Writers on writing: Elizabeth George trusts the body
In her book of craft, Write Away, crime novelist Elizabeth George describes how she constructs a novel.
"I always know the end in advance...I engage in a few activities in the pre-plotting days and weeks of the novel writing process. During this time, I primarily try to find out...what kind of story I want to write.
To learn this, I trust my body rather than my mind. Writing is not only an intellectual endeavour for me, it’s also very much a physical one. When I’m on to the right story, the right location, the right situation, the right theme, my body tells me. I feel a surge of excitement in my solar plexus that literally sends the message Yes yes yes! to my brain. Until I feel that surge of inner excitement, I remain in the preplotting stage simply because I have nothing to plot about."