Process

I was looking at a list of novels by poets---Jack Kerouac, Kathy Acker, Michael Ondaatje, Randall Jarrell, James Schulyer, Thomas Wolfe, Kenneth Patchen, Djuna Barnes, Henry Green, John Crowley, Tobias Hill, Elizabeth Smart--and started to think about the demands of writing in each genre.

I'd say the planning of a work is similar for both. I start with an image, a phrase, or an idea. I envision the general shape of the beast. How will the story begin and end, or how can I make the sequence of ...