How did you get started writing this novel, and what are your writing habits?
It felt like the most daunting, practically impossible, task. But to begin, I imagined the story as a movie and then I said to myself: “OK, can I think of, say, thirty or thirty five scenes, each about 3 minutes long, that would make up the movie.” (With 30-35 scenes of 3 minutes one gets a 90-105 minutes feature). Then I started to write out what these scenes would be about. That listing of scenes became the outline of the novel. Of course, some of those 3 minutes scenes would now, fully written out, take much longer.
As for my writing habits, I try to write. When I run out of excuses for not sitting down at my desk, I try to write 250 words. Then, if the gods are kind, I continue. If not, I stop. The next day, I look at it and delete it if I can’t imagine anyone liking it. I find that it is better to write and then delete, if necessary, than to sit around and wait for true inspiration.