To promote the release of his first book, 35 Miles From Shore: The Ditching and Rescue of ALM Flight 980, author and professional pilot Emilio Corsetti is touring the blogosphere this month. Corsetti's work has appeared in regional and national publications such as the Chicago Tribune, Multimedia Producer, and Professional Pilot Magazine. In this interview, he talks about the writing process and his future projects. He also offers a cure for writer's block.

How would you describe your creative process while writing this book?

I spent a year-and-a-half researching and interviewing some of the actual participants in the accident. I recorded every interview, whether it was in person, over the phone, or by e-mail. Once an interview was finished, I would go over it and jot down notes. Sometimes I would have to do follow-up interviews. I would then organize the notes into a narrative. When it came time to constructing the book, I pieced together the many narratives until a cohesive story emerged.

Was it stream-of-consciousness writing, or did you first write an outline?

I knew going in that this was a story with many perspectives. Take, for example, a rescue by helicopter. First you have the perspective of the person being rescued. Then you have the perspective of the crewman working the hoist. And finally you have the viewpoints of the pilots. That’s three or more perspectives for the same event. My solution was to describe the event from each unique perspective in different chapters. One chapter might describe what was going on in the water while the survivors were waiting for rescue. The next chapter would be about the rescue crews arriving on the scene and starting the rescue. I never switched perspectives within a chapter. I had a rough outline, but I only used it to guide me from one scene to the next.

From the moment you conceived the idea for the story, to the published book, how long did it take?

I spent a year-and-a-half researching and another year-and-a-half writing the first draft. This was followed by a solid year of rewriting. I then wasted three years looking for a publisher before making the decision to publish independently.

Who are your favorite authors?

I don’t have any favorite authors. I have a number of favorite books: Angela’s Ashes, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Magellan, Congo, Marley and Me, 2001 A Space Odyssey. All of these books have inspired me to reach for the same level of excellence.

What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

The best advice I ever got came from a Writer’s Digest book. I don’t remember the title of the book, but it was about the seven stages of a scene. Here they are: goal, conflict, disaster, reaction, reflection, decision, and action.

Every story is a compilation of scenes. One scene leads to the next and so on until you have a completed story. You start by establishing a goal. All good stories must have conflict. The conflict leads to a disaster. There is an immediate reaction to that disaster followed by a point of reflection. Finally a decision is made on what to do next. The action sets up the sequence for the next scene to begin.