Here’s a helpful quote for those confronted with questions like How do you write? and What’s the magic formula?:
You get an idea; at some point another idea kicks in; you make a connection or a series of them between ideas; a few characters (usually little more than shadows at first) suggest themselves; a possible ending occurs to the writer’s mind (although when the ending comes, it’s rarely much like the one the writer envisioned); and at some point, the novelist sits down with a paper and a pen, a typewriter, or a word cruncher. When asked, “How do you write?” I invariably answer, “One word at a time.”
— from Stephen King‘s preface to the expanded edition of The Stand.
(‘Ve just survived another Banana Boat workshop which came straight after a rather frenetic three days in Dunedin – excuses, excuses, I know, but my next craft-y post refuses to make sense. A little nap, perhaps, to clear the sinuses and such.)
