When I write and develop things myself, I might work for a while on a script from a book, and then I go back and read the book and go back into it to see if I lost something: is there something there?
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Whenever I write a novel, I have a strong sense that I am doing something I was unable to do before. With each new work, I move up a step and discover something new inside me.
When I start getting close to the end of a novel, something registers in the back of my mind for the next novel, so that I usually don't write, or take notes. And I certainly don't begin. I just allow things to percolate for a while.
I get ideas for my books from people I know and what happens to them, from places I've been and what happens to me, and from things I read.
I write books back to back, and I work very hard on them.
I try to look at the whole thing and say 'yes' to the projects that I cannot stop thinking about. If I read a script and the subject stays with me - then that's when I want to go to work.
I have files, I have computer files and, you know, files on paper. But most of it is really in my head. So God help me if anything ever happens to my head!
I carry a notebook and write down things to do, and I write out thoughts and stuff like that.
Sometimes when you finish a book, you don't know quite what you've got.
I tend to forget what I'm doing will ever be read while I'm writing it, and just get on with the task at hand.
Every time I finish a book, I forget everything I learned writing it - the information just disappears out of my head.