Ana Lopez G asked Tracy Chevalier:

Hi Tracy! I've read all of your books and I absolutely loved them. Each one of them is a whole new experience and through the characters and situations you are able to involve and transport the reader into the story and specific places. So my question is: How do you decide what your next book will be about and once you have decided the central plot, how long does it lasts the investigation period?

Tracy Chevalier Hi Ana--

Glad you like them! I get my ideas in all kinds of ways: looking at a painting, going on a tour of a cemetery, visiting a dinosaur museum, hearing a writer speak about the Underground Railroad movement. I am never looking for an idea when I have it. Usually what happens is that something strikes me at the time and I have an overwhelming desire to write about it - so overwhelming that often I am tempted to stop what I am working on at the time and start on the new idea! (I resist that, otherwise I would never finish anything.)

I put the idea on the back burner and let it bubble away while I'm working on something else. Then I start research - usually by then I have an idea for the main character/s - and develop the story and characters from there. It can take anywhere from a couple of months to a year before I start writing. And even when I begin to write, the research continues, as the writing brings up lots of new questions I have to answer.

Each book is slightly different, and takes me more or less time. Pearl Earring took just 9 months! (I was pregnant and wanted to get it done.) More recently books are taking @3-3 1/2 years to research and write, as my writer's life is busy with many other things too. Sometimes, though, the subject is just so difficult that I have to spend more time on it. William Blake, for instance, in Burning Bright - I spent a lot of time trying to wrestle him into submission - and failed.

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