Kathy Houser asked Marcy Dermansky:

What inspires each of the plots for yr books? They are all so entirely different!

Marcy Dermansky Thank you. Plot! Some writers say they don't believe in plot, but how can you have a novel without one. I recently opened the file of what be my next novel. I read the last scene I had written, had spent a long time writing. It was twenty pages, set in a restaurant, and I realized all of these characters were basically talking. Nothing else. The plot had not been advanced. It was all very clever. I cut it.

I always know that I am lost when my characters just sit around talking. I mean, of course, I love dialogue. But I want and needs things to happen and when I don't know what that is, I walk away from the computer and come back and hopefully it will come to me. It's always really fun when it does come.

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