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It's hard to write a good plot, it's very hard.

To combine telling an interesting story with brilliantly written characters is the most difficult thing to do.

Plotting is difficult for me, and always has been. I do that before I actually start writing, but I always do characters, and the arc of the story, first... You can't do anything without a story arc. Where is it going to begin, where will it end.

I'm always writing about character first. Plot, such as it is, comes from the characters.

I always struggle with making the technical aspects of the plot fit with the story that's unfolding in my imagination.

If an actor knows how to milk a cow, I always know it will not be difficult to be in business with him.

All of the little entries in 'The Cows' were written in an irregular way. There might be one or two done one day, and then two weeks might go by or four weeks, and then they were put in an order or sequence.

I'm really quite bad at coming up with plot ideas. I like to create characters and just see what will happen to them when I let them loose!

I plot the first 5 or 6 chapters quite minutely, and also the end. So I know where I am going but not how I'm going to get there, which gives characters the chance to develop organically, as happens in real life as you get to know a person.