Q&A with Marisa Kanter

 

Photo by Sam Cheung

 

 

Marisa Kanter is the author of the new young adult novel Finally Fitz. Her other YA novels include As If on Cue. She lives in Los Angeles.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Finally Fitz, and how did you create your character Ava “Fitz” Fitzgerald?

 

A: So! Fitz actually makes her first appearance as a secondary character in my sophomore novel, As If on Cue, as one of the protagonist’s best friends. In Cue, Fitz is confident and self-assured and pretty much exists for comic relief.

 

As a reader, I’ve always been drawn to the “best friend who has it all together” characters and curious about their internal lives. I wrote Finally Fitz as an exploration of a fan-favorite secondary character who isn’t as put together as they come across through someone else’s eyes.

 

As If on Cue ends with Fitz getting into a summer fashion program in New York, which felt like a perfect lead-in to pick up her story. New York itself provided a ton of inspiration as well. I lived there for six super formative years and my heart is still very much in that city.

 

Q: In the book's acknowledgments, you write, “I started writing Finally Fitz during a moment in time when my mental health was at the lowest it had ever been.” Can you say more about the impact mental health--both yours and your character's--had on the novel?

 

A: Sure, yeah. As it turns out, it’s extremely difficult to write a book while you’re depressed. Who knew! I’ve always been anxious, but the depression that crept in while working on this book was new to me and honestly pretty scary. At first as much as I wanted to write, I couldn’t and then I just . . . didn’t want to write at all.

 

I started therapy while writing this book and I truly believe that I couldn’t have written Fitz’s journey with her mental health without first reckoning with and seeking treatment for my own mental health. I’m quite proud of both of us.

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I knew how the book would end in the sense that it’s a romcom and therefore would end in an HEA (happily ever after) . . . but as to how Fitz would get her HEA? That evolved from draft to draft.

 

Act 3 tends to come together fairly late in the process for me, but once I finally got Fitz’s ending on the page it just felt right. After an arduous drafting process, the final scene might be the one that I’m the most proud of.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?

 

A: Stop being so hard on yourself. As a teen, I put so much pressure on myself. Applied the word perfectionist to myself like a badge of honor. Didn’t understand the difference between being ambitious and having unreasonable expectations. Believed the worst thing I could do was fail.

 

Unlearning perfectionism, reckoning with the truth that it is so often a symptom of anxiety, has been an ongoing process.

 

If this resonates with any readers, I hope that Fitz’s story gives them permission to be nicer to themselves, to reassess their relationship with the word perfectionist, to seek help. And if you see Fitz maybe not in yourself, but in someone you know, check in on them.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Currently working on my next novel that I cannot wait to share more about!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: When I’m not writing I can be found watching reality television or crocheting (often simultaneously!).

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb