wonderwomand asked Jacqueline Winspear:

Did you use "case maps" in school as a child? Maisie Dobbs uses "mapping" to find connections.

Jacqueline Winspear No, I never used anything like a case map when I was a child. However, I had just started writing Maisie Dobbs, when I had a very bad riding accident, which resulted in major surgery to right my arm and shoulder - and I am right-handed. The only way I could plan out my book was on a very large poster-sized Post-it note, and use big fat felt pens - because I am not very dextrous with my left hand, except when I type! I created a map of the story to refer to as I wrote (I had to lift my right hand onto the keyboard. So that very visual way of planning a novel found its way into the story - and I have used it ever since as a means of planning out a story.

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