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I think that's what fiction writing is actually all about. It's about trying to solve problems in creative ways.

Novels demand a certain complexity of narrative and scope, so it's necessary for the characters to change.

Writing a story or a novel is one way of discovering sequence in experience, of stumbling upon cause and effect in the happenings of a writer's own life.

When you start a novel, it is always like pushing a boulder uphill. Then, after a while, to mangle the metaphor, the boulder fills with helium and becomes a balloon that carries you the rest of the way to the top. You just have to hold your nerve and trust to narrative.

Novels usually evolve out of 'character.' Characters generate stories, and the shape of a novel is entirely imagined but should have an aesthetic coherence.

The purpose of narrative is to present us with complexity and ambiguity.

Novels are one of the few remaining areas of narrative storytelling where one person does almost all of the creative heavy lifting.

Writing is a process of discovering. I could never outline a narrative; that just sounds boring. There's no joy of discovery in what you're doing if that's your strategy.

You can't write just anything. Your story needs structure.