Barbara Kingsolver and Richard Powers recently had a conversation about the craft of writing (see “A Talk in the Woods” by Kevin Larimer, Poets & Writers, November/December 2018, pp. 46-55). I resonated with Kingsolver’s description of her creative process as it bears many similarities to how I work. For example, she says “I do a lot of architecture. I do an enormous amount of planning. … [Others] say ‘Well I just start writing and I don’t have any idea where I’m going to end up, and it’s like a wander through the woods.’” Like Kingsolver, I’m a “mapper” rather than a “meanderer” (my terms). Not that I don’t change direction or take detours as the story evolves, but before I can start to write I like to identify a final (albeit draft) destination and set out markers along the way. For more thoughts on the observations of these noted authors, see REFLECTIONS.
