the nature of the writing beast

The writing of fiction requires a kind of benevolent Machiavellian thinking. The end (a finish, publishable short story or novel) justifies whatever method you use to get there. Of course this excludes stealing or plagarizing or poisoning somebody so you can steal their fantastic manuscript (I’m thinking of the movie DOA, Dennis Quaid as the one who was poisoned).

However. If you have to plot scene by scene, if you don’t plot at all, if you stand on your head because that’s the only way the next sentence will come to you — if it works for you, it works.

This is all by way of saying that my methods may strike you as completely unsuitable or silly. And for you that might be true. They work for me.