The deeper Angela gets into Eros et Flamingo, the more the story and its characters are starting to reveal themselves.

In this episode of Unpublished, Angela and Daniel continue their conversation about writing chapters, this time digging into the tiny decisions that shape a novel as it grows: where a chapter begins, where it ends, what information gets revealed, and how all those individual pieces eventually start weaving themselves into a larger story.

Angela talks about turning small comments into “tiny stories,” building Sal’s backstory and relationship with her mother, writing experiences outside her own with empathy, and figuring out which details deserve space on the page. They also get into chapter openings, pacing, flow, avoiding filler, knowing when to cut straight to the interesting part, and ending a chapter in a way that keeps the reader moving without turning every page into a cliffhanger.

Because sometimes writing a novel means realizing you have to figure out where the story begins over and over and over again. Plus, a conversation about what makes a book feel genuinely human, why Angela wants Eros et Flamingo to be the kind of story readers cannot put down, and the slightly alarming realization that maybe the clock is ticking on finishing the manuscript before the AI overlords arrive.

One chapter at a time.