Charlene Wang: Curing a Passive Protagonist

Today, I’m talking to Charlene Wang, whose debut novel, I’LL FOLLOW YOU, was released in October. We’re going to be talking about how she woke up her passive protagonist by paying attention to the tactile and—simply or not simply—giving her character “something to do with her hands.”Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.To find Wang’s book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Charlene Wang was born in Beijing and, after immigrating to the US when she was three, has lived in seven different cities from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh to Biloxi. Graduating with a B.A. in English from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from University of Virginia School of Law, she worked as a litigator for six years before quitting to pursue her childhood dream of becoming an author. She now lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her fiancé and their dog Winky.Photo by Ilona Panych on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com