He also describes not really having a total plan as to where his books will go. To simplify it a lot, he finds as he starts writing that the characters seem to direct him. I’m curious, how much of what will happen in your plot do you plan ahead of time? Do you write a tentative outline for your novels? Or is it a more organic process. I would imagine that with mysteries you have to plan ahead much more carefully, so that you can plant evidence and clues along the way. I wonder if different genres follow different rules. My husband and I were talking about this over margaritas last night. ( I’m sure it was a mostly lucid conversation:) He maintains that memoirs should be a different process, since the author just needs to have interesting stories to tell and a good story-telling style. But after reading some really good ones, like those by David Sedaris, Augusten Burroughs, and Alexandra Fuller, as well as some fairly crummy ones, like Ellen Degeneres’, I think that those authors need to follow the same process. Yes, they are not creating a plot from their imaginations, but they still have to be able to weave a story with character, conflict, climax, etc…and use all the tools a fiction author has at his disposal to make the story read like a narrative…and the .same is true for non-fiction. When I read “John Adams” only very very occasionally was I aware as a reader that I was not reading a narrative with John and Abigail as the heroes and Hamilton and Jefferson as protagonists. So, I’m just curious from the reader’s point-of-view. How much variety do you think there is among “good” writers in the process? I mean, aside from the obvious differences like where you write.

I’m just throwing this out there. Maybe you could just direct me towards something to read that discusses the writing process for writers.

By the way, I sent the Maine book to my mother for Christmas and she loves it.
Andrea