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Clare Hickey: I just want to start by telling you I love “Seeing It Through” so much. I think it actually did make me cry. I’ve read versions of this story before that maybe don’t have a happy ending and they don’t reconcile. It was really beautiful to see a story where that did happen and they really realized how much they loved each other. What inspired you to write a story like that?

Allegra Solomon: Well, thanks for saying that. I watched Eyes Wide Shut for the first time in 2022. After I watched it I got really interested in the idea of a couple that watched it and then somehow and inadvertently ended up having the same argument that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman have in the story. But, I didn’t really know how to do it or how I wanted to go about it or anything. So I sat on it for a little while and then in 2023, I watched all of Richard Linklater’s Before (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight) movies. I was unemployed at the time so I was watching a lot of movies, and I watched them all back-to-back in one day. I think something about watching the evolution of that relationship as well as watching a very dialogue-heavy movie inspired me. I’d been wanting to write a dialogue-heavy story, but I didn’t know how to go about it and so something finally clicked. Right after I finished watching the third movie, I just opened my computer and started writing this story. 

CH: Is the final version how you expected it to finish? Was it all planned out in your head before you put it to the page?

AS: Yeah. I would say that the final draft is pretty identical to the initial draft. But, when I started writing it I had a different ending planned where it went further than where it ends now. I was reading it to my fiancé and I asked, “Which ending do you think is better?

Do you think I should end it where it ends? Or do you think I should end it sooner?”

As I kept reading it, I kept thinking it should end at the moment that it ends now, and so I talked to a few people and I think there was a consensus that this gesture between this couple was the true end of the story. It was also less heavy-handed than what I’d chosen. So I scrapped everything after that and then chose to end it there. I did want it to be a story about a couple that loves each other very much, even if they’re not very good at expressing it. I felt like the new ending exemplified that more than what I had initially written.

CH: You said you wanted to write a dialogue-heavy story and the dialogue you wrote is so rich. It was so fun to keep up with, and it fleshed out the character so well, and their little nuances. Is there something that inspires your characters in your dialogue?

AS: I like thinking about how dialogue will sound when I read it out loud. I like it to feel very realistic. So there is a lot of eavesdropping and thinking of different patterns people use when they’re actually talking, like interrupting themselves or fragmented sentences. With this story you are in the heads of both characters at different times, and you also see what they say. I was very interested in what people are thinking versus what they actually end up saying. I think in terms of the man in this story. He’s very physical in his affection, he does a lot of acts of service, whereas the woman wants to hear things. So it was interesting to think of what he’s thinking versus what he’s saying and what she’s thinking versus what she’s actually saying.

CH: Yeah, that’s such an interesting dynamic in a dialogue-heavy story where people aren’t saying what they’re thinking all the time.

AS: It ends up complicating everything between them throughout. I enjoy the complications. Sometimes the miscommunication trope can be frustrating, but I think in some spaces I enjoy it a lot and that’s what I was trying to do.

CH: Yeah, it provides such a fascinating tension for the reader where they both love each other but they’re not saying it in the way the other needs to hear it. The scene where they’re walking around together at the end was so tense. I was on the edge of my seat.

AS: Yeah, it really is an example of mismatched love languages. You could say he shows his through acts of service and physical touch, and she is more words of affirmation like she needs to hear it. They’re not loving each other the way they need to be.

CH: I read your story “Intervals” and I loved that so much too. One of my favorite things in your writing is how much grace you give the characters. You’re a very forgiving writer, which I admire.

AS: Thank you. That’s something I think I’ve gotten better at. For “Seeing It Through,” reading it to my fiancé, when I got to the end, I asked him, “Is there anyone in this story that you side with more than anyone else?” I wanted it to be very even, I wanted the reader to be able to think that Emma’s making points and the woman is making points and the man is making points. He said “No, I’m kind of behind everybody in that situation.” And that was another one of the things I really wanted to accomplish. In “Intervals” with help of revisions from some people, I think that they made it better by pushing me. The mother character at first was a bit too antagonistic. I think going back and giving her some more humanity, investigating why she is the way she is and why she treats her daughter the way she does.

CH: Why did you make the choice to not name the main characters?

AS: Yeah, so that was a choice I made because I think the events of the story are very common. Like I said, you know the miscommunication within a relationship, people not necessarily getting what they need and not causing tension despite the fact that they very much love each other. It seemed very common to me and I liked the thought that the reader could place themselves into either the man or the woman, without tying them to a specific identity. Granted, there are very identifying things with both of them throughout the story. But I liked that that one identifier was never really there so you could see them as anybody.

CH: Were there any scenes during the writing process that you kept turning over and getting stuck on?

AS: What I most wanted was to make sure the interactions between everybody were very realistic. That first conversation that the man and the woman are having at the start of the story was the thing I spent the most time on. They’ve just left having a nice time and I wanted to accurately capture how quickly a nice moment can turn really tense without it seeming unrealistic, or it happened too quickly. Then, also, they bring up Emma, and that’s the first time that there’s some sort of unresolved tension there. So that was an important conversation that I probably ended up spending the most time on to make sure I hit all the beats that I wanted it to hit.

CH: Congratulations on your nomination for the Pushcart Prize. As a nominated writer, do you have any advice for other writers?

AS: A while ago I went back and read part of a book I wrote when I was in high school and I noticed that my thematic preoccupations haven’t really changed. I think the way I write has changed, but I think I’ve remained kind of the same writer. I think it’s really important to know yourself, know what you want to do, the things you want to talk about, and how you want to talk about them. No matter what kind of evolutions you go through, if you know yourself, and you know what you want to write and what you want to achieve, and you don’t allow anyone to change you. Fundamentally, I think that you’ll be okay.