Nathan
asked
Olen Steinhauer:
Hi Olen, I was curious about how you write a novel. After constructing an outline, do you write the novel from beginning to end or do you piece meal the book, writing different chapters, scenes, events and then stringing it all together?
Olen Steinhauer
I don't outline at all, nor do I make character biographies or any of that. The biggest outline I'll do is a couple sentences that can fit on a cocktail napkin. Then I just write. I usually start with the beginning, or what I imagine could be a beginning, though it rarely works out this way. And I edit as I go along, throwing enormous amounts of pages into the trash, reassembling what I've got, overhauling the story many times. What this writing in the dark means is that the stories I end up with are usually a surprise to me, which is nice. It also means that I spend a year or more writing a book. On the up-side, though, my first draft is usually pretty close to my final draft!
More Answered Questions
Whit Porter
asked
Olen Steinhauer:
I saw your advice to write and read every day, and it's good advice. The only thing is... if I read Le Carre, or Alan Furst - or a guy you may have heard of named Steinhauer - in the middle of a project, I can get hopelessly discouraged. What did you do when you were starting out - or even now - to keep positive?
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