterred her from fishing, a sensation she likens to the pain of writing a novel until the work feels right.
Central to her comparison is the concept of verisimilitude. Just as a fly fisher must match the artificial fly to the aquatic insect to trick the fish, a novelist must ensure every detail of dialogue, setting, and character development feels believable. The author highlights that both disciplines require a blend of technical skill and personal style, with writers developing their own rhythms much like anglers find their casting cadence.
In her debut novel, the protagonist Madeline McKnight is a character who operates in hostile, male-dominated financial spaces. The author explains that McKnight’s voice is brash and allergic to sentimentality, leading to a narrative structure where her journal entries are formatted as annual reports. This choice reflects the character’s transactional view of life, charting metrics such as enemy counts and personal brand value.
The writing process involved significant revision, particularly regarding a secondary character, Hetty Green, the historical “Witch of Wall Street.” The author initially struggled with Hetty’s voice, finding that early drafts reinforced the very stereotypes she intended to dismantle. She resolved this by cutting Hetty’s point of view and having Madeline present the historical figure in a more nuanced manner, a process she describes as mending the line to fix drag.
Feedback from a workshop teacher also influenced the novel’s structure. The author was advised to show the “request moment” that led the characters into their current predicament, a term derived from Charles Baxter. Consequently, the story now begins with Madeline analyzing an email sent to her estranged goddaughter, rather than starting a month later as in earlier drafts.