An interview with debut author Stephanie Cesca about her new novel, Dotted Lines. She discusses inspiration, important messages in the story, and her writing process.
Relationships and belonging are two of the main themes in your novel. What was it that inspired you to write this story?
When I look at my own life, I can’t think of anything more important than family. Families are what shape and define us, and the relationships and experiences that we have as children are with us our entire lives. But families can also be messy. Even when there’s a lot of love, there can be dysfunction. And how can there not be? Parenting is such a tough job—in fact, it’s probably the toughest job in the world. Becoming a mother made me think a lot about these things, and that’s what ultimately inspired me to write this story.
Can you talk a bit about the main character, Melanie Forsythe? What was it like to write from her perspective? Do you feel that she changes a lot as a character from the start to the end of the work?
There’s so much going on with Melanie, so I really enjoyed writing from her perspective. When the story starts out, she is only seven years old, but the reader can see that she is bright, mature and determined. Because of her family situation, though, Melanie suffers from tremendous insecurity. She doesn’t have a feeling of belonging and she always feels like she’s an outsider. As the book continues, Melanie must work through her personal demons to get through what life throws at her—and it throws a lot. She learns some tough lessons along the way, but she also grows as a person. This growth is what ultimately allows her to make the most important decision of her life.
What do you want readers to take away from this Guernica novel? What are the most important messages you want to get across?
There are several important messages that I wanted to convey with this story. The first is that parenting is tough—really tough—and it’s also full of surprises. Another is that stepparents can be amazing. Lastly, I would say there are many ways to define “family.”
Do you have any tips for writers wanting to write about family/relationships?
One of the best compliments I've received from readers so far is that they see themselves in this book. Even if their family situation is quite different from Melanie's, they still connect with many things about it. Hearing that has been wonderful because that’s what I’d hoped for when I started writing. So, my advice to those wanting to write about family and relationships is to write the things that are important to you—even if you’re worried that your story belongs in the margins. Readers will always connect with authenticity, and they will identify with aspects in surprising ways.
As this is your first novel, can you talk a bit about the writing process? What made you know this was the story you wanted to write?
I have always wanted to write a book, but it took me a while to find the story I wanted to tell. Once I settled on the idea, I committed myself to the project and surrounded myself with a lot of support from other writers. As this was my first book, the writing process was sometimes scattered and at some points I experimented with structure and other elements. But as I kept going, the story took shape, and I became more confident in what I was doing and what was on the page.
Stephanie Cesca was born and raised in Toronto, where she lives with her husband and three children. A former newspaper editor in both Canada and Europe, she holds an English degree from Western University, a journalism degree from Toronto Metropolitan University and a Certificate of Creative Writing from the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. Her work has been shortlisted for the Penguin Random House Canada Student Award for Fiction and The Marina Nemat Award for Creative Writing. Dotted Lines is her first novel.