Novelists: a magpie mind

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I love Sunday mornings with the Ottawa Citizen's wonderful book pages.

This morning I very much enjoyed an interview of David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas and, newly-out, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Here are the passages I highlighted:

"Sometimes I try to write a scene, sometimes a sentence, and I can't get to the end of it without half a morning's research."

I often fall into what I call "The Black Hole" of research when writing, and Mitchell's statement makes me feel better abo...