Sophie Masson
How I write...
I still write very instinctively, as I did as a child: I think I have a natural sense of story and don't find it difficult to plot. What I do is follow characters, not a story arc: I get to know my main characters pretty well in the months before I sit down at the computer and start a book. I know that if such-and-such a character is put in such-and-such a situation, something will happen: story is the interaction between characters, the spark that flies between them, be that positive or negative.
My first intimation of a new novel is a glimpse of someone, some person who is suddenly in a situation that is not usual to them - I actually see them, occasionally in a dream, but more often in a flash of thought, a kind of snapshot moment. Then what usually happens is I follow that character; I get to know them, to understand what makes them tick, in a way (though I never do really completely understand them, any more than you can ever really know another person). I'm not a puppet-master but a chronicler: sometimes I feel I'm following my characters around with a camera, trying to get down everything they say and do, but I also feel I'm in the action with them, having the experiences they're having.
My first draft is usually written at white heat, very fast and very hard, trying to get it all down. After I've finished that first draft, I then go over it, sort out the problems of continuity, of plot holes, of clarity, and sometimes I make big changes at this point, because my conscious mind has taken over and I can see what I missed in that first frantic rush of imagination and creativity.
Recently, I've started writing under a pen name, and that's produced a different style of writing. But that's another story.
The Curse of Zohreh (Random House, $16.95) is out now