Goodreads asked Anne Michaud:

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Anne Michaud I would say there are many things I love about being a writer. Because I write nonfiction and journalism, I love the activity of looking for evidence that fits the theory I'm working on at the moment. For example, with "Why They Stay," I was looking for commonalities among the couples I was profiling. I got excited each time I found a theme that resonated among them -- to a greater or lesser extent, given the couple.

I love the moment when I've done the research, and I'm about to begin writing. I know I'll be putting the pieces together in a way that I hope makes sense for the reader and conveys my message entertainingly. Usually, time slips away from me as I'm working on this part of the process. I guess it's what people refer to as flow.

Finally, I love making some sense out of events and human behavior. I can step back after I've written something and see that I've imposed order on events that are just happening (with my newspaper writing) or that are hard to understand (why they stay). I'm curious to see whether my explanations hold up over time.

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